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A comment on Health System in Minnesota Cuts Off Patients with Medical Debt. Parent comment

Re:Health System in Minnesota Cuts Off Patients with Medical... by nradov on Friday June 02, 2023 @12:02AM (#36160879)
It depends on which metric you look at. The USA is at or near the top in 5-year survival rates for most types of cancer. We also have unrivalled trauma care. In other metrics we're well many behind other developed countries.

Many of our worse outcomes though have nothing to do with the healthcare system. The decrease in life expectancy is being driven by factors like obesity, substance abuse, sedentary lifestyles, vehicle crashes, suicide, and violence.

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Re:Health System in Minnesota Cuts Off Patients with Medical... by adgjlsfhk1 on Friday June 02, 2023 @12:47AM (#36161158)
survival rates are a pretty bad metric because you can easily change them by changing the amount of screening without making people live longer or healthier. when you compare cancer mortality rates, the US is not doing well.
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Re:Health System in Minnesota Cuts Off Patients with Medical... by nradov on Friday June 02, 2023 @08:32AM (#36164225)
Nope. Certain types of cancer screening are helpful in making people live longer and healthier. It is much easier to treat cancer when it is caught early.
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Re:Health System in Minnesota Cuts Off Patients with Medical... by adgjlsfhk1 on Friday June 02, 2023 @09:01AM (#36164492)
Absolutely, but 5 survival rates are still a really bad metric because they make things look better even for uncurable cancer (or cancer that was curable but treatment was given up on because of price). Also, if a 90 year old gets a slow growing cancer that doesn't require treatment (cause they'll be dead before it's a problem), screening for it will increase survival rates even though you didn't actually treat anything.
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