ಥ_ಥ at that first picture.

By the way, the second link is broken.

fixed

Apparently my first comment applies to both pictures. Korea is outdoing us.

South Korea, mind you.

Well, NC *could*, since we don't have any useful data on them, but somehow I doubt such a thing from a country where the dictator orders the people to defecate in the street.

the 2nd one is really confusing. I don't know what left-to-right represents. (e.g. why US line starts high than goes down)

Should be pretty self-explanatory. We spend way more than anyone else on medical treatment per year and per capita than any other country, but have lower than average life expectancy. It maps average cost (left) vs average life expectancy (right), so positive slopes are better (low cost, but high life expectancy). Our huge negative slope means we spend a ton but still have poor overall health compared to other countries. The line thickness represents how many doctor visits a year the average person has. Thicker (more) is generally better. In the US its pretty close to 1 or 0 on average, probably because heaolthcare here is so unaffordable.

ah I get it now.
also is more doctor visits better? It means those peoples are more high maintenance.
two questions just to clarify

1. "health care spending per person" counts even the costs that your insurance covers, right?

2. The cost on the left, is the average lifetime cost for person?

cost on left is average *yearly* cost per person. It includes all costs, insured, uninsured, and state/federal/public costs.

More is generally better, because people who go in more often are more likely to catch and fix a problem before it becomes serious. We have a serious problem in the U.S., where people die of treatable diseases because the cost is too high, or because we didn't catch it soon enough because we can't afford diagnosis.

in Japan if they spend 2600 a year, and go in 12 times a year on average, it means the average visit costs only $200. Most visits are simple checkups, and preventative medicine, with virtually no cost, off-setting the higher cost visits.

In the U.S., if we go in less than once a year, the average visit costs $10,000. There is little to no preventative medicine because costs are too high for most people to afford, and as a result, more serious complications happen further down the line, costing us even more.

I have a friend whose mother very likely has a treatable, curable form of cancer... but they can't afford to go in and get it diagnosed and treated. Instead, they just wait, and hope for the best... bottom line is, the high cost of medical treatment in this country is dooming working-class people like her to a slow and painful death, because they just don't have the means to pay what the system here demands of them.

ok
thanks