Hopefully, you haven't had to think too much about paying for your healthcare, yet. After all, when you're sick or injured, money should be the last thing on your mind. However, after working in clinics and hospitals across the U.S., I've seen even our youngest patients effected by how tough it is to be healthy and well in the United States without money.
Health care is an expense, but how much exactly does it cost to be healthy? At the Global and Public health team at Tampere University, researchers are finding the answer to this question is less about how much money you or the government spend on healthcare and much, much more about how you or the government spends it. In Finland, health is seen as a human right: that means the government is neglecting the basic human needs of its citizens, like water or sanitation, if it doesn't provide healthcare for all. Although this requires Finns to pay up to 34% of their paycheck in taxes, while someone making the same money in the U.S. may pay 10-20%, the healthcare system in Nordic countries is world-renowned.
