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With less than 5% of world population the USA has over 2.4 million of 9.8 million world prisoners! The majority of U.S. inmates are in due to the drug war.
Most Republican leaders oppose cheap universal healthcare. 45,000 uninsured Americans die each year due to lack of health insurance.
Healthcare charts. Costs. Americans pay more per person for healthcare than people in all other nations. Yet its health indicators lag behind. The USA prefers to imprison its population rather than provide universal healthcare and a safety net. This article is in the public domain. Copy/edit any of it anywhere. 
Mirrors 1. 2. Change mirror pages if problems.
*Table of Contents. After text loads, click topics below. Click TopLink, back button, or HomeKey to return here fast.

*Introduction.
*Health costs, stats, charts. By nation.
*Total taxes by nation. Plus healthcare. Charts.
*Historical healthcare and tax charts.

*More links and info.
*Harm reduction drug reform.

*Quick links to drug war charts. And more info.

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You can help: Commons: Create charts and graphs online.

Introduction. [TopLink]

For more recent info see: Canadian healthcare and Portuguese harm reduction.

The USA spends more per person for total healthcare costs (public and private) than any other nation.

Yet health statistics for the USA indicate poorer average health when compared to much of the rest of the Western world (most of which has universal healthcare). Comparative health indicator charts by nation:
Healthcare « ChartingTheEconomy.Com


"Harry and Louise"

Carla Binion wrote in 2001:

"During 1992 and much of 1993, before the propaganda blitz, both Democrats and Republicans were leaning toward a health reform bill according to James Fallows (The Atlantic, January 1995.) Fallows writes, 'Bob Dole said he was eager to work with the administration and appeared at events side by side with Hillary Clinton to endorse universal coverage. Twenty-three Republicans said that universal coverage was a given in a new bill.' By 1994, the insurance corporations' PR attacks had changed the political environment."

"Goebbels and today’s mass mind control: Part One. How PR opinion-shapers turn the people against their own interests." By Carla Binion. April 23, 2001. Online Journal. onlinejournal.com (PDF) Other copies online: mail-archive.com scribd.com angelfire.com Parts 1-3

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Health costs, stats, charts. By nation. [TopLink]

OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
*Key Health Data Projects.
*OECD Health Data 2009: Statistics and Indicators for 30 Countries.
*OECD Health Data 2009 - Frequently Requested Data. Many tables. Some with timelines going back many years. Costs, infant mortality, life expectancy, causes of death, public versus private health spending, and more.
**Download this Excel file. Use the free Microsoft Excel Viewer to view the tables. Open a downloaded Excel file by double-clicking it. At the bottom of the Excel Viewer window are tabs for each of the tables in a file.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/2/38980580.pdf - Source for first 2 charts below.
OECD publishing. Rights and Permissions. Allows websites and blogs to use excerpts of their publications with attribution and URL.


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Chart below. Expenditures. Public on the bottom, private on top:

US dollars adjusted for purchasing power parities (PPPs).

Public share of health expenditure, OECD countries, 2005. By percentage of total health expenditures.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/33/38976604.pdf - Source for chart below.

(1) 2004. (2) 1992. (3) Share of current expenditure rather than total. (4) 1991 and 2004. (5) 1990/91 and 2004/05. Source: OECD Health Data 2007.

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World Health Organization. Source for chart below. Data retrieved in July 2009 from WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS):
http://www.who.int/statistics/en - Click on "Customized search. Select indicators for all countries."
http://apps.who.int/whosis/data/Search.jsp - Under the "Indicators" tab click "Health systems resources" in the left sidebar. Then scroll down and choose "Per capita total expenditure on health at average exchange rate (US$)." Then click "Create table." To modify the table click "Modify table." Under the "Time period" tab you can choose "Show latest available data." Under the "Regions/countries" tab you can click "Select all countries" or Europe, Canada, United States. Click "Create table." Click "export (.csv)" at the top to export the data. You can click the "Chart" tab to create a bar chart or graph. Options are limited though. To put the data in table or chart/graph form on a web page or a wiki page see also:
*Commons:Chart and graph resources.
*Top 5 Websites to create your Graph/Chart online.

Location

Total health spending per capita (U.S. dollars). Public and private.

