HBR – Health Care Costs vs Life Expectancy

The author says,”The United States spends more on health care per capita—by far—than any of the other OECD countries. Yet it ranks in the bottom 25% of those countries on life expectancy.”  Click the image for a larger graphic.

Health Care Spending vs Life Expectancy
Source: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the CIA World Factbook. Click image for larger graphic.

This picture tell the story.  We need to look at what Australia is doing, and Japan to a lesser extent, to see what we can learn.

This is from the April 2010 edition of the Harvard Business Review (HBR).  Jeff Levin-Scherz wrote an article called “Premium Price, Poor Performance” and it contained the graphic above.  It shows why as Canadians, we needs to maintain and improve our health care system and stop privatization where there is a profit motive.

Privatization, call it what you want – alternative delivery models, public private partnerships, etc. – has not been shown to work better than anywhere in the world.  Work better means longer life expectancy, everyone covered, and at a lower cost.  A public funded and not for profit health care system is best.

As we move towards a US style health care system we will get more outcomes like they do.

What do you think?  Do you know of an example where a for-profit health care system worked better?

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2 thoughts on “HBR – Health Care Costs vs Life Expectancy”

  1. How do I see what the stats are for Canada? I went to the website and it seems that aI need to purchase the book to find out. That does not seem correct.How do I get the stats for Canada Love Dad

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