Health Care

Looks like this is my week of taking requests!

So, the health care system in Ukraine is, of course, a complex web.

The best hospital in Odessa is Intosana. However, there is such a severe lack of specialists, that Natalia, from my Odessa Language Studies Center told me that she was going to Kharkiv to seek an endocrinologist. Ex-pats generally wait until they return to the States or travel to Germany or England for care.

As for the general health of the country- here's a couple of statistics:

• Life Expectancy in Ukraine is about 5 years less than that of the US. It's about on par with Poland, Chile, Mexico or Hungary (which is between 70-72)

• Infant Mortality in Ukraine is about double that of the US. ie. 21 per 1000 live births.

However, there is no denying that healthcare is much more cost-effective than the US. Twenty times more cost-effective, in fact. The US spends about $20,000 per capita GDP.

Here, our friends talk about dentist-visits and minor procedures that shocked them because of the absurdly low cost.

A couple of last bits of info:

• The birth rate has been steadily surpassed by death rates; and with little migration into the country- the population of Ukraine is declining.

• Incidence of alcoholism is high in Ukraine- about 136 per 100,000. Drug abuse is also high- at about 7 per 100,000.

• It's also not surprising that the smoking prevalence in Ukraine is one of the highest in Europe at 53% (almost 3/4 of all men and 40% of women smoke)

It's not all bleak from a public health perspective- vaccinations and immunizations are high, obesity is relatively low and about 4 years ago, Ukraine opened its first School of Public Health in Kyiv.