2:1 Bodes Healthier Future

A recent study uncovered ''an important pattern":

the United States spends, as a percentage of GDP, about half of what some of the other industrialized counties spend on social

services (such as housing, employ-ment training, unemployment benefits, old-age assistance, and family support services). The ratio of social-service spending to health-care spending in the United States is less than 1:1, while the average among other OECD countries is 2:1. Across the board, OECD countries, including the United States, spend about a third of their GDP on combined health and social services. But the United States has inverted the standard allocation pattern.

The result is startling and bleak: "in every OECD country that increased its spending on health, that increase was associated with significantly worse health outcomes." The study warrants wise spending, not only slashing spending.

Read the summary of the study by Elizabeth H. Bradley and Lauren Taylor of the of the Yale Global Health Leadership Institute.

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Wiki-image of a detail of the Tiffany Education window, which Ragesoss released into the public domain.