The Best Health Care?
The World Health Organization ranked the health systems of 191 nations. France was ranked 1st and America was a dismal 37th. Recently, the Commonwealth Fund compared us with other advanced nations. We ranked last compared to Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Other major industrialized nations provide universal health coverage, and most of them have comprehensive benefit packages with no cost-sharing by the patients. We have some 45 million people without health insurance and many more millions who have poor coverage. People without insurance postpone treatment until a minor illness becomes worse, harming their health and imposing greater costs.
With the exception of Germany, Americans usually get prompter attention. However, Americans with above-average incomes find it more difficult than their counterparts abroad to get care on nights or weekends without going to an emergency room, and many report having to wait six days or more for an appointment with their own doctors.
America ranks dead last on almost all measures of equity, because we have the greatest disparity in the quality of care given to our poorer citizens. Americans with below-average incomes are much less likely than their counterparts in other industrialized nations to see a doctor when sick, to fill prescriptions or to get needed tests and follow-up care.
For years, we’ve known that America has a high infant mortality rate, so it is no surprise that we rank last among 23 nations. We rank near the bottom in healthy life expectancy at age 60, and 15th among 19 countries in deaths from a wide range of illnesses that would not have been fatal if treated with timely and effective care.
The Commonwealth Fund ranked America first in providing the “right care” for a given condition as defined by standard clinical guidelines and gave us high marks for preventive care.
America had the best survival rate for breast cancer, but in an eight-country comparison, the we ranked last in years of potential life lost to circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases and diabetes and had the second highest death rate from bronchitis, asthma and emphysema.
Much of our health care system is still operating in the dark ages. American primary care doctors lag years behind doctors in other advanced nations in adopting electronic medical records or prescribing medications electronically.
Other major industrialized nations provide universal health coverage, and most of them have comprehensive benefit packages with no cost-sharing by the patients. We have some 45 million people without health insurance and many more millions who have poor coverage. People without insurance postpone treatment until a minor illness becomes worse, harming their health and imposing greater costs.
With the exception of Germany, Americans usually get prompter attention. However, Americans with above-average incomes find it more difficult than their counterparts abroad to get care on nights or weekends without going to an emergency room, and many report having to wait six days or more for an appointment with their own doctors.
America ranks dead last on almost all measures of equity, because we have the greatest disparity in the quality of care given to our poorer citizens. Americans with below-average incomes are much less likely than their counterparts in other industrialized nations to see a doctor when sick, to fill prescriptions or to get needed tests and follow-up care.
For years, we’ve known that America has a high infant mortality rate, so it is no surprise that we rank last among 23 nations. We rank near the bottom in healthy life expectancy at age 60, and 15th among 19 countries in deaths from a wide range of illnesses that would not have been fatal if treated with timely and effective care.
The Commonwealth Fund ranked America first in providing the “right care” for a given condition as defined by standard clinical guidelines and gave us high marks for preventive care.
America had the best survival rate for breast cancer, but in an eight-country comparison, the we ranked last in years of potential life lost to circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases and diabetes and had the second highest death rate from bronchitis, asthma and emphysema.
Much of our health care system is still operating in the dark ages. American primary care doctors lag years behind doctors in other advanced nations in adopting electronic medical records or prescribing medications electronically.
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