Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - Essay Example

Gross Domestic Product Healthcare spending varies widely across the globe. At one end of the spectrum, there are the developed countries that spend substantial sum on healthcare and at the other; there are underdeveloped countries that spend a small percentage of their GDP on healthcare. It will be interesting to compare healthcare indicators for the US as a developed country and the one who spends large amount on healthcare with Bangladesh as a developing country and the one who spends small amount on healthcare.

Healthcare Spending as % of GDP World Health Organization (2013) reports that Bangladeshs spending on healthcare in 2011 as percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 3.7 percent. It is pertinent to note that healthcare spending in year 2001, in Bangladesh, was 3.0 percent of GDP. Against this, the US spending in 2011 is huge to the tune of 17.9 percent of GDP. In 2001, the US spent 14.1 percent of GDP on healthcare. It is important to note that he US social security expenditure on health in the US, in 2011, is 88 percent; however, that stands nil in case of Bangladesh.

Life Expectancy at Birth In 2011, life expectancy of male and female in Bangladesh was 69 and 70 respectively. That has gone up when compared with the figures of year 2000. In year 2000, life expectancy at birth in Bangladesh was 65 for male and female both. In comparison, in 2011, life expectancy at birth in the US was 76 and 81 for male and female up from the figures of 74 and 80 in year 2000 respectively. It is certainly surprising that higher spending on healthcare enhances the life expectancy at birth and that is why people in the US has higher life expectancy when compared with Bangladesh.

ReferencesWorld Health Organization (2013). Health financing: Health expenditure ratios by country. Retrieved October 13, 2013 from http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.75?lang=en World Health Organization (2013). Life Expectancy. Retrieved October 13, 2013 from http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.3?lang=en.