Taken for Granted

I have had health insurance for my entire life. Not only has my father had it through his employers, but my mother is a teacher, and as most of you know teachers have some of the best employee benefits in the U.S. (thanks to unions - one of the few good things they do). And so, when I've been sick, a trip to the doctor has always been taken for granted.

Over 40 million Americans miss that luxury. And it is not only a monetary burden. I read about a study earlier this week that compared the health of Americans to that of Canadians (apparently, the AMA does studies like this all the time, where they compare our hrealth stats to other developed countries). Here are some of the headline findings:

- Americans are 32% more likely than Canadians to have diabetes;
- Americans are 45% more likely than Canadians to have high blood pressure;
- Americans are 8% more overweight than Canadians

Now, here is the kicker - if you look at the health statistics of all insured Americans vs. Canadians, we were relatively equal - meaning, those of us who have health insurance are equally as healthy as Canadians. The differences discussed above? - they come from the 40 million uninsured Americans. Said another way, the uninsured are not healthy! And they live in the richest country in the world!

By the way, Canada has a federal health insurance program that provides insurance to all Canadian citizens - and contrary to popular argument, they also have top-notch medical care and pharmaceuticals.