More Statistics

Dave Burge of Iowahawk is reporting that you are some 5 times more likely to die in England from mistreatment by the National Health than you are to die in the U.S. of a deliberate gunshot.

Let's look: First your chances of being murdered in the U.S., from the Telegraph of England:

The US has the highest gun ownership rate in the world - there are 89 guns for every 100 Americans, compared to 6 in England and Wales.
And the murder figures themselves are astounding for Brits used to around 550 murders per year. In 2011 - the latest year for which detailed statistics are available - there were 12,664 murders in the US. Of those, 8,583 were caused by firearms.

And the death stats from the NHS, courtesy of Thompsons Solicitors, a British law firm:

The largest and most detailed survey into hospital deaths has revealed that almost 12,000 patients are needlessly dying every year as a result of poor patient care.

 What I notice right off is that for some reason Scotland and Ireland are not included in the stats. Last I heard, they were still part of Great Britain, even though some didn't like to admit it.

The population of England and Wales, is last reported as 56.1M giving you a .0002139 chance of being offed by the Nat Health.

The population of the U.S. was 310.5M in 2011 giving you 2.764e-5 or .00002764 which works out to 7.73 :1 in favor of the Brits. If we count all murders, the U.S. number jumps to .00004078 and makes it 5.24:1 in favor of the Brits.

So there you are, you're 5.24 times more likely to die at the hands of the National Health in England than you are to be murdered in any manner at all in the U.S. and 7.73 times more likely if only firearms deaths are counted.

It's a good thing we aren't burdened with such a homicidal bunch here, right?