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Gordon Webster, Jr.

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BLOG: National health care and the private sector

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Published on 05/17/2012 - 10:39 am
Written by Gordon M. Webster
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A recent Investor’s Business Daily article came across my desk that provided very interesting statistics from a survey by the United Nations International Health Organization.

 

The percentage of men and women who survived cancer five years after diagnosis: the US, 65 percent; England, 46 percent; Canada, 42 percent.

Percentage of patients diagnosed with diabetes who received treatment within six months: US, 93 percent; England, 15 percent; Canada, 43 percent.

Percentage of seniors needing hip replacement who received it in within six months: US, 90 percent; England, 15 percent; Canada, 43 percent.

Percentage referred to a medical specialist who sees one within a month: US, 77 percent; England, 40 percent; Canada, 43 percent.

Number of MRI scanners per million people: US, 71; England, 14; Canada, 18

And now for the latest statistic.

What country has national health insurance? US — No; England and Canada — Yes.

Do you know the percentage of each past president’s cabinet that had worked in the private business sector prior to being appointed to the cabinet?

And we all know that the private sector is a real-life business, not a government job. So here are the percentages:

T. Roosevelt, 38 percent; Taft, 40 percent; Wilson, 52 percent; Harding, 49 percent; Coolidge, 48 percent; Hoover, 42 percent; F. Roosevelt, 50 percent; Truman, 50 percent; Eisenhower, 57 percent; Kennedy, 30 percent; Johnson, 47 percent; Nixon, 50 percent; Ford, 42 percent; Carter, 32 percent; Regan, 56 percent; G.H. Bush, 51 percent; Clinton, 39 percent; G.W. Bush, 55 percent and Obama, 8 percent.

That’s right! Only 8 percent — the least by far of the last 19 presidents. And these people are trying to tell our big corporations how to run their business? Ninety-two percent of the president’s senior staff and closest advisers spent most of their time in academia, government and/or the nonprofit sector, or as “community organizers."

Go figure.