What is it that makes US citizens believe we have “the best healthcare in the world” when all factual indicators make it clear that we don’t?
Remember, roughly 100,000 Americans die each year due to preventable medical errors. Over 1,000,000 patients are injured in hospitals.
Yet, ask almost any American about the quality of our healthcare system, and you’ll get a similar response: best in the world.
Why? What is it that keeps us believing this fiction in the face of overwhelming evidence?
I think a major factor is America’s post World War II “supremacy complex.”
In the decades following the war, America’s consumer society exploded. America became the world leader in practically every material category. In town after town, hospitals were built, doctors trained, health insurance provided.
And the broader rallying cry became: U-S-A, U-S-A!
But things have changed.
The realities of the 21st century have not yet sunk in for most Americans: America is struggling.
We remain a model of individual rights and freedoms. Yet so much of the nation’s infrastructure suffers from neglect. Our healthcare system is one of those areas.
The fact that roughly 2,000 Americans a week—almost 300 per day…the equivalent of a loaded 747 crashing every single day!—die due to medical mistakes should frighten and anger every citizen.
Instead, we continue to live under the illusion that our healthcare system is the best in the world.
We need to wake up and help everyone recognize and tackle the healthcare crisis we’re facing.
It’s not Obamacare that should frighten us. It’s healthcare business as usual that should.
Tom Peters has written about this extensively. Love the reference to the “Superiority Complex” btw.