There’s a lot of talk these days about reforming healthcare, and much of this talk is centered around universal health insurance. But the elephant in the room is: no matter who’s paying for the care, our health as a nation isn’t going to improve until we fix the healthcare system.
Americans currently spend $2.4 trillion/year on healthcare. That’s about $4,200 per person. Our nearest competitor, Switzerland, only spends about $2,800 per person. And though we spend far more than anyone, we don’t have the best health. We’re not number two either, nor are we number five, nor ten, nor twenty. In fact according to the World Health Organization, the U.S. ranks 37th in overall health—out of 37 industrialized countries! So we spend the most, but fare the worst. (more…)