Biggest Spender for Health Care Is U.S.

How do health care costs in the U.S. compare to those in other developed nations? Americans believe that they have “the best health care in the world” and spend $8, 233 per person per year to back up that boast. But Jason Kane, writing in The Rundown points out that that amount is two-and-a-half times more than the money spent by most of the other developed nations in the world, including France, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The U.S. spends $0.17 cents of every dollar on health care, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which tracks such things. 

Just below the U.S. in spending for health care are Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland each of whom, in 2010, spent $3, 000 less per person than did the U.S. The average spending on health care among the other 33 developed OECD countries was $3, 268 per person.

Despite its high rate of spending, in 2010 the U.S. had fewer physicians per person than did most other OECD countries. The U.S. had 2.4 practicing physicians per 1, 000 people—well below the OECD average of 3.1. The number of hospital beds in the U.S. was 2.6 per 1, 000 population in 2009 which was lower than the OECD average of 3.4 beds.

Life expectancy increased by almost nine years between 1960 and 2010 in the U.S. However it pales in comparison with that in Japan which gained over 15 years. Other OECD countries increased their life expectancy by more than 11 years. The average American lived 78.7 years in 2010.

On the cheerier side is the fact that the U.S. leads the world in health care research and cancer treatment. The five-year survival rate for breast cancer is higher in the U.S. than in other OECD countries and survival from colorectal cancer is also higher.

At a spending rate of 17.6% of GDP in 2010, the United States spent 1.5% more than any other country on health care—a spending rate that was nearly twice the OECD average.