5 things you don’t know about healthcare in America

America spends $2.4 trillion each year on medical care.

Your head is probably full of facts and a few distortions thanks to the seemingly endless debate about how best to fix healthcare in the United States and what exactly the problem is with American medicine. In his new book Fractured, Ted Epperly, M.D., a former Army doctor and professor of community medicine at the University of Washinton (and Men’s Health‘s family medicine advisor), breaks it down for you. Here, Epperly cuts through the politics and explains just how big a hole we’ve dug for ourselves—and how you can make it out sooner than you think.

 

 

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A changing accent shows how language parallels politics

North-American-Dialects

Dialect regions as defined by the Atlas of North American English.

Lately, there has been a lot of discussion over whether the American public is becoming more and more politically polarized and what this all means for the future of our democracy. You may have wrung your own hands over the issue. But even if you have, chances are you’re not losing sleep over the fact that Americans are very clearly becoming more polarized linguistically.

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Research: People aren’t smart enough for democracy to flourish

people aren't smart enough

Incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people.

The democratic process relies on the assumption that citizens (the majority of them, at least) can recognize the best political candidate, or best policy idea, when they see it. But a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies.

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Mississippi is Most Conservative State in U.S.

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The most conservative states are typically in the South and West. The least conservative states are in the Eastern part of the country and on the West Coast.

Where do people who call themselves liberals and conservatives live in the United States?  A new Gallup Poll shows Mississippi has the largest percentage of people who self-identify as conservatives, at 50.5%, followed by Idaho(48.5%) and Alabama (48.3%).

 

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China Blocks the Word ‘Egypt’ From Internet Searches

protestors

Protesters react in Tahrir Square to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s televised speech in Cairo February 1, 2011.

Chinese authorities have blocked the word “Egypt” from searches on Twitter-like microblogging sites in an indication of concern among Communist Party leaders that the unrest there could encourage similar calls for political reform in China.

 

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Western Nations Matching China’s Financial Strategy to Win Contracts

china-usa-currency

Western nations matching China’s low-cost financing – below-market interest rates.

When General Electric approached the U.S. Export-Import Bank in 2009 wanting to sell 150 locomotives for $477 million to Pakistan, there was a sense of futility. GE had already lost an earlier bid to a Chinese firm. Why would Pakistan buy American-made locomotives this time?

 

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China Declares Skype Illegal

skypelogo345

No more Skyping in China

After having already banned Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the Chinese government has now decided to outlaw Skype, as well. The move, announced in the People’s Daily, means that all Internet phone services will now be considered illegal within the country, except for those offered by two state-operated telecom companies — China Unicom and China Telecom…

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