This past week, I’ve been thinking more about health care reform in the U.S. I’ve been thinking about it for several reasons: 1) The ongoing debate in the U.S. 2) The State of the Union Address 3) April has been sick with a cold and went to the doctor today and my fourth reason comes from my friend Byron’s blog:

Byron makes some interesting points:

“Notice that the much maligned NHS in the UK spends about 40% of what the US does per person and yet the UK has a higher average life-expectancy by more than a year. Portugal spends less than 30% of the US level and also has a higher life-expectancy. The country with the greatest longevity, Japan, spends about 35% per person of what the US spends. And this massive US spending is not just absolute, but also relative to GDP. The other salient feature of this graph is noting that the only industrialised nation without universal health care is the US.”

It would be nice if we could get on the ball. But before you’re tempted to get overly optimistic about tides of change, watch the Republicans in action as they try and sink the ’socialist’ flagship that is the Obama administration: