Health Care 4180

Here are some figures, from 1991, but there has been no significant change in the 15 years since (a few random numbers are given below, but the initial set are all from 1991).

Health Care Expenditures as a percent of Gross Domestic Product: United States 13.4% Canada 10.0 Finland 9.1 Sweden 8.6 Germany 8.4 Netherlands 8.4 Norway 7.6 Japan 6.8 United Kingdom 6.6 Denmark 6.5

Doctors' incomes: United States $132,300 Germany 91,244 Denmark 50,585 Finland 42,943 Norway 35,356 Sweden 25,768

Percent of population covered by public health care: Austria 99% France 99 Belgium 98 Spain 98 Switzerland 98 Germany 92 Netherlands 77 United States 40

Longevity, years: Men Women Japan 76.2 82.5 France 72.9 81.3 Switzerland 74.1 81.3 Netherlands 73.7 80.5 Sweden 74.2 80.4 Canada 73.4 80.3 Norway 73.1 79.7 Germany 72.6 79.2 Finland 70.7 78.8 United States 71.6 78.6 United Kingdom 72.7 78.2 Denmark 72.2 77.9

Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births): United States 10.4 United Kingdom 9.4 Germany 8.5 Denmark 8.1 Canada 7.9 Norway 7.9 Netherlands 7.8 Switzerland 6.8 Finland 5.9 Sweden 5.9 Japan 5.0

Prisoners (per 1,000 people): United States 4.2 United Kingdom 1.0 Germany 0.8 Denmark 0.7 Sweden 0.6 Japan 0.4 Netherlands 0.4

What has changed? Here are some random examples of figures a google search comes up with:

1996 Health care expenditures were 14.2 percent of the GDP (up from 13.4% in 1991). The Use spent $3,708 per person... and the next closest per capita was Switcherland at $2,412.

1990-1995 saw a drop in the US infant mortality rate, to 8 per 1000. The US was still ranked 23rd, as other countries showed more improvement.

The numbers for 2005 look like this (from The World Factbook),

1. Singapore 2.29 2. Sweden 2.77 3. Hong Kong 2.96 4. Japan 3.26 5. Iceland 3.31 6. Finland 3.57 7. Norway 3.70 8. Malta 3.89 9. Czech Republic 3.83 10. Andorra 4.05 11. Germany 4.16 12. France 4.26 13. Macau 4.37 14. Switzerland 4.39 15. Spain 4.42 16. Slovenia 4.45 17. Denmark 4.56 18. Auatria 4.66 19. Belgium 4.68 20. Australia 4.68 plus 1 21. Liechtenstein 4.70 22. Guernsy 4.71 23. Canada 4.75 24. Luxembourg 4.81 25. Netherlands 5.04 26. Portugal 5.05 27. Eurpean Union 5.10 28. Gibraltar 5.13 29. United Kingdom 5.16 30. Jersey 5.24 31. Ireland 5.39 32. Monaco 5.43 33. Greece 5.53 34. San Marino 5.73 35. New Zealand 5.85 36. Aruba 5.89 37. Isle of Man 5.93 38. Italy 5.94 39. Faroe Islands 6.24 40. South Korea 6.28 41. Cuba 6.33 42. Taiwan 5.40 43. United States 6.50

So, who is even worse than the US? Israel, Poland (7.36), Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Chile, Puerto Rico (9.28), Latvia, Kuwait, Costa Rica, Ukraine (10.11), Uruguay, Saudia Arabia (13.24), United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Russia (15.39), Greenland, Jorday, Malaysia, Qatar, Oman (19.51), Bulgaria, Mexico, North Korea (24.04), China, Vietnam, Samoa (27.71), Iran (41.58), Iraq (50.25).

The world average is 50.11, and out of 226 listings, Angola is the worst with 187.49.

However, there is more to the numbers for the US than actually shows up in a list such as the above. The infant mortality rate, which is accepted as a pretty fair measure of health care quality for a population, is not evenly distributed across the US population. For Whites the numbers are significantly better than the average. For non-Whites it all depends. Black Americans do not do nearly as well. Native Americans have had infant mortality rates multiple times as high as the average for the US.

The US government does *not* make health care equally available to all in the US, and indeed has a system where is specifically is not even close.

--