Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Americans pay more when they get sick than people in other Western nations and get more confused, error-prone treatment, according to the largest survey to compare U.S. health care with other nations.

The survey of nearly 7,000 sick adults in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and Germany found Americans were the most likely to pay at least $1,000 in out-of-pocket expenses. More than half went without needed care because of cost and more than one-third endured mistakes and disorganized care when they did get treated.

Although patients in every nation sometimes run into obstacles to getting care and deficiencies when they do get treated, the United States stood out for having the highest error rates, most disorganized care and highest costs, the survey found.

Employers are seeing profits that could be used to expand the growth of their businesses sucked away. Employees are waiting too long to seek treatment, which results in their illness becoming more serious and more difficult and costly to treat, thus lowering their productivity.

The absence of a universal healthcare system in the U.S. has led to a growing crisis in this country, but the GOP is too busy doling out tax breaks and corporate welfare to  Big Pharma and the HMOs to actually address the problem.

But then, Republicans have repeatedly proven that they're great at causing problems but lousy at solving them; the party has no new ideas, and spends more time destroying than creating. Instead -- and as always -- it takes liberal creativity and ingenuity to build on what America has to offer, to present real programs for fixing what ails us.