Thursday, August 13, 2009

How does the NHS compare to US healthcare?

As Barack Obama fights to change the system, we asked - when it comes to treatment - is US healthcare any worse than the NHS? See how they compare to other countries, too

US healthcare protestThe NHS has become the butt of increasingly outlandish political attacks in the US as Republicans and conservative campaigners rail against Britain's "socialist" system as part of a tussle to defeat Barack Obama's proposals for broader government involvement in healthcare.

But how does the US compare? We've looked at some key indicators on healthcare, from countries in the G8 - plus Cuba and China, thanks to the World Health Organisation.

Take a look and let us know what you can do with them.

DATA: download the full data on healthcare as a spreadsheet

How the NHS compares

Country
Per capita spending on health ($)
Doctors per 10,000 pop
Nurses and midwives per 10,000 pop
Hospital beds per 10,000 pop
Life expect. at birth
United States 6719 26 94 31 78
United Kingdom 2815 23 128 39 80
Russian Federation 698 43 85 97 66
Japan 2581 21 95 140 83
Italy 2631 37 72 39 82
Germany 3465 34 80 83 80
France 3420 34 80 73 81
Cuba 674 59 74 49 78
China 216 14 10 22 74
Canada 3673 19 101 34

No comments: