Busting Irish Myths: # 5: Medical Care

This is the 5th in a series entitled Busting Irish Myths. After returning from Ireland and discussing my visits with Americans who have never traveled abroad, I discovered a number of misconceptions, from believing all Irish lived in white cottages with no electricity (the equivalent of the Irish believing we all lived in log cabins) to believing it rains there all day, every day. Check out the list of blogs on the right side of your screen to find the others in this series.

One question I've been asked repeatedly is whether the Irish have a sufficient medical infrastructure. For that, I went to the World Health Organization. Their mission is to track medical care throughout the world in a variety of areas, from HIV/AIDS to world hunger to diseases and to health issues caused by lifestyle. They are also working to improve health conditions around the world.

In the first-ever study of health worldwide that ranks the countries by their level of health care, Ireland ranks # 19. The United States ranks # 37. Each of the links below goes to a Wikipedia page detailing that country's health care. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, which ranks # 18.

In the Per Capita Expenditure, this ranks how much health care costs on a per-person basis. The United States is Number 1, meaning we spend more money on health care per person than anyone else in the world. Ireland ranks 25 and the United Kingdom ranks 26.

In 2010, Ireland spent an average of 2,862 Euro per person, compared to $8,608 in the United States. The biggest difference is that Ireland's public health system paid for approximately 79% of health care while the United States spent roughly 65% from public programs that include Medicare and Medicaid.

The life expectancy in the United States and Ireland are tied at 78 years.

Ranking	Country	Per Capita Expenditure
1	France	4
2	Italy	11
3	San Marino	21
4	Andorra	23
5	Malta	37
6	Singapore	38
7	Spain	29
8	Oman	62
9	Austria	6
10	Japan	13
11	Norway	16
12	Portugal	27
13	Monaco	12
14	Greece	30
15	Iceland	14
16	Luxembourg	5
17	Netherlands	9
18	United Kingdom	26
19	Ireland	25
20	Switzerland	2
21	Belgium	15
22	Colombia	49
23	Sweden	7
24	Cyprus	39
25	Germany	3
26	Saudi Arabia	63
27	United Arab Emirates	35
28	Israel	19
29	Morocco	99
30	Canada	10
31	Finland	18
32	Australia	17
33	Chile	44
34	Denmark	8
35	Dominica	70
36	Costa Rica	50
37	United States	1
38	Slovenia	29
39	Cuba	118
40	Brunei	32
41	New Zealand	20
42	Bahrain	48
43	Croatia	56
44	Qatar	27
45	Kuwait	41
46	Barbados	36
47	Thailand	64
48	Czech Republic	40
49	Malaysia	93
50	Poland	58
51	Dominican Republic	92
52	Tunisia	79
53	Jamaica	89
54	Venezuela	68
55	Albania	149
56	Seychelles	52
57	Paraguay	91
58	South Korea	31
59	Senegal	143
60	Philippines	124
61	Mexico	55
62	Slovakia	45
63	Egypt	115
64	Kazakhstan	112
65	Uruguay	33
66	Hungary	59
67	Trinidad and Tobago	65
68	Saint Lucia	86
69	Belize	88
70	Turkey	82
71	Nicaragua	104
72	Belarus	74
73	Lithuania	71
74	Argentina	15
75	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	90
76	Sri Lanka	138
77	Estonia	60
78	Guatemala	130
79	Ukraine	111
80	Solomon Islands	134
81	Algeria	114
82	Palau	47
83	Jordan	98
84	Mauritius	69
85	Grenada	67
86	Antigua and Barbuda	43
87	Libya	84
88	Bangladesh	144
89	Macedonia	106
90	Bosnia-Herzegovina	105
91	Lebanon	46
92	Indonesia	154
93	Iran	94
94	Bahamas	22
95	Panama	53
96	Fiji	87
97	Benin	171
98	Nauru	42
99	Romania	107
100	Saint Kitts and Nevis	51
101	Moldova
102	Bulgaria
103	Iraq
104	Armenia
105	Latvia
106	Yugoslavia
107	Cook Islands
108	Syria
109	Azerbaijan
110	Suriname
111	Ecuador
112	India
113	Cape Verde
114	Georgia
115	El Salvador
116	Tonga
117	Uzbekistan
118	Comoros
119	Samoa
120	Yemen
121	Niue
122	Pakistan
123	Federated States of Micronesia
124	Bhutan
125	Brazil
126	Bolivia
127	Vanuatu
128	Guyana
129	Peru
130	Russia
131	Honduras
132	Burkina Faso
133	Sao Tome and Principe
134	Sudan
135	Ghana
136	Tuvalu
137	Ivory Coast
138	Haiti
139	Gabon
140	Kenya
141	Marshall Islands
142	Kiribati
143	Burundi
144	People's Republic of China
145	Mongolia
146	Gambia
147	Maldives
148	Papua New Guinea
149	Uganda
150	Nepal
151	Kyrgyzstan
152	Togo
153	Turkmenistan
154	Tajikistan
155	Zimbabwe
156	Tanzania
157	Djibouti
158	Eritrea
159	Madagascar
160	Vietnam
161	Guinea
162	Mauritania
163	Mali
164	Cameroon
165	Laos
166	Congo
167	North Korea
168	Namibia
169	Botswana
170	Niger
171	Equatorial Guinea
172	Rwanda
173	Afghanistan
174	Cambodia
175	South Africa
176	Guinea-Bissau
177	Swaziland
178	Chad
179	Somalia
180	Ethiopia
181	Angola
182	Zambia
183	Lesotho
184	Mozambique
185	Malawi
186	Liberia
187	Nigeria
188	Democratic Republic of the Congo
189	Central African Republic
190	Burma