A recent article in Discover magazine prompted me to check out some statistics on the World Health Organization website. I was very surprised to find out how easy it was to demonstrate that the US health system is sorely inefficient when compared to that of other first world nations.
The 13 nations in the following table were listed in Barbara Starfield’s article (2000) as the top 13 in overall health care for their citizens. The data is from WHO’s 2002 database online.
World Health Organization Statistics (2002)
Per capita %Paid Life
Cost (US$) by Govt Expectancy
Japan 2,476 81.7 75.0
Sweden 2,489 85.3 73.3
Spain 1,192 71.3 72.6
Australia 1,995 67.9 72.6
Canada 2,222 69.9 72.0
France 2,348 76.0 72.0
Germany 2,631 78.5 71.8
Netherlands 2,298 65.6 71.2
Finland 1,852 75.7 71.1
Belgium 2,159 71.2 71.1
United Kingdom 2,031 83.4 70.6
Denmark 2,835 82.9 69.8
United States 5,274 44.9 69.3
- Per capita total expenditure on health at average exchange rate (US$)
- General Government expenditure on health as % of total expenditure on health
- Healthy life expectancy at birth
Sources
Lemley, Brad, One Doc’s Drug Complaint, Discover, November 2005, pp 16-17
Starfield, Barbara MD, MPH, Is US Health Really the Best in the World? Journal of the American Medical Association. Volume 284(4) 26 July 2000 pp 483-485
http://www.umassmed.edu/healthpolicy/uploads/JAMA_2000_Volume284_4.pdf
World Health Organization, Countries
http://www.who.int/countries/en
