How do health care costs as a percentage of GDP relate to life expectancy and the infant death rate in the United States? How are these numbers similar to or different from Japan, another advanced democracy?
What accounts for these similarities or differences?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer:
An ideal response will:
1. Explain that the United States spends 15.3 percent of its GDP on health care, 4 percent more than the next country, which is Switzerland at 11.3 percent. But even with this spending, the United States has the second-lowest life expectancy among advanced democracies discussed in the text, and the second-highest infant mortality rate.
2. Explain that the United States spends almost twice as much as Japan on health care, but U.S. life expectancy is 4 years shorter than Japan's, and the United States has over 2 times the infant mortality rate.
3. Discuss that many of the leading causes of death today are linked to heredity, personal habits, and lifestyles (smoking, eating, drinking, exercise, stress), and the physical environment. Doctors and hospitals have no direct control over such factors. Some therefore argue that changing personal habits and lifestyles, rather than increasing medical care, is the best way to promote health.
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