Health Care is expensive, all over the world countries struggle to provide healthcare for their citizens

The pressure of ever increasing costs reflects

Population change - more elderly people requiring more care

Raised expectations

Technological advance - more can be done for more people, more of the time

Health care cost inflation is greater than general inflation

There are a variety of ways of providing health care from

100% Private to 100% Public

Countries spend on health care in line with their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - richer countries spend more.

However the countries which spend the most on health care do not necessarily have the healthiest citizens.