Skip to main content


How a country’s healthcare expenditure correlates with its citizens average life expectancy.

With one notable anomaly.

Source: Latinometrics using World Bank data
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

...but universal healthcare is communism!!11!!11111

Shocking.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Very interessting result. DId they discuss reasons for that? I would guess the large discrepancy between rich and poor peoples health care in US (especially considering BIPOC).
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

According to OurWorldInData, the leading causes of a lower life expectancy in the US compared to other nations include smoking, suicides, road accidents, opioid overdoses & higher rates of obesity. /2
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

it's insane to spend that amount per capita. The graph scale has been increased just to fit USA in it 😲
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I finally found Mexico, which is somehow not labelled as N America? Though I guess it's weird because it's both, since two of the categories are continents and one is a broad characterization.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

some similarities to many countries. Ours included.
Road crashes, not accidents, is a more correct term I feel.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Too much dietary fat is largely overlooked: inflammation, CVD, endothelial damage, minor strokes, T2 diabetes. It doesn't help that the scientific literature so often compared two fatty diets - meat instead of UPFoods, heck, nuts compared to pretzels in one study. So it goes largely unnoticed. Loads of potentially misleading stuff on olive oil being healhty - again - compared to other oils (not no free oils).
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I suspect the difference in suicides are are result of the insane lack of gun regulations in the US.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

do they show the math behind that claim? I once tried to derive an adjusted estimate, backing out our egregious infant mortality, car crashes, and murders (forgot to do suicides) and that didn't move it a lot. And there's plenty of smoking in other countries.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Yet America spends more per capita than any other country. It’s almost as if all that healthcare money isn’t going to provide healthcare to most Americans. I wonder where it is going. #RulingClassCriminals ? #bigpharma #healthcaremonopolies #PrivateEquityIsTheft
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I see Ukraine at the bottom. It probably has reason to be there at present.
Followed by Russia.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Yes, the #US wastes a lot of $$$ when it comes to #HealthSpending. #DrugPrices and very unequal distribution of the benefits are likely culprits.

However, #LifeExpectancy also heavily depends on your eating habits (and others).

The #MediterraneanDiet seems much more effective than assumed:

we all remember the pictures from #Bergamo in the #Pandemic of 2020. #Italy's healthcare is not great, nor is #Greece's, or the ones in the #LatinAmerica.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Wow! Just watch the U.K. as we migrate to the same system as USA
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Great data, thanks. Do you think that using disability-adjusted life expectancy would give a significantly different trend, especially for the upper right zone? Rn it kinda looks like there is a plateau around 81-82 yo (makes sense), but one may expect part of the extra expense to go into higher quality of life.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

As we say in The Netherlands:
“Het kost wel wat, maar dan heb je ook niks”
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

one of the major causes of the anomaly is that much of US ‘health spending’ goes to health insurance company profits. Actually spending on health is much lower and would bring the data point much closer to the norm.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

assuming healthcare expenditure is USD/person (the number seems to line up w the graph), is the expenditure based on how much the average individual spends on healthcare services?

Not sure if the number is based on consumption solely or includes other things.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

honestly surprising our life expectancy is as high as it is (USA)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Looking at health expenditure: Switzerland and U.S. at far right—greatest expense per capita—with Switzerland having the higher life-expectancy. If I’m reading the chart correctly.

Does a large proportion of poor, of immigrants, influence the results? The expense? Switzerland having fewer than U.S.—accounting for the more life years—at same high expense per capita?
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Or, is U.S. high cost per capita related to the Insurance Company “pass-thru” fees for care? Would government controlled providers: net better result?
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

It isn't "waste" responsible for the US being far out in right field.

No, tt is the moral equivalent of theft, again the rich stealing from the poor.

The obsession with the free market means that some businessvermin has to have the right to cheat you at each and every step of the war, and you as an individual have no leverage.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Thank you for sharing this.
I don't know about Spain, but I'm from Italy (moved to the UK, apparently life expectancy wise I made the wrong move) and IMO Italy's health care system is a disaster.
I believe that that life expectancy is due more to weather and mediterranean diet than to investments into the SSN (Servizio Sanitario Nazionale)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

#poverty. It’s the poor who are mostly suffering from #obesity and other ills that shorten life expectancy. In Latin America and southern Europe poor people may have a healthier diet, especially in rural areas, more exercise out of necessity, (hillside villages, public transportation) and a closer social network
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Oh, precious, I love how my old country ain't even there and Faroes are 🤣

#slovensko hahahahahaha
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

It seems that in #Spain we are not doing badly at all. But I fear that with the policies of privatisation of #PublicHealthCare by right-wing and far-right parties, the situation is going to get worse.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Honest question: Is this the standard measurement when comparing expenditures between countries? Wouldn’t be more accurate to show this expenditure as %GDP, instead per capita? I mean, there is a huge difference in GDP even among Latin American countries.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

The reason is we spend all our money on war to expand capitalist exploitation throughout the world rather than on our own people.

Lo, thar be cookies on this site to keep track of your login. By clicking 'okay', you are CONSENTING to this.