I don't actually like the term "health care" (or healthcare, sometimes it's even one word). That implies that it's about two things -- health and care -- whereas it's more about disease than health and more about money than care. In fact, the money part is very notable: it's really expensive, more and more so all the time:
Right now it's at about 18% of GDP. Well, you might say, that's because medical technology has gotten better and better, there's good reason to spend more on it. There is some truth to that, but then there's this:
Hmm. We're spending twice as much as the average wealthy country, and three times as much as the Japanese. Well, you may say, we have the highest quality health care in the world, that's why it costs more. Hmm.
Whatever the quality of our health care, it isn't managing to keep us alive as well as that cheaper health care in other countries. As a matter of fact Japan, with the lowest spending, has the highest life expectancy of any country on earth. So whatever we're doing, we aren't spending our money wisely. We'll have more to say about this.
3 comments:
You may be missing some important variables. It's so easy to point to these stats and not go any deeper.
Here's a few just off the top of my head:
Genetics of the population? Do the elderly get really, really old?
Air and water quality?
Cultural, such as types of food, alcohol consumption, tobacco, drugs?
Race? (yes it matters. Think sickle-cell for example)
I was also intrigued by your last chart and thought I'd calculate how much each year of our expected life span costs us annually in health care costs. I came up with the following figures:
U.S.A. - - 161.87
Germany- 91.26
Average- - 72.85
Japan - - - 55.22
Kinda awkward to describe, but it seems like one way to get at a unit cost.
I was intrigued by your last chart and thought I'd calculate how much each year of our expected life span costs us annually in health care costs. I came up with the following figures:
U.S.A. - - 161.87
Germany- 91.26
Average - -72.85
Japan - - - 55.22
Kinda awkward to describe, but it seems like one way to get at a unit cost.
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