UK diabetics manage their condition better

Apparently, diabetes patients in the UK manage their condition better than their counterparts across the pond. The reason, according to new research, is that universal healthcare is available over here whilst in the United States it is not.
The study, carried out by experts at the Medical University of South Carolina in conjunction with researchers in the UK, is published in the September issue of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Professor Arch Mainous, of MUSC, said: “Our evidence shows that universal healthcare when treating a common disease like diabetes, works. In both countries, diabetes sufferers are effectively managed as outpatients and our research shows that when patients have access to free healthcare, they have better clinical outcomes. Importantly, this finding does not reflect income or social class since better control of the disease amongst people with insurance or free access persists in both countries even among poor patients and minorities.
He continued: “A system like the NHS in the UK, which provides universal coverage free at the point of use, may be a model for the USA to examine more closely considering that it spends substantially more of its GDP on healthcare yet has approximately 44 million people without insurance.”