Most developed countries spend a large propotion of their health budgets expensive medical technology?

Question

Do most developed countries spend a larg proportion of their health budgets on expensive medical technology and procedures. this money should be spent instead on health education to keep people well.

Answer 1

Education, as you envision it, is very difficult to implement. And it certainly won't fix all the health problems.

There are millions of dollars spent telling people not to smoke. Every package of cigarettes has some warning telling the smoker that smoking is not good for them. Yet milions of people smoke.

I don't know if your idea would extend to 'when those smokers get emphysema or lung cancer, let 'em die, since they should have known better....we need to spend more on education', but this is not a very humanitarian health care system.

Furthermore, while the average human life span in the developed world has substantially increased due to technology, as people live longer, there are more things that happen to them. You can't simply expect to 'educate' away disease. That just won't work.