According to the OECD, the United States spends more on public health care, as a percent of GDP, than the UK. Medicare and Medicaid costs are a bigger fiscal burden than the NHS.
It's not what I would have expected, but if the OECD says so, then must be true. The data is for 2007.
4 comments:
surprised Sweden is so low. Aren't they supposed to have the ultimate welfare state?
Scientific American covered this a few months back. Not only is their spending higher but their outcomes are worse. Japan spends half the amount for a much better outcome. Its how its spent that counts not how much.
If only our politicians could read!
Americans are unhealthy, so they need to spend a lot of money on health care. The Japanese are extremely healthy, so need to spend next to nothing.
We would be as unhealthy as Americans, but drink enough tea to partially mitigate the problem!
One party trick is to ask an American where their country features in the top 20 of the WHO (sourced) health rankings.
This is a credit scored using a formula based on infant mortality, life expectancy, etc.
Last time I checked they were 21st (and we were 17th)!
Incidenttally, I saw recently that where obesity and diabetes are concerned we are close behind the USA and catching up.
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