Despite spending $7,290 per person on health care - nearly twice what Canada spends and three times more than New Zealand – the U.S. health system ranked last among seven industrialized nations in a Commonwealth Fund study.
The report includes data from the seven countries – U.S., New Zealand, Canada Australia, Germany, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom – as well as results from surveys of patients and physicians. The liberal-leaning foundation’s report examined quality of care, effectiveness, safety, coordination and patient-centeredness as well as access, efficiency, equity, and length, quality and health of people’s lives.
“It is disappointing, but not surprising that, despite our significant investment in health care, the U.S. continues to lag behind other countries,” said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund and lead author of the report.
The report ranked the U.S. health care system sixth behind Canada in terms of quality, finding that it came out last in terms of safety. The U.S. tied with Australia for last in access to care largely due to the high cost of care here. And the U.S. ranked last in efficiency and equity.
The findings were similar to results of four earlier reports by the foundation in 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2004.
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but but you have to wait a REALLY long time in Canada & England! Who needs socialized medicine anyhow??- Obamacare will be the answer! Get out your wallets.— dogman5
- Hey, dogbreath, you can spend as much as you want on lousy health care. If you want to hand over half of your paycheck to some insurance company, go right ahead. The rest of us of tired on seeing double digit increases for insurance while our wages are frozen. The insurance industry is a disgrace and needs to be better regulated. If insurance companies or health providers don't like the new rules, they have noone but themselves to blame. They could have addressed the problem any way they chose to during the 30 years the country has been talking about out of control costs. I'm thining that if Obamma hadn't gotten this health care bill in place depsite Republican opposition, the insurance inddustry wouldn't have done squat. The party is over and this bill will dramatically reduce cost over the long term.— MikeP
- If we had a prevention oriented health care system, it would be far less expensive than our wait till you're dieing system. Basic health care should be available to all. Of course, once the cancer of capitalist greed is chocking the life out of any system, it is nearly impossible to change. All those hard working multi-millionaires won't give up the forced exchange of wealth from the working class to the aristocracy. The only people who think profit based health care is good, are those who can afford it.— JZimmerman
- Really, strandman? I've never had to wait a long time in any European country or Canada...even though I'm a U.S. citizen.— HandNik
"liberal-LEANING"? When was the last time the Inqy referred to a group as "conservative-LEANING"?- Yes, Obamacare promises "coverage" for all but will it provide treatment for all? Does Medicare ever deny a patient treatment? How about the VA? "Capitalist" insurance companies deny treatment and raise rates but, of course, government is never accused of doing exactly that same thing even though it does. 'Evil' insurance companies don't set rates - providers do. Obamacare does nothing to change this fact. Congress just passed the "Doc fix" (again) for that very reason.— PhillyTru
- Look at the amount of "profit" the non-profit insurance companies make. If you're ok with the billions they keep in reserve then you're ok with the outrageous amounts we pay to be insured. Today, the docs aren't making the money, nor are the hospitals; it's the insurance companies. By the way, in PA these companies are exempt from being regulated by the insurance commissioner; they operate under their own rules.No one controls them.— sabelotodo
Check Up is your guide to health and medicine across the Philadelphia region.
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