Everyday Experiments

Just came across a map showing the patient to doctor ratios in different countries worldwide. Though the map is three years old, it's still effective in showing how health care is addressed worldwide. Glaring fact: Cuba tops the doctor-to-patient ratio stats worldwide with one doctor per 170 citizens. Now this is not bad for a country that has been getting a lot of bad press through the years (actually, made me recall the scenes from Sicko where Michael Moore takes the 9/11 rescue workers to Havana to get free health care and cheap medicines). Another interesting factoid is that three of the top 10 countries with low doctor patient ratios include former Soviet states, namely Russia (230:1), Turkmenistan (240:1), and Ukraine (240:1).


Of course, methods to get these numbers (government statistics are always rosier than street knowledge) are unverified. I wonder what current statistics are?

I've always believed that a good measure of how a government really values its citizens is in the way it handles social services, most importantly health care. Of course, citizens usually have to pay higher taxes in return. But as long as the money is used to take care of citizens' needs - namely health care, education, housing, employment and even death care (and not to line the deep pockets of corrupt bureaucrats), I guess it's worth it. Yey for welfare states.