PEDIATRICS Vol. 43 No. 2 February 1969, pp. 284-290
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Butler, A. M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Butler, A. M.

AVAILABILITY, EFFECTIVENESS, AND ECONOMY OF CHILD HEALTH SERVICES

Allan M. Butler M.D.1

1 Professor of Pediatrics Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, Boston

The critical state of medicine in the United States has been amply documented by the National Conference on Medical Costs, June 1967, and the Report of the National Advisory Commission on Health Manpower, November 1967. In spite of our wealth, science, technology, medical schools, hospitals, research facilities, and budgets; our relatively high ratio of 1 doctor per 700 people; and the exemplary quality of our best medicine, international health indices give the United States not only poor, but also falling ratings-due of course to the poor education, nutrition, socioeconomic circumstances, and health care that result in the high mortality and morbidity of 30% of our population.

RETURN ON THE HEALTH DOLLAR SPENT

Meaningful and accurate comparative costs of medical care are hard to come by. But the following approximations give an order of magnitude of costs that, with our relatively poor health ratings, indicate a poor return on the health dollar in the United States. In 1963 the medical care of the 45,000,000 people of Great Britain cost approximately $4,000,000,000-or $90 per person-while the medical care of our 180,000,000 people cost approximately $33,000,000,000-or $194 a person. In 1965 Great Britain spent roughly 4.5% of its Gross National Product on health care as compared to our 6%-and her per capita Gross National Product was, of course, less than ours. The United States is now spending approximately 6.3% of its annual Gross National Product of approximately $800,000,000,000, or $50,000,000,000 on annual health care. This is $250 a person per year for our 200,000,000 people.

Submitted on August 7, 1968
Accepted on October 16, 1968




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 CLIN PEDIATRHome page
A. M. Butler, I. Abrams, M. Roessler, and K. Cutler
Pediatric Nurse-Practitioners and Screening Physical Examinations
Clinical Pediatrics, November 1, 1969; 8(11): 624 - 628.
[PDF]