Total health expenditure per capita, public and private, 2007
The AP reports on a new study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international an international organization of 30 countries, including the U.S., that accept the principles of representative democracy and free-market economy. The article begins:
The United States ranks near the bottom in life expectancy among wealthy nations despite spending more than double per person on health care than the industrialized world’s average, an economic group said Tuesday.
Life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was 78.1 years in 2007, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Adding:
The U.S. far outspent the next biggest health care spenders, Norway and Switzerland, despite the fact that those countries’ life expectancies are two to four years longer, according to the report.
And:
The U.S. also underperforms other rich countries in the health of its youngest.
U.S. infant mortality, at 6.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, was well above the OECD average of 3.9 in 2007. Only Mexico and Turkey had worse rates of infant mortality. In Luxembourg, the top performer, the infant mortality rate was only 1.8.
The report noted that research suggests many factors beyond the quality of a country’s health system, such as income inequality and individual lifestyles and attitudes, influence infant mortality rates.
You can read the whole story here.
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