Hidalgo County has the lowest household income in the United States. It is also one of the most expensive health-care markets in the country. Atul Gawande tries to figure out what this shows about our nation’s health-care system in this week’s New Yorker. One statistic:
In 2006, Medicare spent fifteen thousand dollars per enrollee here, almost twice the national average. The income per capita is twelve thousand dollars. In other words, Medicare spends three thousand dollars more per person here than the average person earns.
