Unhealthy Health Stats

Wow. We can't get much right around here, can we?

This graphic courtesy of National Geographic Magazine depicts health care spending per person in various countries. Ironically, yet somehow not surprisingly, despite paying exorbitantly more for health care on an individual basis, Americans have a shorter life expectancy than citizens of most other developed nations and several developing ones according to the article . Health experts interviewed for the article argue that the high cost to shorter life expectancy relationship is the result of our country's fee-for-service system, which results in unneeded treatment that "doesn't reliably improve a patients health." Hhhhmmm. The old more-is-not-necessarily-better argument. Gets 'em every time.

A cheat-sheet for those of you too lazy to click on the graphic to enlarge:

The left-hand vertical axis depicts health care cost per person per year.
The right-hand vertical axis depicts life expectancy.
The orange lines represent those countries without universal health care coverage.
The wayward orange line that begins below the average life expectancy point of the countries polled and shoots to the top and almost off of the graphic is 'Merica.