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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

See Yonder Star

Monique Magee sent me a “Chart of the Day” produced by Goldman Sachs’ Alec Phillips illustrating how far apart and above every developed country the United States ranks in expenditures on health care. Mr. Phillips used OECD data (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development). His chart was a little murky for me although the pattern is clear enough (link). To make things clearer for myself, I found the OECD data on Wikipedia (link)—where the actual numbers and names of all countries are readily accessible. Below is my version. It charts health care as a percent of each country’s GDP against health care expenditures per capita, all in dollars with equivalent purchasing power.



I am showing the names of some of the countries. All may be seen using the Wiki link I provide above.

Staring at this chart, the feeling came that I was looking up at the sky. Lots of bright stars visible—but one of them is higher and brighter, as it were, than all the rest. 

1 comment:

  1. Well, no wonder we have so much better health care outcomes than those other countries.

    Oh, that's right. We don't.

    ReplyDelete