Is the Gap between Russian and U. S. Health Care Spending That Big?

Abstract

The ideas presented in the paper by A. V. Ragozin, P. V. Stroev, and V. V. Grishin are discussed [Ragozin et al., 2022]. There are two very important aspects to working with statistics. The first is the danger of using unreliable data, and for this reason, if possible, it is necessary to compare information from different sources. The second is the misinterpretation of this data. This paper gives an example of insufficiently correct reasoning in terms of justifying an increase in budget expenditures on health care. The first error is the use of an incorrect indicator of the ruble exchange rate, which corresponds to purchasing power parity. The second is the incorrect calculation of the tax burden on labor. In addition, the authors propose to use the original tax base to solve the problem of increasing the volume of health care financing, which will cause very high costs.