California Girl
Rookie
- Oct 8, 2009
- 50,337
- 10,058
- 0
- Banned
- #21
I have heard repeatedly that the United States has the best health care in the world. I think it can be shown without any difficulty we have the most expensive health care - but "best" is a relative term.
In terms of expense, we have the highest cost of health care per capita - hands down. No one is even close to us. We are 50% higher than the runner up - Norway. But how do you determine overall quality? Difficult, but I would offer that one method would be life expectancy. I think it is a reasonable assumption that the healthier a population is, the longer you could expect them to live. So let us do a comparison of per capita cost vs life expectancy.
Japan: $2,729 per capita LE - 83.91 years
Italy: $2,870 per capita LE - 81.86 years
Spain: $2,902 per capita LE - 81.27 years
U.K.: $3,129 per capita LE - 80.17 years
Austrailia: $3,353 per capita LE - 81.9 years
Sweden: $3,470 per capita LE - 81.18 years
Belgium: $3,677 per capita LE - 79.65 years
France: $3,696 per capita LE - 81.46 years
Germany: $3,737 per capita LE - 80.19 years
Austria: $3,970 per capita LE - 79.91 years
Netherlands: $4,063 per capita LE - 80.91 years
Canada: $4,079 per capita LE - 81.48 years
Switzerland: $4,627 per capita LE - 81.17 years
Norway: $5,003 per capital LE - 80.32 years
United States: $7,538 per capita LE - 78.49 years
As you can see, while we are the most expensive system on the list, we are also at the very bottom of the list when it comes to life expectancy. I find it difficult to see that as being the "best". I suppose the bright side is that by dying a couple of years early you save yourself $15 K.
An interesting note. All of the above countries have universal health care, except the United States.
For those of you who wish to see for yourselves:
Snapshots: Health Care Spending in the United States & Selected OECD Countries - Kaiser Family Foundation
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
Now, let us take it as a given that by using actual information I am, by definition, a godless communist or whatever perjorative you wish to use in lieu of an argument. Does anyone have any actual facts to dispute this? I would love to see them.
The reason why we have a lower life expectancy has jack shit to do with our health care, and everything to do with the fact that we are the fattest bunch of fuckers on the planet. If you are gonna bitch, at least get your fucking facts straight.
Idiot.
Study: America Is Officially the Fattest Developed Country in the World | Healthland | TIME.com
Ah yes. I believe I covered the part about insults in lieu of an argument. But thank you for playing.
Which bit is insulting? Calling my fellow Americans 'fat fuckers'? Yea, I can see that might be a tad cruel... the truth is often harsh.... and so am I.
Fact: the reason why we have a lower life span is that we are too fucking fat as a nation. Every fucking legitimate study shows that result.
And, just so you know, many of the stats used to prepare these figures you quote are self reported - not independently researched, therefore, they are open to corruption. Having said that, we certainly do die earlier generally than many nations - because too many Americans are lazy, greedy, pigs.