Bush's 4th veto of his presidency is a good one

[Bedreviter]

Its true that US spend more on health care than other countries. The comparison of how many dollars spent however is irrelevant as countries like Cuba, Malta and Singapore are countries where health care-workers (and all other workers) are far lower than in the US. The percentage of GDP spent on health care or money spent per capita adjusted for the average income in the countries are more relevant.

Its also important to look at what you get back. If people die when they are 76 or when they are 79 isnt the only way to look at it. Its also about the quality and expertise that the money buys.

If you are poor you you probably want the Norwegian health care system, where everything is free (except a 300$max annual expenditure). But the US have some advatages that you will not find elsewhere, the wait lines in Norway can be really long, there are people who wait for 1-2 years to get a simple knee-operation, and in the meantime they have to deal with the pain and complications. With a good health care plan you are secured much speedier help in the US, where all the money spent has created a much higher number of available hospital beds and equipment than most countries that it would be natural to compare with.

The US also spends money on advanced medicine, expensive treatment and equipment that other countries are less willing to invest in. While Norway has a health care system that makes Michael Moore drool there are no instances where a patient in the US needs to be sent to norway for treatment. On the other hand there are several times that Norway has needed to fly patients to the US because there is expertise and equipment there that isnt available in Europe.

I had a small medical issue taken care of this summer when I was back in Norway, and the process of getting it done and the wait for an available spot was redicolously long. If I had been covered by an American health care-insurance I wouldnt have been surprised if the matter would have been sorted out in one day.