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The United States spends far more on health care than any other developed nation; a record 17.5% of the country’s gross domestic product in 2014 was spent on health care. However, life expectancy in the U.S. is lower, maternal and infant mortality is higher. Also, the prevalence of chronic illness is far more common in the U.S. than in European countries.
These poor health outcomes are also connected to another type of spending where the country falls far below multiple European countries. In terms of social services that target education, housing, nutrition and poverty, the U.S. is spending significantly less. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) analyzed this spending in 2011 and found the ratio of social service to medical care spending was associated with “better health outcomes” across 34 countries between 2000 and 2005.
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In a study published in Health Affairs, the RWJF found similar patterns within the United States. In comparing state-to-state spending from 2000-2009, states with higher ratios of social service spending to health care spending had better health outcomes on average. A 20% change in the median social-to-health spending ratio was equivalent to 85,000 fewer adults with obesity and more than 950,000 adults with mental illness.
According to the Office of Minority Health, from 2011-2014, Latinas were 30% more likely to be overweight, as compared to whites. In that same time frame, Latino children were 1.8 times more likely to be overweight as white children. Latinos overall were 1.2 times as likely to be obese than non-Latino whites. Many of the states with higher ratios of social to health care spending were in the West, while those with less healthy spending patterns were in the South; states in the Midwest and Northeast had more mixed profiles.
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By The Numbers
25.1
percent
of Latinos remain without health insurance coverage
