A report in JAMA looked at health care spending in the U.S. and other high-income countries. The findings might make you a bit queasy. The U.S. spent approximately $1,443 per person on health care in 2016, almost twice the next highest country, Switzerland at $939 per person.
It wasn't because Americans use health care more often than elsewhere. For the most part, we're comparable to other countries. Bigger culprits were prescription drug prices. For example, the cholesterol drug Crestor has a U.S. list price of $86 per month, compared to $41 in Germany and $9 in Australia. Then there are labor costs, such as physician salaries. A general physician in the U.S. has an average salary of $218,173, compared to $154,126 in Germany, which had the next highest salary.
Mind Your Money (Part Two)
Back in 2004, California voters approved a 1 percent tax on personal income over $1 million, with the funds targeted toward mental health services. So how's it going? A new analysis by RAND and UCLA, which looked at Los Angeles County's mental health department, found that the added money has helped. The study said that between 2012 and 2016, LA County's boosted mental health services budget and larger staff provided prevention and early interventions to 130,000 young people and critical help with housing and other social services to 25,000 others. The news site STAT reports that rates of homelessness and inpatient hospitalization for mental health issues fell among participants in the program.
Body of Knowledge
Blood is thicker than water, but about the same thickness as seawater.
Number Cruncher
A Duncan Hines chocolate lover's turtle brownie (2 inch square) contains 130 calories, 27 from fat. It has 3 grams of total fat or 5 percent of the recommended total fat intake for a 2,000-calorie daily diet.
It contains no cholesterol; 110 mg of sodium (5 percent); 23 grams of total carbohydrates (13 percent); 1 g of dietary fiber (4 percent); 15 g of sugar and 2 g of protein.
Stories for the Waiting Room
In the 17th century, English druggists sold a popular, if disturbing, remedy for chronic nosebleeds: a type of moss, called usnea, harvested from the heads and skulls of the dead. The moss was collected from hanged criminals who were customarily left on the gallows until they rotted and fell to pieces. The moss was also supposed to treat nervous disorders, like the kind one got from stuffing moss from dead men up one's nose.
Doc Talk
Digging for Worms: Varicose vein removal surgery
Phobia of the Week
Syngenesophobia: Fear of relatives
Never Say Diet
The Major League Eating record for shrimp is 4 pounds, 15 ounces in 12 minutes, held by Eric Denmark, who, at 213 pounds, is no shrimp.
Best Medicine
Patient: "Am I going to die?"
Doctor: "That's the last thing you're going to do."
Observation
"Attention to health is the greatest hindrance to life."
—Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher who, nonetheless, lived into his late 70s
Medical History
This week in 1969, Dr. Denton Cooley implanted the first total artificial heart in 47-year-old Haskell Karp, who had advanced terminal heart disease. The device kept Haskell alive for three days until a donor heart was found for a human heart transplant. However, Haskell died 30 hours later due to infection and tissue rejection.
Med School
Q: What is the technical name for the human face?
A: Regio facialis, Latin for region of the face.
Curtain Calls
In 1995, three U.S. Navy airmen died in a bizarre aerial mooning incident. The two pilots and the navigator were flying alongside a second plane when they stripped down and bared their backsides against the cockpit canopy as a joke. Unfortunately, they took off their oxygen masks as well and all quickly lost consciousness. The plane crashed.
To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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