Recently, the lunatic fringe began demonizing the National Health Service of Britain, and in response world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease spoke out against this madness. Paul Krugman took up the matter in the New York Times, and I thought that I would take a raw look at the benefits of the NHS. These statistics arm those of fighting for health care reform with more FACTS to fight against the tales from the darkside.
From the World Health Organization via Raw Story:
Health spending as a share of GDP
US 16%
UK 8.4%
Public spending on healthcare (% of total spending on healthcare)
US 45%
UK 82%
Health spending per head
US $7,290
UK $2,992
Practicing physicians (per 1,000 people)
US 2.4
UK 2.5
Nurses (per 1,000 people)
US 10.6
UK 10.0
Acute care hospital beds (per 1,000 people)
US 2.7
UK 2.6
Life expectancy:
US 78
UK 80
Infant mortality (per 1,000 live births)
US 6.7
UK 4.8
So let me get this straight. The U.K. spends half as much on health care, has more doctors, has a longer life expectancy, and has a lower infant mortality rate. Universal health care has certainly served them well.
Sign me up!
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