Fix up the US healthcare
While me might all argue about why US healthcare is broken and how to fix it, I guess the fact of the matter is clear – US healthcare is broken. In fact it is ridiculously broken. There are plenty of research works out there with generous stats. In almost every health stat, US looks extremely poor.
- US healthcare spending/GDP is the second highest in the world (next to Marshall islands)
- US spending for healthcare of $6102/percapita is almost double than most other OECD countries – $3165 in Canada and $3043 in Germany and $1149 in Korea – highest in the world
- United States ranks 49th in Life-expectancy and 45th in Infant mortality in the world. Its health stats are more closer to Third World than first world.
- Half of all Bankruptcies in US are related to medical-bills – highest in the world
- US healthcare spending growth of 2.3 times GDP growth,since 1970 is the highest among OECD countries.
- US has the least among the elderly population among OECD countries – at about 13% of population, compared to ~20% in Japan. Elderly cause far more expenditure than middle aged people.
- 40% of Americans and 5% of Canadians lack access to adequate health care.
- Medicare/Medicaid alone will take more than ~20% of US GDP by 2050
US has substantial lead in so many other indicators, but if you lose in health, you lose everything. However, Obama’s current proposal on healthcare can complicate the issues, as he focuses on making it affordable for consumers rather than reducing costs at the supply. This can skew the market.
Sources:
- https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
- https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
- http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/33/38979719.pdf
- http://people.bu.edu/kotlikoff/Who%20is%20%20going%20Broke,%20August%2029,%202006.pdf
- http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34175_20070917.pdf
- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6895896/
- http://www.gao.gov/cghome/centrist20050121/img2.html
Header image courtesy of: Ortizmj
