Is this for REAL?
The latest Health Facts statistics for Singapore are out.
At the MOH website they have listed that the total government health expenditure as % of GDP was 1.2% for 2003 and it dropped to 0.9% for 2004. Figures for 2005 were unavailable.
Government Health Expenditure
I was just curious to know how Singapore ranks among other countries going by this statistic.
I found this site which displayed data from WHO in a 2002 survey : International government expenditure on health care as % of GDP
The results were rather surprising to me!
There's not much surprise that USA is at the top with 14.6%. Australia and Canada spent about 9.5% of their GDP on health care. The UK was ranked #48 and spent 7.7% of their GDP on health care.
So where was Singapore?
Singapore ranked an impressive #149 out of 186 countries! But WHO listed Singapore's GDP expenditure as 4.3% and NOT 0.9% or 1.2%!
Well these were 2002 figures from WHO.
Iraq's expenditure on health care was ranked the lowest at 1.5%. I suppose you don't spend very much on health care when all you are doing is killing most of the people!
But something has to be wrong here. Singapore's spending of 0.9% would make it the lowest spending country in the entire world! Is this for real?
I have always wondered how Singapore can spend so little on health care and yet have a relatively efficient, competent health care system. My suspicion is that the statistics are fake, or that the health care workers are actually severely underpaid for the good work that they are doing.
posted by Dr Oz bloke @ 3:46 AM
4 Comments:
The discrepancy I believe comes from the fact that the 4.3% refers to the total national expenditure as percentage of GDP, whereas the 1.2% refers to the total governmental expenditure as percentage of GDP.
This means that the government spends about 1.2 billion dollars per year on healthcare, and the 3.1 billion are 'private' expenditure.
We discussed this on my post earlier this year:
http://angrydr.blogspot.com/2006/02/free-at-point-of-delivery-2.html
So in other words the government pays pittance for the health care system we have.
Damn good deal man.
Singapore health care workers should be head hunted all over the world then!
We spent 9.5% of GDP on healthcare and yet our healthcare system is still in jeopardy. Ppl in the country have to wait for years for non-elective surgery. If you ever go to the "emergency" department, don't expect to be seen within 2 hours, even though you could be bleeding non stop in the waiting area while those doctors and nurses hide in the staff room having "tea break". My ex who did an attachment with the emergency department said they do this to discourage ppl from seeking treatments for non-emergency matters. What the fcuk.
Precisely why Singapore is having such a fantastic deal!
I hear Singaporeans complain how long they have to wait at polyclinics, when in Australia people are complaining that they cannot find a doctor who will see them even if the patient is willing to wait however long.
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