Money & Health

Many people are familiar with the disproportionate disease burden that the poorer countries of the world bear. But just so you can get a more vivid picture, here is a map by Worldmapper that represents the proportion of adults that are HIV+ by country:

hiv-prevalence.png

And here is the tuberculosis burden:

tb-prevalence.png

And now let’s take a look at the amount of public health spending by country. Just a quick reminder, “public health spending is all government spending on health care, plus money from grants, social insurance and non-governmental organisations. Public health spending reduces, or even eliminates, the direct cost of health care to an individual.”

Here is a map that represents the proportion of worldwide spending on public health services that are spent there.

public-health-spending.png

Although the issue is more complex than simply comparing maps, the powerful imbalance is easy to see. Thank you for attending today’s short lesson on money and public health. Please click here for more readings on money.

6 comments

  1. paisley says:

    by looking at the map i want to say,, my but we are so proportionately lucky… i am a 46 year old american born single female. i am employed and have been since the age of 16…i have chronic hepatits c…but i do not now nor have i ever had health care… so do i feel sorry for them or me.. i wonder…

    i am thrilled that we rated so well.. but i am also disheartened that in the 30 years i have been working we have done nothing to close that gaps thru which we the working poor and forever uninsured fall…

  2. mandi says:

    Paisely, I so agree with you. Everyone should have access to health care. Rather than anyone feeling sorry for anyone else, I hope this post is a call to action to make health a human right around the world.

    Thanks for commenting,
    Mandi

  3. UL says:

    Powerful meaning here, I was raised in a place where I had to pay for healtcare services, no insurance, so I agree that healthcare should never be taken for granted, it should be a right – very hard for developing nations to put into practise, nice take on the prompt – thanks for sharing

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