Table 1.

Comparison of costs in the NHS and Kaiser

Category	NHS (2000/2001)	Kaiser, California (2000)
Gross expenditures/revenue	£58 500m	$14 200m
Less capital depreciation	£1 000m	$557m
Less profit	0	$668m
Operating expenditures	£57 500m	$12 975m
Adjustment for differences in benefits and special circumstances:
Dental	£1 190m	$10m
Long term psychiatric care	£3 250m	Not covered
Special circumstances	£3 587m	$1 065m
Supplementary private health insurance	£2 630m	0
Net expenditure after adjustments	£52 103m	$11 900m
Per capita expenditure (59.5 million people for NHS; 6.1 million people for Kaiser)	£876	$1951
Conversion to dollars*	$1402	$1951
Adjustment for PPP (1.52)†	$2130	$1951
Adjustment for age (decreases NHS costs by 12.2%) and socioeconomic group (decreases NHS costs 5%)	$1764	$1951
Final adjusted per capita expenditure	$1764	$1951

Sources: Lakin,⁹ Department of Health,¹⁰ Laing & Buisson,¹¹ OANDA,¹² World Bank,¹³ and unpublished data from Kaiser. 

^*Uses average exchange rate for the 1990s of 1.6. 

^†Purchasing power parity: rate of currency conversion that equalises purchasing power in health sector of different currencies.