As someone who comes from the United Kingdom where the tax payer funded NHS takes care of most medical fees, it strikes me as ridiculous that any country could expect their tax paying citizens to pay for the privilege to carry on living.
Healthcare for everyone can be fairly reasonable in costs (if not cheaper for everyone) when all patients are treated early.
It's sad that health/living is considered an economic priviledge in several countries
On the other hand, medical costs can vary wildly and randomly. A perfectly healthy person who's been following health best practices might suddenly develop a serious condition that is treatable, but only with five to six figures of treatment.
And 3 months ago, I was cut. Paperwork's "lost in the system". No job. No unemployment. Living on the scraps of money I had in goods that I sold.
The problem is such schemes are abused by many individuals where parents refuse to work because they'd "earn" more money from income support and such like. Those that know how to work the system to afford luxuries instead of the money going to towards the essentials to survive. But that's a whole other topic.
Also, as Africa and Asia develops there will also be more research done in those areas that will benefit all africans and asians throughout the world.
Why should someone who has huntington's (a dominant autosomal disease that kills the patient before age 40 in many genetically testable cases i.e. 60-100+ CAG repeats) be forced to pay into an insurance or healthcare system that cares for other people's eldercare?
Military $503.4 billion per year (US dollars per year) (2005 estimate)
I assume these numbers have expanded since then. What is really disturbing in my mind though is that while it is quite easy for most people to get EBT/Welfare in the USA to purchase beer/cigarettes/chips, it is much more difficult to get effective healthcare.
HFCS-laden soda is quite cheap, so are trans-fat laden baked goods and frozen foods. Diabetes and heart disease are not though.
I've heard it's mostly taxes/tariffs on imported sugar that make it this way; most of the rest of the world, sugar cane is cheaper than HFCS, so they use sugar cane.