Year 
United States of America 6,714.0 2006
Luxembourg 6,610.0 2006
Monaco 6,343.0 2006
Norway 6,267.0 2006
Switzerland 5,878.0 2006
Iceland 4,962.0 2006
Denmark 4,828.0 2006
France 4,056.0 2006
Canada 3,912.0 2006
Ireland 3,888.0 2006
Sweden 3,870.0 2006
Austria 3,864.0 2006
Netherlands 3,784.0 2006
Germany 3,669.0 2006
San Marino 3,591.0 2006
Belgium 3,565.0 2006
United Kingdom 3,361.0 2006
Australia 3,316.0 2006
Finland 2,994.0 2006
Italy 2,845.0 2006
Andorra 2,815.0 2006
Qatar 2,753.0 2006
Greece 2,733.0 2006
Japan 2,690.0 2006
New Zealand 2,420.0 2006
Spain 2,263.0 2006
Portugal 1,830.0 2006
Israel 1,618.0 2006
Slovenia 1,599.0 2006
Cyprus 1,483.0 2006
Bahamas 1,311.0 2006
Malta 1,295.0 2006
Republic of Korea 1,187.0 2006
Niue 1,045.0 2006
Singapore 1,035.0 2006
United Arab Emirates 982.0 2006
Czech Republic 943.0 2006
Hungary 853.0 2006
Palau 835.0 2006
Bahrain 810.0 2006
Kuwait 796.0 2006
Barbados 785.0 2006
Croatia 722.0 2006
Slovakia 718.0 2006
Estonia 620.0 2006
Nauru 605.0 2006
Seychelles 573.0 2006
Saint Kitts and Nevis 569.0 2006
Trinidad and Tobago 568.0 2006
Poland 556.0 2006
Argentina 551.0 2006
Lithuania 545.0 2006
Brunei Darussalam 543.0 2006
Latvia 533.0 2006
Antigua and Barbuda 517.0 2006
Mexico 500.0 2006
Saudi Arabia 491.0 2006
Uruguay 476.0 2006
Chile 473.0 2006
Lebanon 468.0 2006
South Africa 456.0 2006
Cook Islands 427.0 2006
Brazil 426.0 2006
Turkey 406.0 2006
Panama 380.0 2006
Botswana 378.0 2006
Russian Federation 369.0 2006
Cuba 355.0 2006
Costa Rica 353.0 2006
Grenada 346.0 2006
Saint Lucia 339.0 2006
Venezuela 332.0 2006
Oman 325.0 2006
Romania 315.0 2006
Maldives 306.0 2006
Montenegro 306.0 2006
Marshall Islands 298.0 2006
Dominica 297.0 2006
Bulgaria 283.0 2006
Tuvalu 281.0 2006
Equatorial Guinea 274.0 2006
Gabon 267.0 2006
Micronesia (Federated States of) 266.0 2006
Bosnia and Herzegovina 258.0 2006
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 255.0 2006
Malaysia 255.0 2006
Suriname 254.0 2006
Iran (Islamic Republic of) 247.0 2006
Serbia 247.0 2006
Jordan 246.0 2006
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 245.0 2006
Belarus 244.0 2006
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 233.0 2006
Belize 229.0 2006
Dominican Republic 223.0 2006
Mauritius 223.0 2006
Colombia 217.0 2006
El Salvador 191.0 2006
Kazakhstan 189.0 2006
Jamaica 180.0 2006
Albania 174.0 2006
Namibia 167.0 2006
Ecuador 166.0 2006
Turkmenistan 161.0 2006
Tunisia 159.0 2006
Ukraine 159.0 2006
Fiji 149.0 2006
Georgia 147.0 2006
Peru 145.0 2006
Guatemala 144.0 2006
Swaziland 138.0 2006
Cape Verde 129.0 2006
Algeria 123.0 2006
Tonga 121.0 2006
Samoa 120.0 2006
Kiribati 117.0 2006
Paraguay 117.0 2006
Thailand 113.0 2006
Armenia 99.0 2006
Honduras 99.0 2006
Morocco 95.0 2006
Egypt 93.0 2006
China 90.0 2006
Azerbaijan 86.0 2006
Bolivia 79.0 2006
Nicaragua 76.0 2006
Angola 71.0 2006
Republic of Moldova 68.0 2006
Vanuatu 68.0 2006
Guyana 67.0 2006
Iraq 67.0 2006
Syrian Arab Republic 66.0 2006
Bhutan 65.0 2006
Djibouti 62.0 2006
Sri Lanka 60.0 2006
Sao Tome and Principe 58.0 2006
Mongolia 53.0 2006
Timor-Leste 52.0 2006
Cameroon 51.0 2006
Lesotho 49.0 2006
Zambia 49.0 2006
Viet Nam 46.0 2006
Philippines 45.0 2006
Congo 42.0 2006
Haiti 42.0 2006
Senegal 40.0 2006
Yemen 40.0 2006
India 39.0 2006
Sudan 38.0 2006
Zimbabwe 36.0 2006
Cote d'Ivoire 35.0 2006
Ghana 35.0 2006
Indonesia 34.0 2006
Kyrgyzstan 34.0 2006
Solomon Islands 34.0 2006
Nigeria 32.0 2006
Rwanda 32.0 2006
Cambodia 30.0 2006
Mali 30.0 2006
Uzbekistan 30.0 2006
Benin 29.0 2006
Kenya 29.0 2006
Papua New Guinea 29.0 2006
Burkina Faso 27.0 2006
Uganda 25.0 2006
Afghanistan 23.0 2006
Chad 22.0 2006
Lao People's Democratic Republic 22.0 2006
Tajikistan 21.0 2006
Guinea 20.0 2006
Malawi 20.0 2006
Mauritania 19.0 2006
Togo 19.0 2006
United Republic of Tanzania 18.0 2006
Mozambique 17.0 2006
Nepal 17.0 2006
Comoros 16.0 2006
Pakistan 16.0 2006
Central African Republic 14.0 2006
Bangladesh 13.0 2006
Gambia 13.0 2006
Guinea-Bissau 13.0 2006
Eritrea 10.0 2006
Liberia 10.0 2006
Niger 10.0 2006
Madagascar 9.0 2006
Sierra Leone 9.0 2006
Somalia 8.0 2001
Ethiopia 7.0 2006
Democratic Republic of the Congo 6.0 2006
Burundi 4.0 2006
Myanmar 4.0 2006
Democratic People's Republic of Korea 0.0 2006

