Country by Spending on health care as a % of GDP

[ztn]

this is from “Human Development Reports”:
Public Expenditures on healthcare: Notice how the U.S. public expenditure as a percentage of GDP (left column) is not at all significantly lower or, in many cases, even lower at all than other industrialized nations. Keep in mind that we are the only one on this list that doesn’t offer some type of universal health care. The difference really comes into focus when we compare private expenditures in the right column:
BTW, the countries are ranked according to their Human Developemt Index (HDI)
Public Spending Private Spending
1 Norway 6.9 Norway 1.2
2 Sweden 7.5 Sweden 1.3
3 Australia 6.2 Australia 3.0
4 Canada 6.8 Canada 2.8
5 Netherlands 5.7 Netherlands 3.3

6 Belgium 6.4 Belgium 2.5
7 Iceland 7.6 Iceland 1.6
8 U S A 6.2 U S A 7.7
9 Japan 6.2 Japan 1.8
10 Ireland 4.9 Ireland 1.6

11 Switzerland 6.3 Switzerland 4.7
12 United Km 6.2 United Km 1.4
13 Finland 5.3 Finland 1.7
14 Austria 5.6 Austria 2.5
15 Luxembourg 5.4 Luxembourg 0.6

16 France 7.3 France 2.3
17 Denmark 7.0 Denmark 1.5
18 New Zealand 6.4 New Zealand 1.9
19 Germany 8.1 Germany 2.7
20 Spain 5.4 Spain 2.2


Add the two numbers together and we see the total expenditure as a percentage of GDP that goes to health care costs. The U.S. spends 13.9% of its total GDP on Health Care and it is not even universal! All the others on the list spend less and cover everyone for any reason. Remarkable….or maybe not. I guess when people undersatnd there is a way, they get it done. The GOP makes sure people don't understand how easy and COST EFFECTIVE it could be.

See more data at: hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004

[LimpingLib]

1. I remember the good "old" days (1996) when military spending....

... was about $270 billion per year.

Now we are spending about $425 billion per year plus another $75 billion on Iraq.

Interest payments on the debt are up over 50% from about $250 billion per year in 1996 to $400 billion now (though much of those "payments" are ghost payments on interest to trust funds,which get raided ASAP).


Almost all the rest of the federal budget is corperate welfare.

Anyway we tax the nation to fund right wing programs then if that doesnt break most of us , then the costs of living brought on by insurance companys and federal policys might just do the job.

All suported by Democrats though so maybe we shouldnt blow the whistle.Heck the DLC thinks we are fighting too hard for progressive programs. And not "patriotic enough" hence we have been shortchanging the Pentagon.

[ztn]

2. Funny you say that....

I was listening to Thom Hartmann on the radio last week and he talked about focus group studies in which people were given several major budget sectors (defense, R&D, Foreign Aid, social programs etc.). They were asked to assign percentages to each sector in accordance to how they felt allocation was appropriate for each sector. Then they asked to choose from a list of allocation models and guess which best represented our budget. They were also asked how much they felt we spent on foreign aid.

Results?

The overwhelming majority divided the budget PROGRESSIVELY (ie in a lefty kinda way)

When choosing very few guessed correctly on our budget...they couldn't believe how much we spent on corporate subsidies and defense.

Almost everybody "figured" figured we spent more on Foreign Aid than we really did. Most people guessed 10-20%...when it's really like 0.7%.

Reality Bites I guess...oh well. they keep voting GOP!!

[LimpingLib]

4. The(over-) paid pollsters and campaign consultants.....

.... need to be purged.

I say we pay them even MORE but tell them to get the hell out of their advisory role.

I blame our party at least as much as the voters or fence sitters.

[leftofthedial]

3. we are getting screwed

I HAVE medical insurance and it covers almost nothing it seems.