According to The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2004 (the most recent year available) the United States spent $6,102 per person for medical care. This includes both public and private spending.
This number is by far the highest in the world. Our next competitor, Luxembourg, spent $5,089; the next runner-up, Switzerland, spent $4,077 per person. France spent $3,159; the Netherlands, $3,041. You will guess, and accurately, that the statistical results of all this spending (in the form of infant mortality figures, longevity and so forth) do not put the United States in the forefront of medical outcomes. To say the least. That will be for another post.
For now it is probably adequate to observe that the Netherlands, which spends half of what we spend, per person, has far better health statistics than we do. It will not do to observe that the Netherlands is a lot smaller than the United States; these are per capita expenditures.
Perhaps European countries are going to need to spend more; that is under discussion. But before we authorize spending even more money here, I for one would like to know where all this money is going currently, especially if, as it seems, it is not producing superior results.
Reference: http://ocde.p4.siteinternet.com/publications/doifiles/012006061T02.xls
This is a spreadsheet.
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I can't help wondering if the better health statistics in the Netherlands, at any rate, might be an effect of better overall national mental health. What you have said elsewhere about the Dutch makes them sound like one big, reasonably happy family. they know who they are, they have a way of being with each other which is universally recognized, etc. In general the nation sounds happier than we. And here, I think, size (and immigration patterns: Israel is small but too diverse in origins to be unified in much of anything.) may matter. The wisdom in "it takes a village to raise a child" can perhaps reasonably be extrapolated to a country where the citizens all have the same customs. Or am I overgeneralizing and romanticizing ?
ReplyDeleteRead this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03european-t.html?ref=magazine
ReplyDeleteAnd know these things too.
First, except for the Muslim immigrants,the Netherlands are almost entirely secularized. Christianity is meaningless here.
Second, the Netherlands is the most densely populated country on earth.
If you lived here you would never see the stars. Think about that.