One health care chart to rule them all

Life expectancy on the vertical axis vs. inflation-adjusted health expenditures on the horizontal axis, over a forty-year time period, in 24 countries.

There are of course a huge number of factors that influence longevity other than health-care expenditures (genetics, lifestyle, diet), and longevity is not a priori the best measure of quality of life.  And one can probably quibble over methodology.  But anyone who has personally experienced the U.S. health-care system will have a gut feeling that the data shown are what one would expect.

Note: "Over the period shown in the chart above violence and homicides have fallen in the US more than in other rich countries and this should have led to a narrowing of the difference to other countries and not to the increase that we see."

Lots more charts at the OurWorldinData website.

Via BoingBoing.