A new analysis by the Commonwealth Fund found that the United States has the worst health care system among 11 rich countries in the world despite spending more money in the sector than all of its peers.
The analysis examined 71 different performance measures across five broad categories, including access to care, the care process, administrative efficiency, equity and healthcare outcomes. The U.S. came out in last place, behind Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
New release: Our latest ranking of health care system performance across 11 countries shows the U.S. comes in last overall in providing equitably accessible, high-quality health care.
Explore the findings here: https://t.co/lCXXMGQOaH #MirrorMirror21— Commonwealth Fund (@commonwealthfnd) August 4, 2021
America’s health care system ranked last in each of the five categories except the care process. The top-performers overall were Norway, the Netherlands and Australia.
While the United States ranked highly in mammography rates, flu vaccinations and the percentage of adults who spoke with their doctor about smoking, nutrition and drinking, more than half of low-income Americans said health care was cost-prohibitive for them. The U.S. also ranked last in life expectancy and had the highest infant mortality rate of the 11 countries.
“The U.S. has two health care systems. For Americans with the means and insurance to have a regular doctor and reported experiences with their day-to-day care are relatively good, but for those who lack access, the consequences are stark,” Eric Schneider, the report’s author and senior vice president for policy and research, told The Hill.
The Commonwealth Fund is a health care advocacy group seeking to “promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society’s most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, and people of color.” The U.S. has placed last in the fund’s measure of wealth health care systems in every iteration since 2004.
“If health care were an Olympic sport, the U.S. might not qualify in a competition with other high-income nations,” Schneider added. (RELATED: Fauci-Led Agency Funded Abusive Animal Experiments Promising To Kill Dozens Of Beagles)
Despite the poor rankings, the United States spends 17% of GDP on health care, more than any of the other 10 nations.