Comparing Health Care Systems

How does the US health care system stack up against other countries health care systems? According to World Health Organization studies:

In absolute terms - measured per person - the US spends twice as any other country, and far more than twice as much as most countries. As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product we rank number 2 - only the Marshall Islands spends a bigger percentage of their GDP on health care. Marshall Islands? Who are these upstarts who denied us number 1 ranking in blowing money on Health Care? According to wikipedia the Marshall Islands are tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean granted independance by the US in 1986 . The US used to use the Marshall Islands as a Nuclear Testing ground - they have wonderful pictures of mushroom clouds over the Marshal Islands. Gee, wonder why these little Islands in the tropical Pacific have to spend so much on Health Care?

In the effectiveness of the health care system the US ranks 37th out of 190 countries. The 36 countries that provide better overall health care all spend far less, both per capita and as a percentage of GDP. The 36 better countries include Islamist countries like Morocco, the United Arab Emerites and Saudi Arabia as well as Canada, England and Sweden, the western single payor systems often derided as "socialized medicine". Wretchedly governed Cuba is right behind us at 39th.

In life expectancy we rank 24th. Italians may still have an active communist party but they live quite a bit longer than us. Canada, England and Sweden, with government run single payer systems, all live longer than us. In Isreal, despite suicide bombers and the occasional missle, folks live longer than us.

In a study of selected countries looking at the performance of the health care system in preventing preventable deaths, of the 14 countries studied, the US was dead last. Two of the countries in the study were single payor "socialist" systems, England and Sweden.

But, take heart, although spending lots of money doesn't seem to keep us from being lousy at health care, as this is being written we kicking butt when it comes to the Olympic gold medal count.