Transparency International just released the full results of the 2017 version of its Global Corruption Barometer. (The November 14, 2017 news release is here. The full report is available here. Details about the methods are here. Country by country results are here.)
The report summarizes responses from 162,136 people to surveys done in 119 countries from 2016 to January, 2017.
Key Issues
The surveys asked about peoples' perceptions of corruption in various parts of government, including corruption affecting:
- the top executives (prime minister, president)
- the national legislature
- government officials
It also asked about corruption in business in general. (Unfortunately, this version of the barometer did not specifically aska about health care. Nonetheless, corruption in business and government is clearly relevant to corruption in health care, and to health car dysfunction.)
The survey, for the first time, also asked about how well government is dealing with corruption, and whether citizens feel empowered to challenge corruption.
Results in the US and Some Comparable Countries
Just like in 2013, while the US did not have the worst results, neither did it have results worthy of pride. (Keep in mind, as well, that these surveys were all done before the Trump administration began, so they do not reflect any changes brought about by that. We have seen many indications that corruption and its risk factor, conflicts of interest, are much worse under the Trump regime than previous administrations, e.g., look here.)
Some key results from the US, compared to three other developed Western countries (Austrialia, France, Germany, and the UK, but not Canada) follow. The numbers are those who agree with the header statements. (When the US had the best result of all 5, I highlighted that in green. When it had the worst result, I highlighted it in red.)
Corruption Increased in Past Year (presumably 2016)
Australia 34%
France 44%
Germany -
UK 48%
US 37%
Most of President/ Prime Minister and Officials in that Office are Involved in Corruption
Australia 15%
France 35%
Germany 7%
UK 27%
US 36%
Most Legislators are Involved in Corruption
Australia 12%
France 35%
Germany 6%
UK 28%
US 41%
Most Government Officials are Involved in Corruption
Australia 12%
France 31%
Germany 6%
UK 25%
US 32%
Most Business Executives are Involved in Corruption
Australia 20%
France 17%
Germany 33%
UK 21%
US 35%
Government is Handling the Fight Against Corruption Badly
Australia 41%
France 64%
Germany 24%
UK 57%
US 51%
It is Not Socially Acceptable to Report Corruption
Australia 22%
France 24%
Germany 12%
UK 23%
US 23%
Summary: Many People Believe Corruption Seriously Affects US Government and Business, but the Topic is Taboo
Thus once again, the US had results suggesting it has important problems with corruption. More than one-third of US respondents thought that most executive branch leaders, legislators, and business executives are involved in corruption, Just less than one-third thought that most government officials are involved in corruption. More than one-half of US respondents thought that the government is handling the fight against corruption badly. More than one-third thought that corruption had gotten worse in the previous year. More than 20% thought it is not socially acceptable to report corruption.
Furthermore, the US had the worst results, compared to the other four developed countries, in four categories, and did not have the best results in any.
Thus, this survey suggested that substantial minorities of people thought that corruption in government and business was a major problem in 2016, and that perceptions of such corruption were no better, and likely worse in the US than in some comparable developed countries.
These would seem to be important, if discouraging results. But in the US, they do not appear to be considered news, and it is likely that so far, hardly anyone in the US outside of readers of this blog have heard any of this.
To date, there has been no coverage that I can find of the 2017 Global Corruption Barometer results in the US at all, much less coverage in the US that focused on US results. (I admit that since the full report was released, there has been litttle coverage of it anywhere. Transparency International did release multiple reports on regional results earlier this year, but not including North America. These did get some coverage in affected countries at the time.)
We have frequently noted how discussion of health care corruption has been nearly a taboo topic in the US, anechoic, presumably because its discussion would offend the people it makes rich and powerful. As suggested by the recent Transparency International report on corruption in the pharmaceutical industry,
However, strong control over key processes combined with huge resources and big profits to be made make the pharmaceutical industry particularly vulnerable to corruption. Pharmaceutical companies have the opportunity to use their influence and resources to exploit weak governance structures and divert policy and institutions away from public health objectives and towards their own profit maximising interests.Presumably the leaders of other kinds of corrupt organizations can do the same.
When health care corruption is discussed in English speaking developed countries, it is almost always in terms of a problem that affects somewhere else, mainly benighted less developed countries. At best, the corruption that gets discussed is low level. In the US, frequent examples are the "pill mills" and various cheats of government and private insurance programs by practitioners and patients that lately have been decried as a cause of the narcotics crisis (e.g., look here). (In contrast, the US government has been less inclined to address the activities of the leaders of the pharmaceutical companies who have pushed legal narcotics, e.g., see this post).
However, Health Care Renewal has stressed "grand corruption," the corruption of health care leaders. We have noted the continuing impunity of top health care corporate managers. Health care corporations have allegedly used kickbacks and fraud to enhance their revenue, but at best such corporations have been able to make legal settlements that result in fines that small relative to their multi-billion revenues without admitting guilt. Almost never are top corporate managers subject to any negative consequences.
Furthermore, of late there is reason to worry about worsening corruption of US government leaders in the health care sphere. The Trump regime is being increasingly identified with corruption and impunity itself. There has been an apparent recent increase in one particular species of corruption, the revolving door phenomenon, affecting appointments of key government health regulators and health care and public health policy makers, as noted most recently here.
However, the silence so far that has greeted Transparency International's latest Global Corruption Barometer in the US shows that corruption, including health care corruption, remains a taboo topic.
So as I have said till blue in the face.... if we really want to reform health care, in the little time we may have before our health care bubble bursts, we will need to take strong action against health care corruption. Such action will really disturb the insiders within large health care organizations who have gotten rich from their organizations' misbehavior, and thus taking such action will require some courage. Yet such action cannot begin until we acknowledge and freely discuss the problem. The first step against health care corruption is to be able to say or write the words, health care corruption.
The problem just gets worse and worse. I don't know what it is going to take for people to get their heads out of the sand!
ReplyDelete@ Judy
ReplyDeleteI think you are being kind. I would put the people's heads somewhere else.
Sadly many of the media are liberal and ostensibly corruption aware. However neighter liberal or conservative news outlets report on this.
ReplyDelete