Healthcare Education and Q&A Thread

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by djnemo65

Here's a pretty detailed analysis of the WHO's most recent survey (from a few years ago, which ranked us 37th). PR-2000-43/ WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION : ASSESSES THE WORLD'S HEALTH SYSTEMS Looking online it seems like a lot of people have criticized the methodology of this particular ranking, so I'd be interested to hear your take.

Your first observation makes sense but I can't find any information online suggesting that the US has a high cost of living relative to other industrialized nations. Are you sure about this? Speaking anecdotally, it has been my experience from traveling that the cost of living - or at least the cost of things I buy like food and beer - is way higher in other industrialized countries than the US, and I am including Japan, Germany, France, England, Spain, and the Netherlands on this list. Speaking from experience I can tell you that Japan is significantly higher than the US pretty much anyway you measure it. Most information online ranks cities instead of countries (usually putting NYC around 20th in the world) but here's one I found ranking countries across several categories, with the US being pretty average in every category Cost of Living Index By Country

So anyway, while cost of living might explain how Colombia ranks higher than us, unless I'm missing something I really don't think it's true that the US has a high cost of living relative to the EU and the most developed Asian countries.

I'll take a close look at that survey and weigh in.

On cost of living, the question really is what to doctors and nurses get paid in those other countries. I am under the impression it's less, though admittedly I'm not certain; I know a lot more about our healthcare system than I do that of other nations.