Thursday, September 3, 2015

Busting Irish Myths: # 5: Medical Care

This is the 5th in a series entitled Busting Irish Myths. After returning from Ireland and discussing my visits with Americans who have never traveled abroad, I discovered a number of misconceptions, from believing all Irish lived in white cottages with no electricity (the equivalent of the Irish believing we all lived in log cabins) to believing it rains there all day, every day. Check out the list of blogs on the right side of your screen to find the others in this series.

One question I've been asked repeatedly is whether the Irish have a sufficient medical infrastructure. For that, I went to the World Health Organization. Their mission is to track medical care throughout the world in a variety of areas, from HIV/AIDS to world hunger to diseases and to health issues caused by lifestyle. They are also working to improve health conditions around the world.

In the first-ever study of health worldwide that ranks the countries by their level of health care, Ireland ranks # 19. The United States ranks # 37. Each of the links below goes to a Wikipedia page detailing that country's health care. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, which ranks # 18.

In the Per Capita Expenditure, this ranks how much health care costs on a per-person basis. The United States is Number 1, meaning we spend more money on health care per person than anyone else in the world. Ireland ranks 25 and the United Kingdom ranks 26.

In 2010, Ireland spent an average of 2,862 Euro per person, compared to $8,608 in the United States. The biggest difference is that Ireland's public health system paid for approximately 79% of health care while the United States spent roughly 65% from public programs that include Medicare and Medicaid.

The life expectancy in the United States and Ireland are tied at 78 years.



Ranking
Country
Per Capita Expenditure
1
4
2
11
3
21
4
23
5
37
6
38
7
29
8
62
9
6
10
13
11
16
12
27
13
12
14
30
15
14
16
5
17
9
18
26
19
25
20
2
21
15
22
49
23
7
24
39
25
3
26
63
27
35
28
19
29
99
30
10
31
18
32
17
33
44
34
8
35
70
36
50
37
1
38
29
39
118
40
32
41
20
42
48
43
56
44
27
45
41
46
36
47
64
48
40
49
93
50
58
51
92
52
79
53
89
54
68
55
149
56
52
57
91
58
31
59
143
60
124
61
55
62
45
63
115
64
112
65
33
66
59
67
65
68
86
69
88
70
82
71
104
72
74
73
71
74
15
75
90
76
138
77
60
78
130
79
111
80
134
81
114
82
47
83
98
84
69
85
67
86
43
87
84
88
144
89
106
90
105
91
46
92
154
93
94
94
22
95
53
96
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Flag_of_Fiji.svg/23px-Flag_of_Fiji.svg.png Fiji
87
97
171
98
42
99
107
100
51
101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Flag_of_Niue.svg/23px-Flag_of_Niue.svg.png Niue

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cf/Flag_of_Peru.svg/23px-Flag_of_Peru.svg.png Peru

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Flag_of_Togo.svg/23px-Flag_of_Togo.svg.png Togo

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Flag_of_Chad.svg/23px-Flag_of_Chad.svg.png Chad

179

180

181

182

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190