Universal Health Care: better health care for less money.

I have recently been involved in an online
discussion of Universal Health Care. It has been
my observation that misinformation on this topic
is widespread. Many people have misconceptions of
the quality and expense of Universal Health Care,
probably largely because of misinformation spread
by those who are opposed to it, usually those who
profit from the current system, or those who
consider it to be "socialism" or "communism"
without considering what that really means. I've
taken the time to gather the facts regarding the
quality and expense of Universal Health Care, and
will present them here. One of the myths of
Universal Health Care is that it is expensive, and
if the United States were to adopt a Universal
Health Care plan, it would bankrupt the country.
Here are some examples of that misconception from
the recent discussions I've been involved in:

"......if universal health care is passed it will
bankrupt the country just as it has in France and
several of the European countries...."

"The hew and cry for universal health care is just
another form of entitelment which would invarably
be a huge, hemorging Government money pit."

Another common misconception is that Universal
Health Care means poor quality health care. Here's
an example:

"If universal health care is so good, why do so
many people in Canada, Mexico and the rest of the
world come here for medical services?"

The fact is that Universal Health Care does not
bankrupt nations. The United States spends more
per person on Health Care than any other developed
nation. Nations with Universal Health Care systems
spend less money per person than the U.S. spends.
Here are the statistics on Health Care
expenditures in dollars per capita, arranged from
highest to lowest. Obviously, spending more money
would be a bad thing, spending less money would be
a good thing, all other factors being equal.

Per capita health care expenditures: 

United States           5635 
Norway                  3807 
Switzerland             3781 
Luxembourg              3190 
Iceland                 3115 
Canada                  3003 
Germany                 2996 
Netherlands             2976 
France                  2903 
Belgium                 2827 
Denmark                 2763 
Australia               2699 
Sweden                  2594 
Ireland                 2386 
Austria                 2280 
Italy                   2258 
United Kingdon          2231 
Japan                   2139 
Finland                 2118 
Greece                  2011 
New Zealand             1886 
Spain                   1835 
Portugal                1797 
Czech Republic          1298 
Hungary                 1115 
Korea                   1074 
Slovak Republic          777 
Poland                   677 
Mexico                   583 
Turkey                   462 

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/530538806724


The U.S. spends more per person than any other
developed nation! But for our money, we get the
best quality health care in the world, right?
Wrong. The two most common measures of a nations
health are infant morality rate and life
expectancy at birth. Here's the numbers for
infant mortality, in number of deaths per 1000
live births:

Infant Mortality Rate (Deaths per 1000 live
births) 

United States         6.43 
Taiwan                6.29 
Cuba                  6.22 
Korea, South          6.16 
Faroe Islands         6.12 
Italy                 5.83 
Isle of Man           5.82 
Aruba                 5.79 
New Zealand           5.76 
San Marino            5.63 
Greece                5.43 
Monaco                5.35 
Ireland               5.31 
Jersey                5.16 
European Union        5.10 
United Kingdom        5.08 
Gibraltar             5.06 
Portugal              4.98 
Netherlands           4.96 
Luxembourg            4.74 
Canada                4.69 
Guernsey              4.65 
Liechtenstein         4.64 
Australia             4.63 
Belgium               4.62 
Austria               4.60 
Denmark               4.51 
Slovenia              4.40 
Spain                 4.37 
Macau                 4.35 
Switzerland           4.34 
France                4.21 
Germany               4.12 
Andorra               4.04 
Czech Republic        3.89 
Malta                 3.86 
Norway                3.67 
Finland               3.55 
Iceland               3.29 
Japan                 3.24 
Hong Kong             2.95 
Sweden                2.76 
Singapore             2.29 

Source:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko
rder/2091rank.html


For the sake of brevity, I have not included the
entire chart of 226 nations in the CIA's database,
only the U.S. and those nations that have lower
infant mortality rate. You'd probably expect
Russia, China, and East Timor to have higher
infant mortality rates than the United States, and
they do, but why does the U.S. fall behind 42
other nations, many of which are social
democracies with Universal Health Care systems?

The other common measure of a nation's health is
life expectancy at birth. Here are the numbers for
life expectancy:

Life Expectancy at Birth, Years: 

1   Andorra                           83.51 
2   Macau                             82.19 
3   San Marino                        81.71 
4   Singapore                         81.71 
5   Hong Kong                         81.59 
6   Japan                             81.25 
7   Sweden                            80.51 
8   Switzerland                       80.51 
9   Australia                         80.50 
10   Guernsey                         80.42 
11   Iceland                          80.31 
12   Canada                           80.22 
13   Cayman Islands                   80.07 
14   Italy                            79.81 
15   Gibraltar                        79.80 
16   France                           79.73 
17   Monaco                           79.69 
18   Liechtenstein                    79.68 
19   Spain                            79.65 
20   Norway                           79.54 
21   Israel                           79.46 
22   Jersey                           79.38 
23   Faroe Islands                    79.35 
24   Aruba                            79.28 
25   Greece                           79.24 
26   Martinique                       79.18 
27   Austria                          79.07 
28   Virgin Islands                   79.05 
29   Malta                            79.01 
30   Netherlands                      78.96 
31   Luxembourg                       78.89 
32   Montserrat                       78.85 
33   New Zealand                      78.81 
34   Germany                          78.80 
35   Belgium                          78.77 
36   Saint Pierre and Miquelon        78.61 
37   Guam                             78.58 
38   United Kingdom                   78.54 
39   Finland                          78.50 
40   Isle of Man                      78.49 
41   Jordan                           78.40 
42   Puerto Rico                      78.40 
43   European Union                   78.30 
44   Guadeloupe                       78.06 
45   Bosnia and Herzegovina           78.00 
46   Bermuda                          77.96 
47   Saint Helena                     77.93 
48   United States                    77.85 

Source:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko
rder/2102rank.html


Again, for brevity I have not included the entire
list of 226 nations, only the U.S. and those
nations that have greater life expectancy than the
U.S. In life expectancy, the U.S. ranks 48th in
the world, and again the list of nations that rank
higher than the U.S. includes many social
democracies with Universal Health Care systems.

With its per capita cost of health care greater
than any other nation in the world, with health
care expenditures 1.5 times higher than the next
nation on the list, you'd expect the U.S. to have
the best health care in the world. Yet the U.S.
ranks 43rd in infant mortality rate, and 48th in
life expectancy at birth. Clearly there is
something wrong with the health care system in the
U.S., and seeing that many of those nations who
spend less money on health care, have lower infant
mortality rates, and have longer life expectancies
do have a Universal Health Care system, it would
appear that the U.S. should change to a Universal
Health Care system. Spend less money, get better
health care, it's a win/win situation.

And now you can respond with the facts when you
hear someone repeating misinformation about
Universal Health Care systems.