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Charts. Total taxes by nation. Plus healthcare. [TopLink]

For the latest tax comparisons (by nation) see this Wikipedia page:
List of countries by tax revenue as percentage of GDP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP

Americans pay more per person for taxes and healthcare than people in many other nations. This is calculated by adding together both public and private health spending as a percentage of the GDP (the Gross Domestic Product, or total economy of a nation). Add around 5 to 7% to the U.S. tax percent to have a fair comparison to European nations. Their taxes pay for a much higher percentage of health care costs compared to the USA.

 

See Table A. Total tax revenue as percentage of GDP for total taxes for OECD nations from 1975 to 2007. The table is from Revenue Statistics 1965-2007, 2008 Edition. OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). ISBN 9789264051393 (book), ISBN 9789264051409 (ebook), and ISBN 9789264051485 (CD). Publication date: October 15, 2008.

*OECD = Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
OECD Country Taxes as Share of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Great chart:
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=307&Topic2id=95
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/Content/PDF/oecd_tax_gdp.pdf PDF file.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/Content/Excel/oecd_tax_gdp.xls Excel chart.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/Content/GIF/oecd_tax_gdp.gif

Public share of health expenditure, OECD countries, 2005. Chart. By percentage of total health expenditures.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/52/33/38976604.pdf 

OECD Health Data 2007. How Does the United States Compare. Charts:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/46/2/38980580.pdf - Source for quote below:

OECD Health Data 2007:

"The public sector is the main source of health funding in all OECD countries, except for the United States, Mexico and Greece. In the United States, only 45.1% of health spending is funded by government revenues, well below the average of 72.5% in OECD countries. The public share of total health spending remains the lowest among OECD countries, after Greece."


---------------------------------------------
 

Historical healthcare and tax charts. [TopLink]


To find sources for current and historical data and tables see the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and WHO (World Health Organization) info higher up on the page. See also:
Snapshots: Health Care Spending in the United States and OECD Countries - Kaiser Family Foundation.

[TopLink]

1990 Healthcare Expenditures Worldwide.
 Per Capita, and percentage of GDP.
Total of both public and private-sector expenditures.
The USA is one of the few Western nations that spend
more than 10% of its GDP on total healthcare costs.

Legend for Chart:
A - Country [all except US have universal healthcare].
B - Per Capita Expenditures [1990 dollars].
C - As a Percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) .
Total 1990 Healthcare Expenditures.
A.

Nation


United States
Canada
France
Sweden
Germany
Switzerland
Italy
Norway
Japan
United Kingdom		 B

Per Capita.
(Dollars)

2,566
1,770
1,532
1,451
1,486
1,633
1,236
1,184
1,171
   972		 C

Percent GDP


12.1
9.3
8.8
8.6
8.1
7.7
7.7
7.4
6.5
6.2

SOURCE: Schieber, G.J., Poullier, J.-P., and Greenwald, L.:
U.S. Health Expenditure Performance: An International
Comparison and Data Update. Health Care Financing
Review 13(4): 1-88, Summer 1992.
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/universal.htm mirror page.
https://corporatism.tripod.com/universal.htm mirror page.

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[TopLink]

Total taxes as a percent of GDP in Western nations (nations with long democratic traditions), and in some industrialized Asian nations. Chart below shows how U.S. healthcare costs effect U.S. total taxes, and U.S. rank among Western and/or industrialized nations.

Chart below is from "Taxes around the world" by Lowell Gallawayin the July 1996 issue of World and I:
"Each percentage represents tax receipts as a proportion of a nation's gross domestic product [GDP] in 1993 -- or 1992 in the cases of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand."

