USA Ranks Last In Health Care - Again

We're Last! Again! U.S. Health Care Ranks Poorly

The latest look at the U.S. health care system compared to other rich countries shows — yet again — that the United States comes in dead last.

Americans spend far more per person on medical care, yet are less healthy than people in 10 other countries. The system is less fair than systems in other rich countries and it’s far less efficient, ranking last of 11 nations, the Commonwealth Fund report reads.

The nonprofit Commonwealth Fund has been publishing its report — based on data from the World Health Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and its own research — for a decade.

“Among the 11 nations studied in this report — Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States — the U.S. ranks last, as it did in the 2010, 2007, 2006, and 2004 editions,” the report reads.

“Most troubling, the U.S. fails to achieve better health outcomes than the other countries, and as shown in the earlier editions, the U.S. is last or near last on dimensions of access, efficiency, and equity."

The embarrassing reports have been an impetus for health reform in the U.S. including the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Before the issue became a divisive political debate, both Republicans and Democrats agreed strongly on the need for health reform.

Some politicians have held up other countries’ health systems as examples of what they don’t want for the U.S., but the report finds countries with nationalized medical systems outperform the U.S. on all the measures.

“On indicators of efficiency, the U.S. ranks last among the 11 countries, with the U.K. and Sweden ranking first and second, respectively,” the report reads.

Americans aren’t living any longer, either. “The U.S. and U.K. had much higher death rates in 2007 from conditions amenable to medical care than some of the other countries, e.g., rates 25 percent to 50 percent higher than Australia and Sweden. Overall, France, Sweden, and Switzerland rank highest on healthy lives,” the report reads.

“The U.S. ranks a clear last on measures of equity. Americans with below-average incomes were much more likely than their counterparts in other countries to report not visiting a physician when sick; not getting a recommended test, treatment, or follow-up care; or not filling a prescription or skipping doses when needed because of costs.”

The Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, seeks to fix this by making private health insurance and Medicaid far more widely available.

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In a country thats ruled by the all might dollar, and will destroy anyone to acquire it, this isnt exactly a surprise to me. - Heck, thats the reason im physically disabled for life'

You take that back, we're one nation under God. The God of money.

In a country that is ruled by patriarchy lawyers, and anime lovers will destroy anyone to acquire it, this isn't exactly a surprise to me. - Heck, that's the reason I'm drunk for life'

Heck, thats the reason im physically disabled for life'

Self-inflicted?

If so, can you share the secret?

Self-inflicted?

If so, can you share the secret?

Add up all of those countries populations and the USA still has way more people to take care of.

This is something they never acknowledge when criticizing the US health care system. They also fail to acknowledge the huge number if immigrants the US has versus those other nations.

UCSF is one of the best hospitals in the world, providing top-of-the-notch patient care and amazing research. Hopkins, Ronald Reagan UCLA, Mayo Clinic, etc...The US healthcare system is hardly "horrible."

But it is easy to pretend that there is an issue without addressing the real issue: affordability.

The reason why healthcare is unaffordable in America is that we are funding nearly the entire R&D of the world.

But if people want to make healthcare affordable, then we need to have other countries step up in taking over the R&D of the world...

American patients don't care about preventative care.

It's also easy to pretend foreign nations would be equipped to deal with the healthcare issues of the US on the same scale.

Part of the reason healthcare in the US is so expensive is not the fault of the government or the healthcare system itself, but rather the patients. American patient mentality is very different than other patients in that American patients don't care about preventative care. Preventative care is emphasized and valued a lot more outside of the US. Patients in the US don't want to hear about proper diet and exercise, they just want a new heart or lung when the time comes.

True.

Our culture of laziness is contributing to our own demise.

You get what you pay for.

The reason why healthcare is unaffordable in America is that we are funding nearly the entire R&D of the world.

Doc-in-the-box places like Care Now and such are trying to fill this gap, but since they are privately owned they can refuse care to anyone, they can outsource bills to collection agencies, and they can negatively affect your credit if you don't pay.

This is entirely the fault of the physician community. They don't want to loose their right to prescribe, it's the bread-and-butter of their income.

Realistically though, a nurse practitioner(even an RN I'd argue) or pharmacist is fully capable of prescribing a round of antibiotics for a simple throat infection.

While hardly applying to all practitioners in the specific field, "pain management physician" and "drug dealer" are often only differentiated by a medical license.

The only real cure for this problem would be to expand education programs to give that power to lesser certifications. The flip side of this is that education and malpractice insurance costs for those jobs would sky rocket. So those jobs would want a bump in pay grade or they would end up with more education and making less net income than a normal RN.