While certainly facing financing issues of their own, why is it then that countries like France are able to provide much more comprehensive care at half the cost of what we in the states pay for mediocre care? The United States spends about twice as much as France on health care. In 2005, U.S. spending came to $6,400 per person. In France, it was $3,300. Moreover, the French live longer and healthier lives than those in the states. Whatever we are spending our money on obviously isn’t doing much good. It’s true that Americans don’t pay as much in taxes (actually not that much less) but ultimately they end up paying more for health care when one adds in the costs of buying insurance and the higher out-of-pocket expenses for medicine, doctors and hospitals and the illness that results as a result of a non-focus on preventive care. I’m not an economist but something seems very wrong with the way we are doing things and to defend the status quo is an exercise in ignorance (or a deviant political agenda).
