We are not getting value for our health care dollar in the United States.
In 2007, we spent $2.4 trillion on health care, or $7,900 for every man, woman and child in America. That's more than any other country on the globe spent on health care, as a total sum, or as per-capita spending.
To put it another way, we spent 17% of our gross domestic product (GDP) on health care. The GDP is the sum total of all production - in terms of goods and services - generated by our nation's economy. That means for every $1 of wealth that we as a nation created in 2007, 17 cents went to pay medical expenses.
Again, to put our health care spending in perspective, we are spending 4.3 times more on health care than we spend on national defense. And what are we getting for our money? The U.S.A. ranks 50th in the world, according to the CIA, in life expectancy, behind Portugal and just ahead of Albania (our average life expectancy, if you were wondering, is 78.11 years). And at 6.26 deaths per 1,000 live births (again, according to the CIA), we rank 46th in infant mortality -- behind Cuba and just ahead of Croatia.
Let me repeat that, so it sinks in. We spend more than any other nation on earth, per person AND in total, and yet we have Third-World rates of infant mortality and life expectancy. And for all that money we spend, we still leave 46 million people uninsured.
Let's now compare American health care value with some of our neighbors in the community of industrialized nations. These figures come from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development: Switzerland spends 10.9% of its GDP on health care, and ranks 16th in the world in infant mortality and 11th in life expectancy.
Germany which spends 10.7% of its GDP on health care, ranks 15th in infant mortality and 32nd in life expectancy. Canada spends 9.7% of its GDP on health care. Canada ranks 36th in the world in infant mortality and 8th in life expectancy.
France spends 9.5%. France ranks 8th in infant mortality and 9th in life expectancy.
The USA spends almost twice as much on health care as these four industrialized nations, yet they all rank higher than we do on these two measures of health. To top it off, all four of these countries provide universal coverage for their citizens. Clearly, we are not getting our money's worth. In future posts to this blog, we'll explore some of the reasons that American health care costs so much but delivers less than promised in terms of value. Right now I mostly want you to realize that it is very possible to spend less on health care and expand coverage to all Americans at the same time.
Are the French smarter than we are? Are the Canadians more efficient? Are the Swiss just hardier people? Do the Germans live healthier lifestyles than we do? The answer to each of these questions is NO! If these nations can do provide universal health care cost-effectively to their citizenry, certainly we Americans can do it at least as well, if not better.
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Maybe we're not as smart as the French, Candians, Germans or Swiss. We think we have the world's best care and we like paying exorbitant prices for it.
ReplyDeleteLove what you've written so far -- but I want to run a fact check. Is there, in fact, hard data showing that citizens in these other countries do NOT live more healthily than we do? Specifically, is it accurate to say that the average caloric intake is equivalent across populations? How about the average intake of processed food products? I'm not just trying to be a thorn in the side here -- but in the middle of reading this latest post of yours, I found myself wondering (for the first time ever), "Maybe the reason we spend so much more and still have such low mortality/expectancy rates is because, due to our Affluenza and ghastly diet, the medical community has to work twice as hard to achieve the same level of health (as a product of remedial action and better living through pills) that other populations enjoy by dint of a diet not as saturated by processed foods and lifestyles that are not nearly as automobile-dependent." I mean, might there be some truth in that argument? I'd seriously be interested to know how the "average number of cars per household" in Portugal, Albania, Croatia and Cuba compares to the statistics for the US. Ditto "average caloric intake" and "percentage of caloric intake that comes from processed foods."
ReplyDeleteIn other words, what I'm saying is, isn't it possible that (at least part of) the reason we're paying so much more for healthcare is because we are so much more effective at poisoning and killing ourselves through horrible and irresponsible lifstyle choices?
(Note: App & Tap is exempt from this consideration...) ;-)