Stats like these are useless. You need to look into the living conditions, education, earnings, etc, of the population that is losing these babies. I can see a scenario where most of the deaths are coming from mothers who put their babies at risk during pregnancy. My guess is the healthcare dollars are not coming from them. BTW, comparing overall healthcare costs to a maternity healthcare population is bogus.
America spends about twice as much on health care as other rich countries but has the highest infant
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That's what the American Pharmaceutical industry would have us believe. How much does the U.S. Pharmaceutical industry spend on developing new drugs compared to what they spend on advertising? How does that compare with Big Pharma in other developed countries -- Roche, Sanofi, Daiichi Sankyo, Takeda, Astellas, Otsuka, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novo Nordisk, Astra Zeneca, Teva, Allergan, Actavis, etc. etc. etc. Let's not allow ourselves to be suckered.
Perhaps, so long as you are not one of the millions uninsured and who don't qualify for either Medicaid or Medicare! But I'm not convinced you'd not be better off, regardless, in almost any other developed country for the vast majority of medical conditions. I live in the U.S.. I have friends, U.S. citizens, that are well off. They fly to Ecuador for non-emergency medical care. I had a wonderful experience with the National healthcare system in Brazil. Saw a specialist directly, wait time 15 minutes, and a tiny fraction of the cost of the same treatment in the U.S. Did not have to go through a G.P. gatekeeper to get an appointment, and no making an appointment weeks or months in advance to see a specialist, as is far too common in the U.S..
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I do not go through a GP and I do not wait weeks or months for a specialist. I don't know where you get your info.
I agree costs here are higher than they need be, but I would not want healthcare anywhere in the world but here.
At $2.1 Million, New Gene Therapy Is The Most Expensive Drug Ever
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...-gene-therapy-is-the-most-expensive-drug-ever
https://www.npr.org/sections/health...-gene-therapy-is-the-most-expensive-drug-ever
I agree, no system is perfect. But Germans and Japanese by large majority don't travel abroad to have surgical procedures done (I mean almost none does that). British travel frequently to have medical procedures done in Spain or Holland or France. So do quite a number of Kiwis and Aussies travel for medical stuff. And sure, if you pay enough in America you can get anything. It's all a matter of money there.
I think those differences speak volumes about the quality and affordability of health care in those countries.
I think those differences speak volumes about the quality and affordability of health care in those countries.
Do you think middle class/income families can afford a 200k surgical procedure in the US? What is the percentage of middle class families that would be fully covered by insurance? Any estimates?
Perhaps you don't know "anywhere in the world"? It's like saying "I don't eat anything but my mashed potatoes with gravy and steak". As long as you are happy why not, but that does not preclude from the fact that there are numerous other equally or more delicious dishes you would like but don't know about. In any case it's not beneficial to discuss large issues like this on the basis of individual empirical evidence. I had the worst dental procedure (root canal) ever done in my life in the US from a reputable leading dentist who was professor at the dental school of my college back then (should have known better and gone to an outside dental clinic). But that experience has zero bearing on the overall quality of health care in the US. I am sure if one pays top dollars one gets top treatment in US. But otherwise I am pretty sure that treatment quality wise, it gets more difficult to compare countries on the basis of individual experiences.
