Is this propoganda?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080108/ts_alt_afp/ushealthfrancemortality

The article (written by a French news wire) says France is the healthcare leader and we are last. If you read the article, it has do do with "The researchers found that while most countries surveyed saw preventable deaths decline by an average of 16 percent, the United States saw only a four percent dip."

So, first, France (in their supposedly unbiased report) leads in the DROP of preventable deaths while America came near last. Not really have much to do with the quality of their healthcare as the title would lead you to believe.

And maybe we have a lower drop because we WERE ALREADY THE BEST AND CAN'T GET MUCH LOWER!!

Answer 1

The United States has the best emergency care system of the world. In preventative medicine and treatment though, it does quite poor compared to other industrialized nations.

Answer 2

Okay, unlike the other answerers who clearly did not take the time to read your whole question, or the context of it, I'm going to give you a sensible answer. I don't know the exact statistics found by this study off the top of my head, to say whether or not they are cherry-picking and leaving out important details. In fact, no one who reads this article does. An obscure study is brought to our attention as if we OUGHT to have known about it, and as if we OUGHT to have known the names of these very important people who conducted it. The author is certainly depending on this. It makes us feel like naughty schoolchildren who haven't done their homework. The article sounds, at first, as though it is about which country is preventing the most deaths. If you read on, though, it is not. The statistic has to do with how many deaths were prevented the year prior, and how many more were prevented this year- what the increase was. You are exactly right to have noticed this. So, countries that had egregiously high numbers of preventable deaths and finally got their sh*t together would show a large increase, while countries that were already doing a great job at preventing deaths could not conceivably have increased much. It's like a person who begins smoking, only to give it up a week later, being congratulated on what a great person he is- so much better than you (who have never smoked)- because he's had more of a dramatic increase in health. In the movie SICKO with Michael Moore, we're led to believe Cuba has a dramatically lower infant mortality rate than the U.S. What Moore conveniently left out was the fact that Cuba is leading the world in abortions (which are not counted as "infant mortality"- how convenient) and they have a much higher rate of impotence, sterility, and difficulty in conception. Cherry-picking. I'm sure you know the old quote: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

Answer 3

I don't doubt it, our health care system is controlled by health insurance companies who will avoid or delay claims at all costs.

Answer 4

Not sure it is propaganda--I think it is a legitimate study.

If it is taken in context, then it is ok.  But it certainly does not tell the whole story about healthcare.  I agree that it does not say much about the quality of healthcare.  

Personnally, if I needed medical care, I would much rather be treated in US over any of the countries mentioned.  The US medical schools and training are the best in the world.  A doctor meeting the US requirements to practice medicine leaves me confident that I am in good hands.

Answer 5

everything is propaganda. Whether the idea it suggests is a good one or not, and whether or not it is written soundly, are completely different matters.

This however:

"WERE ALREADY THE BEST AND CAN'T GET MUCH LOWER!!"

is just ignoring the facts and is the hallmark of intellectual laziness.

If you want the God's honest truth about it, it sounds more like the old story about antibiotics:

After antibiotics quit being a cash cow for pharm companies, because they actually started to cure the diseases that once were problems, they started diverging from that path of research. this caused diseased to re-emerge with anti-biotic resistance, because they didn't feel they needed to invest more in research to determine the whole reality of the matter.

How does this story relate?

If there is no economic incentive to prevent an illness or death, don't depend on a pharm corporation to supply the solution for free.