Crossposted at Joewo.com Thanks Joe!

In military news, a new Harvard Medical School study shows around 1.8 million U.S. veterans lack basic health insurance or access to care. The number of uninsured veterans has increased by nearly three hundred thousand since President Bush took office in 2000.

So what is the backlog of VA cases? It is obscene! Check out the first paragraph here.

So how many Americans do not have health insurance plans? Even FOX News can-t spin this. The huge number of uninsured Americans now exceeds the cumulative population of 24 states plus the District of Columbia.

Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance, relative to other countries. This report-an update to two earlier editions-includes data from surveys of patients, as well as information from primary care physicians about their medical practices and views of their countries’ health systems. Compared with five other nations-Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom-the U.S. health care system ranks last or next-to-last on five dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives. The U.S. is the only country in the study without universal health insurance coverage, partly accounting for its poor performance on access, equity, and health outcomes.

So in which states are you going to fare best if you are sick? Check here.

Among 33 industrialized nations, the United States is tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly 5 per 1,000 babies, according to a new report. Latvia’s rate is 6 per 1,000.

America spends twice as much for health care as other industrialized nations. For that investment, the United States has bought the highest infant mortality rate among 23 industrialized nations; one of the lowest healthy life expectancy rates for people older than age 60, some of the highest insurance administrative costs and among the lowest use of electronic health records, or EHRs. Story here.

A recent study by Harvard University researchers found that the average out-of-pocket medical debt for those who filed for bankruptcy was $12,000. The study noted that 68 percent of those who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance. In addition, the study found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses (14). Every 30 seconds in the United States someone files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of a serious health problem.

Watch the video clip and see why things are the way they are in our nation.

A truly in-depth view of income, poverty and health insurance from the US Census can be found here.

When someone says they are pro life…ask them if they are pro Universal Health Care because the two are hand in hand and those that are not pro Universal Healthcare CANNOT logically be pro life. How can they?