Health care costs is a somewhat ambiguous concept, but an insurance company that needs to pay for treatments all around the world needs to reduce it to a concrete index. That's what French HMOs MGEN and LMDE have done with this map. It shows how much the company needs to be prepared to pay out to treat one of its patients if they need treatment abroad:
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/1073878/mfNGx9n.0.jpg)
(MGEN & LMDE via SwarlDelae)
You can see here that poorer countries are broadly cheaper than richer ones, which makes sense because labor input costs are lower. But you also see that the United States is off-the-charts expensive compared to places like Canada, Germany, Sweden, Korea, or the Netherlands. Americans are simply paying very high prices for health care compared to what residents of other rich countries pay. These charts break it down in more detail, and they'll make your blood boil.
WATCH: '11 facts on American healthcare dysfunction'
