Men vs Culture: Health Care Costs Illustrated

Feb 26, 2010

Health Care Costs Illustrated

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3 sucka ass fools had something to say:

Epistemz Dialektixsaid...: That is an excellent graph. Very illustrative. I like how it provides different types of measures in a simple and intelligible format.; February 26, 2010 12:09 PM
Epistemz Dialektixsaid...: The most striking thing is that no matter what a country spends, their life expectancies converge toward the mean. So the US has long passed the dollar point of diminishing returns.; February 26, 2010 12:13 PM
Pteradactuallysaid...: Looks like some liberal hired the USA Today's chart maker. This may be pretty and depict a story but its totally misleading and overstated.

What if you swapped the scaling on the left with the right? The conclusion drawn would be totally different.

If you exclude the outlier (the US) the chart looks different too - countries that pay more live longer...theres some correlation.

In reality, rich countries should pay more for health care. Obviously, right, their doctors and nurses and administrators and paper delivery cost more.

An adjusted measure of cost as a percent of GDP or average income compared to health care quality would be interesting, but this chart tells you little. Plot that on a graph and you might get some worthwhile findings.

And of course, life expectancy is far from perfect as a proxy for health care QUALITY.

All I learned from this is:

1.the US has very expensive health care (and many claim it has the best so..duh).

2. Mexico has very cheap health care.

3. the Japanese and the Czechs are hypochondriacs. Who the hell needs to go to the doctor every month? On average 12+ times per year? On AVERAGE? There has to be some crazy thing in those countries that explains that stat like...no impatient care? I don't get it.; February 26, 2010 2:45 PM