Friday, 16 July 2004
The UN Report and American Health Care
Yesterday, the UN launched it's Human Development Report for 2004. The index measures education, life expectancy and standard of living and ranks all the countries in the world in a wide variety of tables and lists. The full report can be downloaded here, but the best way to view the data is from this page.
It's especially interesting, because as an American I'm constantly being bombarded with the idea that America is the best in the world.
However, if you take a look at the 285 page report you start to notice that America is good, but claiming that we're the best country ever is a little like claiming we've got the world's best soccer team or the highest standard of living on the planet, without exception.
They're are nice ideas, but they're simply not true:
The United States was ranked in eighth place, a drop of one position from 2003, and Sierra Leone was in last place on a list of 177 rankings."
Personally, I don't put much stock in that type of across-the-board ranking. It's interesting, but it doesn't actually reveal all that much.
However, it is quite another thing to look at the more in depth studies. Here's a particularly telling one:
1 Norway 6.9
2 Sweden 7.5
3 Australia 6.2
4 Canada 6.8
5 Netherlands 5.7
6 Belgium 6.4
7 Iceland 7.6
8 United States 6.2
9 Japan 6.2
10 Ireland 4.9
Private health expenditure (% of GDP)
Direct household (out of pocket) spending, private insurance, spending by non-profit institutions serving households and direct service payments by private corporations.
1 Norway 1.2
2 Sweden 1.3
3 Australia 3.0
4 Canada 2.8
5 Netherlands 3.3
6 Belgium 2.5
7 Iceland 1.6
8 United States 7.7
9 Japan 1.8
10 Ireland 1.6
As you will notice, the US spends roughly the same amount of public funds on health care as the other 9 countries in the top 10. However, when you look at how much money is spent privately (note the term "Direct household (out of pocket) spending") you will notice a huge discrepancy.
Why is that? Why is it that US citizens wind up spending so much more of their own money on healthcare? Could it be that Universal Health Care is actually less expensive than the system we currently employ?
We as a society need to seriously consider a single-payer system. We are the last of the developed nations to deny our own citizens access to health care. It's an idea who's time has come.
Posted by SmooveJ Zao on July 16, 2004 at 01:33 PM in US News | Permalink
smoovej, why do you hate america? honestly, sometimes i think the next thing you'll be telling me is that birth control is effective, or that marijuana doesn't kill, or that tax cuts don't boost the economy. i mean, the last time i checked, 2 + 2 was still 5!!!
Posted by: mel | Jul 16, 2004 9:27:28 PM
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