Harper’s Magazine, a left-leaning (by American standards) literary gazette, is fairly insipid, but it publishes amusing tidbits in each issue known as Harper’s Index. In a similar vein, here are some surprising bits I have read recently.

• All 9 members of China’s Politburo are engineers. Source: IEEE Spectrum
• Western Europe has a population and GDP comparable to the United States, but it has 42% of the world’s WiFi hotspots, compared to 26% in the US. Source: Informa Telecoms and Media.
• Medical Doctors’ median income in the US is $200,000. Often maligned, median malpractice insurance premiums are only $11,000. Source: Paul von Hippel, Ohio State University.
• “Administrative costs” represent 19% to 24% of the cost of health care in the US, compared to about 10% in most OECD countries. Source: University of Maine.
• The French universal medical coverage, despite being rife with abuse and fraud by people who would flunk the means-test for state coverage, costs about 1.4 billion euros per year, slightly under 0.1% of GDP, with approximately 5 million people covered, and health care in general represents about 9% of GDP. Of course, as health insurance is mandatory for all salaried workers, only the unemployed lack coverage in the first place, so the cost of universal coverage in the US would be higher as a proportion of GDP. The French medical system was rated first in the world for general health care by the WHO’s last survey in 2000, so it is not a question of skimping on the quality of care as in the UK.
• The US spends 15% of its GDP on health care, if that were lowered by 10%, by bringing administrative costs in line with Europe or Canada, the savings would easily cover universal insurance for all Americans.
• The Philippines and India are respectively ranked No. 4 and 5 destinations for international telephone calls from the US. India hardly registered in 1991. Source: Telegeography.