Jeremy Kauffman 🦔🌲🌕 Profile picture
Be free, make babies, build stuff, and have fun Temporary dictator of https://t.co/xofYS8B6Uk New Hampshire supremacist

Dec 11, 2024, 9 tweets

Luigi Mangione's manifesto includes a superficially damning claim.

However, it's wrong.

Want to understand why the US spends so much on healthcare to get such poor results?

Read this thread to see the greatest (and most unknown) analysis of US healthcare ever done.

1) Healthcare spending in all countries tracks income.

The richer a country is, the more they spend on health care.

The US is the richest country in the world, and it spends the most on healthcare.

(It's important to use real income for this analysis, not GDP)

2) The US spends more on healthcare because it consumes more.

The richer a country is, the more healthcare it consumes.

Given more money, people simply consume more healthcare.

3) The evidence that US healthcare is uniquely expensive is weak.

All goods cost more in richer countries. In richer countries, human time is more valuable.

Does healthcare in the US cost more? Yes, but not in any way that wouldn't be predicted by its wealth.

4) All wealthy countries have more of their economy consumed by healthcare.

The richer a country is, the higher a percentage of that country is employed in healthcare, and the more they are paid.

Again: nothing unique about the US! The US is just rich.

5) Profit margins and compensation in healthcare aren't high.

Healthcare in the US is not especially profitable compared to other sectors.

Nor is there anything out-of-line with how US providers are compensated (again, relative to US wealth).

6) Money has diminishing returns on its ability to extend life.

Norway and Luxembourg spend twice as much as Spain and Italy to no result.

7) The US is uniquely drug-addicted, violent, and fat.

The US has shorter life expectancy due to the behavioral choices of its residents.

Money alone can't solve obesity or a gunshot.

All of the above graphs and data come from @rcafdm, an anonymous economics blogger who is absolutely brilliant.

His blog is somewhat dead, and he's not that active on X.

Maybe current events and DOGE could encourage him to return.

randomcriticalanalysis.com/why-convention…

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