Fortune USA 201901-02

LAST BYTE

70

72

74

76

78

80

82

84

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 $10,000

1970

LIF

E^ E

XP

EC

TA

NC

Y

HEALTH SPENDING

70

72

74

76

78

80

82

84

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 $10,000

LIF

E^ E

XP

EC

TA

NC

Y

HEALTH SPENDING

1985

70

72

74

76

78

80

82

84

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 $10,000

LIF

E^ E

XP

EC

TA

NC

Y

HEALTH SPENDING

70

72

74

76

78

80

82

84

0 2,000 4,000 6,000 8,000 $10,000

LIF

E^ E

XP

EC

TA

NC

Y

HEALTH SPENDING

2000 2016

ITALY U.K. JAPAN FRANCE CANADA GERMANY U.S.

CORRELATION BETWEEN HEALTH SPENDING AND LIFE EXPECTANCY IN THE G7 COUNTRIES

YEARLY PER CAPITA GOVERNMENT AND HOUSEHOLD HEALTH EXPENDITURE (IN 2010 INTERNATIONAL DOLLARS, ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION)

U.S.

EXPENDITURE

PER CAPITA:

$8,933

LIFE EXPECTANCY

AT BIRTH:

78.6 YEARS

1970 TO

1970 TO 1970 TO

96
FORTUNE.COM// JA N.1 .19

IMAGINE YOU’RE A STOCK ANALYSTstudying the big companies in a given industry. As you sift through the financials, you discover that one

company spends twice what its rivals spend on operations, but its performance badly trails the entire group’s. Is that the stock you’d

slap a “buy” rating on? Probably not. And yet Americans keep investing in the laggard enterprise known as U.S. health care. Annual

premiums for employer-sponsored family health plans have jumped 55% since 2008, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Life

expectancy, meanwhile, has barely budged. Activist investors may want to call for a change in management. —CLIFTON LEAF

UNDERPERFORMING ASSET

SOURCES: OECD; UNIVERSITY OFOXFORD. NOTE: NO CONSISTENT DATA FOR ITALY GRAPHICS BYNICOLAS RAPP

UNTIL 1988; LAST FRAME SHOWS 2015 DATA(MOST RECENT) FOR FRANCE.