Bang for the Buck: US Healthcare vs the Other Top 10 Spenders

The liberals are always saying that the United States spends more and gets less for its health care dollar than other industrialized countries. Being an open-minded kind of guy I thought I’d do some independent research on that; here’s what I found out.

The U.S. is number one in per capita health care spending world-wide; almost twice as much as other top ten spenders.

Of the top ten spenders:
• The U.S. is number one in infant mortality, twice as bad as others in the top 10.
• The U.S. is number one in mortality of children under five years old, twice as bad as others in the top 10.

God bless America.

Country		Annual Health Care Expenditure Per Capita (USD)		Rank		Infant Mortality Rate (Per 1000 Live Births)		Rank		Under 5 Mortality Rate (Per 1000 Live Births)		Rank
United States		$6,096		1		6.3		1		7.8		1
Luxembourg		5,178		2		4.5		3		6.6		2
Norway		4,080		3		3.3		9		4.4		9
Switzerland		4,011		4		4.1		8		5.1		8
Austria		3,418		5		4.4		4		5.4		5
Iceland		3,294		6		2.9		10		3.9		10
Canada		3,173		7		4.8		2		5.9		3
Germany		3,171		8		4.3		6		5.4		5
Belgium		3,133		9		4.2		7		5.3		7
Australia		3,123		10		4.4		4		5.6		4

Country		Annual Health Care Expenditure Per Capita (Relative to U.S.)		Infant Mortality Rate (Relative to U.S.)		Under 5 Mortality Rate (Relative to U.S.)
United States		100.00%		100.00%		100.00%
Luxembourg		84.94%		71.43%		84.62%
Norway		66.93%		52.38%		56.41%
Switzerland		65.80%		65.08%		65.38%
Austria		56.07%		69.84%		69.23%
Iceland		54.04%		46.03%		50.00%
Canada		52.05%		76.19%		75.64%
Germany		52.02%		68.25%		69.23%
Belgium		51.39%		66.67%		67.95%
Australia		51.23%		69.84%		71.79%
Sources: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0934556.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate