Healthcare Costs and Longevity

2GreenEnergy supporter Gary Tulie in Buckinghamshire, England sent me this report on the relationship between healthcare spending and life expectancy among countries in the developed world. He writes:

Hi Craig,

I thought you would find this interesting.

Many Americans are horrified at the idea of “socialised medicine” but look at the results. Pretty much all the countries on the list have some form of universal healthcare paid for either by taxes or by compulsory universal insurance cover with average costs around half those in the U.S. and average life expectancies nearly 5 years longer!

Yes, there is no doubt that we have both higher healthcare costs and worse outcomes than the rest of the wealthiest nations.  I’m sure there are dozens if not hundreds of groups trying to understand the correlation here.

In addition to the horrible fact that we have people dying of treatable diseases because they can’t afford healthcare, I would bet it’s a function of deregulated corporations’ impact on our lives, in terms of food/nutrition, toxic waste, etc.

It all comes down to something that permeates our lives here: we care very little about the wellbeing of others.

Ask yourself how well Donald Trump would fare if he were running to become Prime Minister of England (or the president of France).   He’d be a laugh.