LyrArc Article Gist
U.S. healthcare spending of about $3 trillion comes with poor results. The cost per person is about three times that of countries such as France, Britain, yet the results show U.S. doing extremely poorly. The author points out that less spending on healthcare and more on social services in areas such as education, nutrition, housing and other services would improve the outcomes and results. It is this missing factor that is helping other countries in Europe, Japan and China achieve better outcomes and returns per dollar spent. 

Social spending can affect such things as nutrition, exercize levels, lifestyles, housing and result in dramatic improvements in obesity levels for instance, or inflammation levels in the population that play a role in many diseases. The idea is prevention.

This is not happening because higher health dollar spending has lobbies to support it. Social spending also is a dollar expense that shows up immediately whereas results are spread out into the future as a longer term benefit with healthier populations that need to consume less healthcare and treatment.

Elizabeth Bradley, president of Vassar College is an expert on this subject. She says social services spending gives more bang for buck  in health outcomes. 

The point is relevant also for countries in South Asia and Africa that have taken some on some aspects of the U.S. health system resulting in health care spending that does not deliver the most for the dollar spent, and ignores the critical role of prevention. 

The solution lies in moving these health care dollars out of the health care spending and into education for health outcomes, lifestyles, exercize habits education, and into social services that enable prevention and better health.