4 ms·

> The UK spends far less per head on healthcare than almost any other western country, as an absolute amount and as a portion of GDP. this is false, but i keep

by kmlx 4y ago

> The UK spends far less per head on healthcare than almost any other western country, as an absolute amount and as a portion of GDP. this is false, but i keep seeing it repeated everywhere. as a portion of GDP the UK is the 4th from the top: https://www.statista.com/statistics/268826/health-expenditure-as-gdp-percentage-in-oecd-countries/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/268826/health-expenditur... per capita the UK spends more than NZ, Spain, Italy, Portugal, etc: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/154e8143-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/154e8143-en https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/154e8143-en/index.html?i...

bombolo 4y ago
How does it then manage to be lower in the quality of care than all of those then?
- gadders 4y ago
  Because it's run by the government?
  - bombolo 4y ago
    Those other countries' healthcare is also ran by the government… so cut it out with your invisible hand dreams.
    - gadders 4y ago
      Literally the first one I checked: "The healthcare system of New Zealand has undergone significant changes throughout the past several decades. From an essentially fully public system based on the Social Security Act 1938, reforms have introduced market and health insurance elements primarily since the 1980s, creating a mixed public-private system for delivering healthcare." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_New_Zealand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_New_Zealand
      - bombolo 4y ago
        I don't see what this has to do here, since the other comment was comparing to Portugal, Spain, France and the likes. In any case, usually when you start making it private it gets better for a little while, to convince people to move over, and the government to defund the public one. Then when the competition from the state is over they can start reaping the profits (like in USA).
- ta1243 4y ago
  It doesn't, although there's a large number of high income people repeating this youtube nonsense
  - bombolo 4y ago
    > It doesn't All the published comparisons disagree with this. Do you have a non-youtube source? The only place I found which said UK had a better healthcare was "investopedia"… and their criteria didn't seem to have anything to do with the health of the patients.
- kmlx 4y ago
  > How does it then manage to be lower in the quality of care than all of those then? it's not. the current issues are due to the covid backlogs and are present all over europe, including france, germany etc https://www.statista.com/statistics/888735/quality-of-accessible-healthcare-in-europe-by-country/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/888735/quality-of-access...
ta1243 4y ago
looking at 2019 - the year before covid blew everything out of the water and it's unclear how care has been apportioned, other western European countries spending more as a portion of GDP https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=SHA https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=SHA Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark all spend more (as well as the US, Canada, Japan, Austrailia) Eastern and Southern European countries have very different demographics, income levels, and from personal experience expectations -- certainly Greek healthcare is very different to what you get in countries like France, UK and US.
- kmlx 4y ago
  > looking at 2019 this is cherry picking a bit as the UK has been consistently in the top 20 countries in the world for health as a portion of GDP. and this percentage of gdp spent on health has been going up for 40 years now: https://www.statista.com/statistics/317708/healthcare-expenditure-as-a-share-of-gdp-in-the-united-kingdom/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/317708/healthcare-expend...

by kmlx 4y ago

bombolo 4y ago

How does it then manage to be lower in the quality of care than all of those then?

gadders 4y ago
Because it's run by the government?
- bombolo 4y ago
  Those other countries' healthcare is also ran by the government… so cut it out with your invisible hand dreams.
  - gadders 4y ago
    Literally the first one I checked: "The healthcare system of New Zealand has undergone significant changes throughout the past several decades. From an essentially fully public system based on the Social Security Act 1938, reforms have introduced market and health insurance elements primarily since the 1980s, creating a mixed public-private system for delivering healthcare." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_New_Zealand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_New_Zealand
    - bombolo 4y ago
      I don't see what this has to do here, since the other comment was comparing to Portugal, Spain, France and the likes. In any case, usually when you start making it private it gets better for a little while, to convince people to move over, and the government to defund the public one. Then when the competition from the state is over they can start reaping the profits (like in USA).
ta1243 4y ago
It doesn't, although there's a large number of high income people repeating this youtube nonsense
- bombolo 4y ago
  > It doesn't All the published comparisons disagree with this. Do you have a non-youtube source? The only place I found which said UK had a better healthcare was "investopedia"… and their criteria didn't seem to have anything to do with the health of the patients.
kmlx 4y ago
> How does it then manage to be lower in the quality of care than all of those then? it's not. the current issues are due to the covid backlogs and are present all over europe, including france, germany etc https://www.statista.com/statistics/888735/quality-of-accessible-healthcare-in-europe-by-country/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/888735/quality-of-access...

ta1243 4y ago

looking at 2019 - the year before covid blew everything out of the water and it's unclear how care has been apportioned, other western European countries spending more as a portion of GDP https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=SHA https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=SHA Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark all spend more (as well as the US, Canada, Japan, Austrailia) Eastern and Southern European countries have very different demographics, income levels, and from personal experience expectations -- certainly Greek healthcare is very different to what you get in countries like France, UK and US.

kmlx 4y ago
> looking at 2019 this is cherry picking a bit as the UK has been consistently in the top 20 countries in the world for health as a portion of GDP. and this percentage of gdp spent on health has been going up for 40 years now: https://www.statista.com/statistics/317708/healthcare-expenditure-as-a-share-of-gdp-in-the-united-kingdom/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/317708/healthcare-expend...