Does higher health care spending lead to longer life expectancy? Well, if you ever asked yourself this question, here’s a very good answer from the UC Atlas of Global Inequality.
At the end of the day, it is obviously not only about the amount of money that you spend in healthcare, but about how you use it. This would be one ratio (among many others) to evaluate efficiency in our healthcare systems. According to this chart, the U.S. is not very efficient in allocating the money where it can impact life expectancy, whereas Europe, for instance, we tend to do better.
When I first saw this graph, it immediately triggered a reaction. It made me think we would get a very similar chart when comparing money invested in innovation and innovation output. Of course, the money is important to foster innovation in healthcare, but the policies associated with the investments are a lot more important.
At the end of the day, it is obviously not only about the amount of money that you spend in healthcare, but about how you use it. This would be one ratio (among many others) to evaluate efficiency in our healthcare systems. According to this chart, the U.S. is not very efficient in allocating the money where it can impact life expectancy, whereas Europe, for instance, we tend to do better.
When I first saw this graph, it immediately triggered a reaction. It made me think we would get a very similar chart when comparing money invested in innovation and innovation output. Of course, the money is important to foster innovation in healthcare, but the policies associated with the investments are a lot more important.
Money won’t solve the problem. I know this is obvious, but obvious as it is, sometimes we forget about it.
1 comments:
Your interpretation of the graph is based in a premise: that better health-care services produce higher life expectancy...
But nobody has proved that.
Life expectancy seems to be more related with environmental factors and equality in wealth distribution.
Someone argued that the ratio doctor/inhabitants is related with health. But it ignores that most doctors prefer to live in areas where the mean incomes are better, the quality of the environment higher and in general the quality of life is much better.There are more doctor from Sudan in UK than in Sudan (for example)
Doctors and medicine have no so much impact in health as we use to think... Reading "Medical nemesis" you understand that point.
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