Political Graphing

Some days ago Kirk posted on Facebook a link to a graph that was doing the rounds. The graph, originally from the Nation Geographic in a posting about The Cost of Care showed how:

The United States spends more on medical care per person than any country, yet life expectancy is shorter than in most other developed nations and many developing ones.

It's a fascinating graph and, given the politics of this in the US lately it has raised a lot of debate around the Net. For example I came across this post on graphing the cost of healthcare which I though was an interesting take on the issue. The author Jon Peltier applied some different graphing techniques to the data.

He used an XY chart rather than lines and I think the overall effect is both easier to understand and still highlights how odd the US situation really is when compared to most other first world countries.

It's just a shame that it now looks like Obama has lost this one. Ho hum.