I've always been fascinated how the United States, despite being so advanced and spending so much on healthcare, can still rank so lowly in health outcomes. When I talk to friends and family in the UK, Canada, or Ireland about our healthcare, they're often baffled at how our system runs. "You send the ambulance away? But why?" "Because it costs $500 and I can drive myself for much less." My son's birth was uncomplicated and I delivered him myself in the hospital's bathroom, but received a $35,000 bill for the trouble. One of my cousins delivered her baby a couple of weeks later in Northern Ireland, received excellent care, and never saw a bill for the process because healthcare there doesn't have a fee-at-point-of-service model. She didn't have to get "pre-authorization" to birth her baby because that isn't a thing. Her health insurance company didn't say her unborn child couldn't be insured because he didn't have a birthday yet because that is absolutely ludicrous. 

We know that health and healthcare are different (though related) things, but what are the outcomes of such different social policy landscapes on the health of the people that live there? Do government social policies really make for better health? Let's discuss!