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July 31, 2005 Some Pollyanna recently suggested that, among other things, American hospitals, which are usually run by religious organizations, constitute evidence of the importance of faith in the establishment of charitable and merciful institutions. Of course, in the US, most people cannot afford to pay their own hospital bills and depend on insurance, which is issued to anyone who can afford it, regardless of denomination. Having insurance is also a key factor in being admitted to a hospital, regardless of denomination. Naturally, a hospital must at least break even to stay in business, and most hospitals, though legally classified as non-profit organizations, do make a profit. Many people would accuse them even of profiteering, in view of the outrageous cost of hospitalization and health care in general. Anyway, if there’s a necessary correlation between religiosity and the existence and quality of hospitals in a country, it’s hard to detect in a comparison of church attendance and health care ratings in Nigeria and Japan. Nigeria, with high church attendance, has almost the worst health care in the world, while atheistic Japan ranks among the best health care providers. Japan is nearly at the bottom of the scale, with a mere 3% of Japanese attending church regularly. Other countries near the bottom include Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. According to the World Health Organization’s health care ratings for the year 2000, out of 191 countries considered, Japan ranked near the top, in 10th place, just ahead of Norway, which ranked 11th, while Nigeria ranked 187th . The United States, where church attendance was estimated at 44%, ranked 37th in health care, according to the WHO, which considered quality of health care treatment, cost to the patient and other factors. Japanese enjoy an average life-expectancy 4.5 years greater than that of Americans. So if these figures are accurate, and they certainly are plausible, it’s doubtful that faith, as evidenced by church attendance, plays much of a role in prompting the kind of mercifulness and compassion in a national population that makes for better health care. I should acknowledge that some people voiced criticism of WHO’s ratings, but not so seriously as would materially affect the standings of the two countries being considered here. Let's see the Nigeria-Japan comparison in a more legible format: NIGERIA Church attendance....89% Health care rating....187th JAPAN Church attendance....3% Health care rating....10th If Nigeria and Japan are indicative, one might almost argue that the more irreligious a country is, the better health care it provides. I haven't considered all the countries in the world, because not all the figures are available from my sources, but a quick glance does seem to confirm that such a conclusion has some merit. Some countries, like Italy and France, that rated high in health care were in the middle range in church attendance. My personal opinion is that the economic fitness of a country is probably the most important factor shaping its health care infrastructure. Money runs hospitals, just as it runs businesses, and though we may be grateful for the existence of such companies as Microsoft, for example, we do not suppose that its success has much to do with love, faith and charity. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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