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Originally Posted by aceventura3
PR-2000-43/ WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION : ASSESSES THE WORLD'S HEALTH SYSTEMS
O.k., so I do a search and spend 30 seconds reading the report, and I come across this:
So, the very first question that comes to my mind is why use GDP? Then: Are they including pharma R&D which would be included in GDP? Does the US dominate the world in pharma R&D? Should they adjust for that? How does France rank in Pharma R&D? Do the include medical higher education spending? Do they adjust for doctors trained here and who go back home to practice? Do they include the billions in medical aid we send to Africa? Gee, it goes on and on, and that was just from barely getting through the second paragraph. so, I will read more, look at the footnotes and come to a conclusion - but Sebelius could have saved me a lot of time by explaining her statement in detail.
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Maybe you should spend more than 30 seconds reading the article. Since the measure is of spending on "health care services," no, they do not include Pharmaceutical R&D. And using GDP is because it accounts for differences in wealth and only looks at proportional spending. But using GDP is something that should make the results more favorable towards the US, given it's higher GDP per capita. If you look at just per capita spending, the inefficiency of the US healthcare system becomes even more pronounced.
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---------- Post added at 06:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 PM ----------
Yes.
---------- Post added at 06:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 PM ----------
what if the US is a more violent society than Candida or the UK? If true what value would the stats you present have in coming to a conclusion regarding health care?
what if the US is a more racist society than Candida or the UK?
what if the socio-economic differences are greater in the US than Candida or the UK?
what if life style factors affecting health are worse in the US than Candida or the UK?
Do you ignore those kinds of factors when assessing a health care system, or do you try to adjust for those factors?
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Yes, you do. But the biggest difference in spending is not caused by any disease or health problem, but by significantly higher overhead costs in the American system. And in any case, that should only make it clear that the US system is far inferior, since not only are the outcomes worse, but access statistics are also much, much worse.
And if the US is a more violent society on one hand, Canada and Europe are much older societies on the other.
The US spends more on healthcare overhead on a per capita basis than what greeks spend on private and public healthcare combined! Meanwhile, greece has more hospital beds, hospital admissions and average length of hospital stays per capita than the US.
USA wastes more on health care bureaucracy than it would cost to provide health care to all of the uninsured
