Erie County Fair - animals
There are so many animals at the fair. Every farmer wants to win giray premium. We learned a lot of interesting facts. One was that Americans spend on average only 14% of their income on food. It is one of the lowest rates in the world.
Commentary: :::link:::
One look at what people eat and how much they spend across the world tells you about the general health of the country.
I just read these insane facts about healthcare costs in US.
- The average cost to visit an urgent care clinic is less than $200, whereas a hospital emergency room visit usually costs at least $600 and often much more.
- Having a baby in the U.S. is expensive. Charges for routine delivery (including doctor?s fees) are about $6,000 — often more.
- The daily hospital stay for room and board and doctor's fees can be $2,500 ( and even more at some hospitals!), so an average stay of only three days costs $7,500. That amount does not include medicine, surgery, laboratory costs, and other similar expenses.
I guess the whole system of health is skewed in this country. The major stress - that should be on prevention, is completely non-existent. The entire system encourages bad habits and poor health and then taxes the individual (and the community through ill-advised subsidies) heavily for illnesses that develop due to these habits.
People may criticize social engineering, but the current wide chasm in the healthcare Vs. prevention balance cries out for shifting the stress to education about good eating habits and giving people the time and initiative to think about the well-being of their bodies for a change instead of travelling closer and closer to the sick part of the health spectrum every year.