The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released its latest annual report on healthcare costs, which shows the average cost of treating a person with a respiratory disease in the US is $6,972 per person per year.
The cost of a person who is ill and can’t breathe in the United States, the highest in the world, is $3,726 per person.
Healthcare spending in Australia is even higher.
A study of Medicare spending, released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), showed that the average Australian Medicare beneficiary spent $3.3 million in 2015 on hospital care.
The average cost for the same person in New Zealand is $1,766 per person, and in the UK, the average is £1,636 per person and for Australians the average expenditure is just over $1.8 million per person on healthcare.
The report found the average hospital bed in Australia was just over 12 feet long and had the capacity to hold up to 10 patients.