Member-only story
It Is Time To Destroy Our Health Care Systems
Why more of the same will lead to even worse outcomes
Spending on so-called “health care” services across the OECD varies significantly, with the USA spending nearly 18% of GDP while Hungary spends around 7% of its much smaller GDP. France spends a little over 12% of its GDP on health care services and Sweden spends approximately 11% of its GDP. Outcomes do not correlate to sums spent, however. The USA ranks in the bottom half of the OECD when it comes to the health of its population despite spending nearly twice the percentage the Swedish spend to get far superior outcomes. The British maintain a delusion about their National Health Service, imagining it to be “the best in the world” when in reality its performance is mediocre despite a slightly larger percentage of GDP being spent on the NHS than most of its European neighbors.
But regardless of variations in spending and in outcomes, one trend is clear across the entire OECD: as populations age, a shrinking pool of working-age people is being required to pay higher taxes in order to support a swelling ocean of retired people. This is a non-sustainable approach. Worse still, treatment costs keep increasing so the percentages of GDP being spent keep going up even as the ability to pay for these costs from tax revenues is declining.
