Percent of US GNP Spent on Health Care:

17 % and Growing.

Approximately, one-trillion-seven-hundred-billion dollars. This is a 300 % increase in expenditure in less then 40 years

One out of every seven dollars is spent on Health Care

_{World Health Report 2000, World Health Organization}
That’s a lot of money! As a matter of fact, according to the World Health Organization, in 2000 the United Stated had the #1 most expensive healthcare in the world.

Less bang for your buck!

The USA’s healthcare, In the past ten years, ranked anywhere from 32nd to 72nd in quality of healthcare. Although we’re the most expensive, we’re far from being the best.
_{The World Health Report, first published in 1995, is WHO’s leading publication. Each year the report combines an expert assessment of global health, including statistics relating to all countries.}

Pretty bad ratings, but let’s describe US health care in more palpable terms:

To get a better understanding, let’s define an important medical term.

Iatrogenic: Something that happens as the result of the action of a physician or a therapy the doctor prescribed.

Therefore, an iatrogenic disease, is a disease that may be inadvertently caused by a physician or surgeon or by a medical or surgical treatment or a diagnostic procedure.

An all too Silent Death

As few as 5% and no more than 20% of iatrogenic events are ever reported. _{(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)}

So let’s take the number of avoidable (latrogenic) deaths that are reported and multiply it times the number above to get a better estimate of how many actually occur.

In 1994, for example, if all latrogenic events were reported we would have more than
783,936 deaths.

Fallen Angels:

On a ten year basis the number of iatrogenic deaths is more than all the casualties from wars that America has fought in its entire history ₍₁₎

“ Our report shows that casualties are equivalent to 6 jumbo jets falling out of the sky each and every day “ ₍₁₎

How many is too many?

The actual yearly number of latrogenic deaths could be around
999,936 deaths ₍₁₎

Never before have the complete statistics on the multiple causes of iatrogenesis been combined in one article, a special thanks to: Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD

In light of these numbers, The American Medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in The United States ₍₂₎

Sources:_{(1)Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD . (c) 2003, All Rights Reserved

(2)Leape LL. Error in medicine. JAMA. 1994 Dec 21;272(23):1851-7.

(3)Brennan TA, Leape LL, Laird NM, Hebert L, Localio AR, Lawthers AG, et al. Incidence of adverse events and negligence in hospitalized patients. N Engl J Med 1991; 324: 370-376.)

(4)Vincent C, Stanhope N, Crowley-Murphy M. Reasons for not reporting adverse incidents: an empirical study. J Eval Clin Pract. 1999 Feb;5(1):13-21

(5)A Critical Analysis of Patient Safety Practices, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), 2001

(6)Dickinson JG. Dickinson’s FDA Review. March 2000; 7 (3):13-14.

(7)Cohen JS. Overdose: The Case Against the Drug Companies. 2001, Tarcher-Putnum New York}