As you all know the United States has the absolutely best medical coverage in the world.  No one in this country goes without quality health care.  Of course you know I am being extremely sarcastic, but why don't you take this nifty little quiz, it is a real eye opener.

What you need to do is read the question, then think up of the answer. Then highlight (right mouse or shift) the blank spot directly to the right or directly under the quesiton, and voila, the answer magically appears.  Note, this only works on newer browsers.

Quiz #1  Health Care:

The number of fully industrialized countries other than the U.S. that do not guarantee minimum health care to every single citizen? 0

U.S. rank among nations in per capita expenditure for medical care?  1st

U.S. rank among nations in medical malpractice suits?  1st

U.S. rank among nations in infant mortality?  25th

Percentage of nations in Western Europe whose infant mortality rates are lower than in the U.S.?  100%

Percentage of births attended by midwives in Western Europe? 75%

Percentage of births attended by midwives in the U.S.?  4%

Average cost of physician-attended birth in the U.S.?  $4,200

Average cost of midwife-attended birth in the U.S.?   $1,200

Health care savings obtainable annually by using midwifery care for 75% of pregnancies in the U.S.?  $8.5 billion

U.S. caesarean rate in for-profit hospitals compared with nonprofit hospitals? nearly double

Quiz #2  Cancer:

Percentage of cancer patients whose lives are predictably saved by chemotherapy?  3%

Conclusive evidence for the vast majority of cancers that chemotherapy exerts any positive influence on survival or quality     of life? none

Percentage of oncologists who said if they developed cancer they would not participate in chemotherapy trials because of the "ineffectiveness of it and its unacceptable toxicity"?  75%

Percentage of people in the U.S. with cancer who receive chemotherapy?  75%

Company that accounts for nearly half of  the chemotherapy sales in the world? Bristol-Meyers Squibb

Chairman of the board, Bristol-Meyers Squibb?  Richard L. Gelb

Richard L. Gelb's other job?  vice chairman, board of overseers and managers, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Director of Ivax Inc. (a prominent chemotherapy company)?  Samuel Broder

Samuel Broder's other job? executive director, National Cancer Institute.  (Are you beginning to see a conflict of interest?)

The bottom line folks, is that there is a very ugly undercurrent of politics and financial gain associated with today's Medicine.  The sad fact is that most doctors, regardless of their specialty, are very good people who want nothing more than to help humankind.  It is the big political machines and pharmaceutical companies that are driving us not away from death and disease, but directly towards it.

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