This is very interesting:

http://www3.who.int/statistics/whs2005_mortality.xls

>>>>>If I understood your little riddle correctly, [1/4th+ of my bi-weekly]
>>>>>then here we pay more in taxes & deductions.
>>>>>Here is 25% off a month! (or 1/2 of my bi-weekly if you wish :))
>>>>>
>>>>>USA = Tax Heaven :))
>>>>
>>>>Yes, worth every penny. Which you will need, because there's no health system, you got to deal with health industry on your own. You may be lucky to have your employer provide some health insurance for you, but don't hold your breath. With our luck (if there was a sackfull of X I'd draw a Y) we'd have one of the cases that actually aren't covered.
>>>
>>>Do you know that Europeans spend less of their income to health care than Americans?!
>>
>>I know. Every service is more expensive here, and health even more than the rest. I don't know how they manage to do that. Or... I think I know, but then a few would ask me to quote sources, question their credibility etc etc. Don't need to get into that on a nice weekend.
>
>Here's the link to one such source: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17726
>
>And here's the quote (from that source) you asked for:
>A privileged minority has access to the best medical treatment in the world. But 45 million Americans have no health insurance at all (of the world's developed countries only the US and South Africa offer no universal medical coverage). According to the World Health Organization the United States is number one in health spending per capita—and thirty-seventh in the quality of its service.
>
>As a consequence, Americans live shorter lives than West Europeans. Their children are more likely to die in infancy: the US ranks twenty-sixth among industrial nations in infant mortality, with a rate double that of Sweden, higher than Slovenia's, and only just ahead of Lithuania's—and this despite spending 15 percent of US gross domestic product on "health care" (much of it siphoned off in the administrative costs of for-profit private networks). Sweden, by contrast, devotes just 8 percent of its GDP to health.
>
>Have a nice weekend. :)