Getting rich on health care...

We know how dysfunctional the American health care system is. If we needed to sum it all up and compare it with the rest of the civilized world, we could just take the information recently published in the Economist tables. Just read on...

• According to the magazine, the US spends 15.4% of GDP on health care, including government and private expenses. This gets us 2.6 doctors per 1,000 people, 3.3 hospital beds and we live to an average age of 78.2

• The UK spends 8.1% of GDP, gets 2.3 doctors, 4.2 hospital beds and live to an average age of 79.4. So for roughly half the cost their citizens overall get about the same benefits.

• Canada spends 9.8% of GDP, gets 2.1 doctors, 3.6 hospital beds and all live until they are 80.6 yrs

Continental Europe does even better:

• France spends 10.5%, gets 3.4 docs, 7.5 beds and all live to 80.6

• Spain spends 8.1% , gets 3.3 docs , 3.8 beds and all live to 81

• As a whole Europe spends 9.6% of GDP on health care, has 3.9 doctors per 1,000 people, 6.6 hospital beds and its citizens live to 81.15 years old.

Now, don't tell me that US doctors, hospitals, drug and insurance companies aren't lining up their pockets!