Total Taxes as a percent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
In 1993. # designates 1992 GDP numbers.
49.9
49.9
48.0
47.8
45.7
45.7
45.7
44.6
43.9
43.6
41.2
39.0
37-38*
36.3
35.8
35.7
35.1
33.6
33.2
31.4
31.3
30.1
29.7
29.1
28.7
28.3
25.1
23.5
19.7
18.2
18.1		 Denmark
Sweden
Netherlands
Italy
Norway
Belgium
Finland
Luxembourg
France
Austria
Greece
Germany
United States
Ireland
Canada
NewZealand
Spain
Britain
Switzerland
Portugal
Iceland
Malaysia
United States
Japan
Australia
Singapore
Taiwan
Turkey
Indonesia
SouthKorea
Thailand




















#



#
#

#
#
#
* To be fair, the USA should actually rank around here, since 75% to 100% of healthcare costs in most other western nations are paid for by their taxes. It is 37-38 percent if one adds 7 to 8 percent for private-sector US healthcare costs.
# "Taxes around the world" by Lowell Gallawayin the July 1996 issue of World and I: "The following list of nations comprises the 24 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and several of the Asian 'tigers' and 'tiger cubs' [Asian tigers and tiger cubs marked with a pound symbol #], the economically booming countries of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim. ..."
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/universal.htm mirror page.
https://corporatism.tripod.com/universal.htm mirror page.

The United States GDP was $6.738 trillion in 1994 (C-SPAN, 12-25-1995). 14% of the 1994 U.S. GDP was 943 billion dollars. That's approaching a trillion dollars! According to the February 1995 issue of HR (Human Resource) Magazine many other Western nations pay over 75% of their nation's total healthcare costs through taxes. "... new study by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ... The study asserts that a country's political will to curb spending seems to be the most important factor in controlling costs. ... Of the 17 nations in the study, the national governments of 15 pay for at least 75 percent of their countries' health-care expenditures--the United States and Turkey were the exceptions."

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More links and info. [TopLink]

"The U.S. lags behind most industrialized nations in virtually all significant public health measures, including life expectancy, infant mortality, and vaccine coverage"
--EXTRA! Jan/Feb 1996.

Lower all the other taxes, but keep those for universal healthcare! The ironic thing is that universal healthcare costs less, and gets better national health statistics. Yes! Giving a damn costs less!

The 2009 Statistical Abstract: Health & Nutrition. PDFs and Excel files. Much info from the United States Census Bureau: "This section presents statistics on health expenditures and insurance coverage, including Medicare and Medicaid, medical personnel, hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities, injuries, diseases, disability status, nutritional intake of the population, and food consumption." Use the free Microsoft Excel Viewer to view the Excel tables. Open a downloaded Excel file by double-clicking it. At the bottom of the Excel Viewer window are tabs for each of the tables in a file.

International Data Base. At the United States Census Bureau. Country Rankings. Largest countries for any year, 1950 to 2050. World Population Information. Global population trends, links to historical population estimates, population clocks, and estimates of population, births, and deaths occurring each year, day, hour, or second. Birth, death, and growth rates, migration rates, infant mortality, and life expectancy. Fertility rates. Total population and population by age and sex. Find tabular data for countries and regions as well as demographic indicators, population pyramids and source information for countries. International Data Base FAQ.

FASTSTATS - U.S. Health Expenditures. National Center for Health Statistics. (from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Health expenditures broken down in various ways.

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Harm reduction drug reform. [TopLink]

Universal healthcare is one reason why the drug war is being rolled back in Europe. Much of Europe has a harm reduction attitude to drugs. Harm reduction works best if there is universal healthcare:
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/universal.htm

Portugal decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs in 2001.

For more info on Harm Reduction drug policies worldwide:

*World drug reform. Power links. International. Saner cannabis and drug policies worldwide. Harm reduction examples. Universal healthcare is available in many of these nations that use a public health and harm reduction approach to drugs. Compilation of many world press articles. In chronological order.
https://corporatism.tripod.com/power.htm and
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/power.htm

*Tobacco Harm Reduction. Versus Tobacco Prohibition. Eliminate the hundreds of synthetic additives in tobacco in order to save hundreds of thousands of lives a year in the USA, and millions yearly worldwide. Use vaporizers to eliminate smoke. Charts for leading causes of death.
https://corporatism.tripod.com/tobacco.htm and
https://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/tobacco.htm

The "war on drugs" is very harmful and unhealthy. Drug war harms people, their health, their neighborhoods, and their freedom. So reform and/or end the drug war.

It seems that the most dangerous side effect of drugs is that drugs make drug warriors insane. A public-health, harm reduction approach to drugs is better than public hysteria.

Drug warriors need to be locked up as a health measure because they are a menace to themselves and society.

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Quick links to drug war charts. And more info. [TopLink]