Subject: Re: OT: Highest Life Expectancy Countries
https://www.visualcapitalist.c...

Now do countries without single-payer health insurance. I went into the World Databank on healthcare as percentage of GDP for the countries in that visualization and simplistically, they pay mostly between 7-12% of (mostly, considerably smaller GDP/capita) for much better outcomes than the US at 16.5% of GDP, which is no surprise. I am curious how Qatar and Monaco get on there at 2.2 and 3.4% respectively but maybe it's because they have very *high* GDP/capita? (collected data at end).

BTW after my first 6 weeks in Portugal and a few encounters with the private medical system to check on an eye problem, I'm pretty happy with how that's going. They definitely lack the frills of US hospitals - pretty carpets, nice paintings, plants, restful colors - but the actual quality of care feels very high and the doctors and nurses, very approachable. And the prices - full fare for someone with no applicable PT health insurance, yet - are cheaper than the after-insurance copays at Kaiser Permanente for similar appointments and tests. KP does have a nice integrated electronic records system going for it which is not to sneeze at, and waiting times are somewhat less, but that's all I can count in its favor thus far.

As an amusing side note when getting the second and third round of eye dilation drops before my tests, the PA just came out into the hallway and gave it to me in the waiting area with other people sitting on either side.

-- Healthcare as % of GDP for countries in visualization + US, in decreasing percentage --

United States 16.5
France 11.9
Switzerland 11.7
Japan 11.4
Canada 11.2
Sweden 10.9
Portugal 10
South Korea 9.9
Australia 9.9
Spain 9.7
Malta 9.5
Iceland 9
Italy 8.5
Norway 8
Andorra 7.9
San Marino 7.4
Israel 7.3
Ireland 6.1
Luxembourg 5.8
Hong Kong 5.4 (proxy data for China used which is probably wildly inapplicable to HK)
Singapore 4.9
UAE 4.7
Monaco 3.4
Qatar 2.2
Vatican City no data
Liechtenstein no data