Legatum ranks the United States number 2 in the world in health care. How can this be? Is this some evil plan by right-wingers to argue that free market, drop-the-poor health systems produce better results?

Certainly, indicators of health don’t support the notion. We have much higher infant mortality than Europe, (6.5 per thousand compared with 3-per-thousand in Europe). We live less long, we are obese, and let’s face it, we spend a fortune on our insurance.

Oh, yeah, and 25 PERCENT OF US HAVE NO ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE outside a hospital emergency room.

Interestingly, when you look at the page where the health sub-index is explained, the answer to this rogue result is plain to see. The criteria are hospital beds, spending per capita, under-nourishment, health adjusted life expectancy, infant mortality, water quality, sanitation, death from respiratory disease, health problems, well-rested, satisfaction with environmental beauty, level of worrying, satisfaction with health.

But “access?” It’s invisible. Indeed, by adding “spending per capita” the case is skewed even further. That’s like saying the Camden NJ school system is the best in the world because it spends more per student than any other district.

Egad! I still support what Legatum is doing. But that’s just a glaring, obvious flaw in their model. I admire many of those connected with the Institute, and assume there’s been no deliberate attempt to skew the numbers. We’ll know for sure if they change them up next year. It's an honest mistake, I think, and unlike the ones made in global finance, it's easy to fix.