Not surprised

 I can't say I was bowled over with surprise when I saw this CNN news story about how badly health care in the US compares to other economically advanced countries.

To wit, 

The US once again ranked last in access to health care, equity and outcomes among high-income countries, despite spending a far greater share of its economy on health care, a new report released Wednesday has found.

The nation has landed in the basement in all seven studies the Commonwealth Fund has conducted since 2004. The US is the only one of the 11 countries surveyed not to have universal health insurance coverage.

Commonwealth Fund  president David Blumenthal was quoted as saying "In no other country does income inequality so profoundly limit access to care as it does here. Far too many people cannot afford the care they need and far too many are uninsured, especially compared to other wealthy nations."

However, if you want to look at it from a slightly more optimistic angle, think how much worse all that would be if the Affordable Care Act had been repealed or if the many attacks on Medicaid and other programs had succeeded. All those things were real possibilities not so long ago--and fighting them off took a LOT of work from a LOT of people.

One step at a time I guess.