Why is the USA wasting 550 Billion on Health?
A year I might ad. While this number may seem huge it's not just born by the government it born by US citizens. Krugman correctly calls for a single payer system in a recent article that has had a couple of great Diaries lately. I just wanted to provide some further evidence. I love my stats and I'm Canadian(we look good when compared to the USA on health) so here goes, my source is the WHO:
http://www.who.int/countries/en/
Stats below the fold: and by the way wait times etc may be bad in Canada but it doesn't seem to effect how long you live a healthy life.
Total population:
294,043,000 (US) 31,510,000 (Can)
GDP per capita (Intl $, 2002):
36,056 (US) 30,429 (Can)
Life expectancy at birth m/f (years):
75.0/80.0 (US) 78.0/82.0 (CAN)
Healthy life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2002):
67.2/71.3 (US) 70.1/74.0 (CAN)
Child mortality m/f (per 1000):
9/7 (US) 6/5 (CAN)
Adult mortality m/f (per 1000):
139/82 (US) 93/57 (CAN)
Total health expenditure per capita (Intl $, 2002):
5,274 (US) 2,931 (CAN)
Total health expenditure as % of GDP (2002):
14.6 (US) 9.6 (CAN)
So looking at those numbers a very strong arguement can be made by stating The health care system in the US costs $2343 dollars more a person per year and 5% more of the USA's GDP.
This expensive system results in higher death rates of infants, an average of 2.5 years less life, 2.7 years less years of health, and finally more people die before they become adults.
So the frame should be .....Whether it's taxes or insurance premiums the USA doesn't get good value for money in health.
A single Payer system has better key results without the high cost.
I might ad some of these stats can be easily remembered and used, also of note is that Cuba and even Costa Rica ranked nearly as well as the USA on most indicators.
By the way 5% of the USA GDP is around 550 billion dollars being wasted a year to protect special interests is a big bill to pay.
So I ask why is the USA wasting 550 Billion on Health a year?