[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What statistical measures?
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, the UN ranked US health care 37th overall.
Link
[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the link.
OMG, my socialist facist communist country is on 11th place. But that must be wrong, it can't be above the US. After all, we all know that socialised health care makes it ineffective and much worse compared to the free market which solves everything.
[/ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
prop·a·gan·da (prŏp'ə-gān'd&#601
Pronunciation Key
n.
1. The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause.
[/ QUOTE ]
If you read the summary linked you would (should) be struck by several things.
1. Fairness of financial contribution.
2. Distribution of health in the populations.
Neither of these things measures health care quality, they measure the size of redistribution schemes essentially. They simply give free points to more socialized systems when compared to less socialized systems. This is what is called call bias.
On the fairness of financial contribution section the number 1 ranking goes to Columbia. Why?
[ QUOTE ]
Colombia achieved top rank because someone with a low income might pay the equivalent of one dollar per year for health care, while a high- income individual pays 7.6 dollars.
[/ QUOTE ]
Not a mention of quality or availability.
From the distribution of health in populations
[ QUOTE ]
It is not sufficient to protect or improve the average health of the population, if - at the same time - inequality worsens or remains high because the gain accrues disproportionately to those already enjoying better health.
[/ QUOTE ]
So for example- in country A life expectancy of the upper class increase by 5% over X years and life expectancy of the lower class increased by 3% over that same period.
In country B life expectancy of the upper class increased by 2% and life expectancy of the lower class increased by 2% this report would rate country 2 higher in this section. Who the [censored] would choose to live in country B?
Overall level of health
This is a SECONDARY characteristic. Different countries have different food, drug, exercise and genetic backgrounds. These things contribute to how much health care a country will consume and will skew final results when trying to compare those systems.
Responsiveness
This is the closest thing to a quality of health care measurement. Its still an indirect measurement since access to a guy with leaches and prayer in one day would rate higher than access to a guy with a sterilized hospital room, 8 years of medical school and residency, a couple of nurses and the latest technology in a week.