US loses out in healthcare study

Commonwealth Fund study

A new healthcare study has found that Americans spend twice as much as residents of other developed countries on healthcare. Although they spend more, the healthcare they receive is of a lower quality, less efficient, and they have the least equitable system, the healthcare study found.

The healthcare study, which was conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, ranked the US last when compared to Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.

"As an American it just bothers me that with all of our know-how, all of our wealth, that we are not assuring that people who need healthcare can get it," Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis told reporters in a telephone briefing.

Healthcare study data

More than 27,000 patients and primary care doctors were surveyed across all seven countries in 2007, 2008, and 2009 for the study.

The report found that in 2007, health spending was $7,290 per person in the United States, more than double that of any other country in the survey.

The healthcare study found that in 2007, the Australians spent $3,357, Canadians $3,895, Germans $3,588, the Netherlands $3,837 and Britons spent $2,992 per capita on health. Spending the least was New Zealand, who spent spent $2,454.

And yet Americans get less for their money, said the Commonwealth Fund's Cathy Schoen.

"We rank last on safety and do poorly on several dimensions of quality," Schoen told reporters. "We do particularly poorly on going without care because of cost. And we also do surprisingly poorly on access to primary care and after-hours care."

Measures in the healthcare report

The report looked at five measures of healthcare - quality, efficiency, access to care, equity and the ability to lead long, healthy, productive lives.

"On measures of quality the United States ranked 6th out of seven countries," the group said in a statement.

The healthcare report found that US patients with chronic conditions were the most likely to say they had been given the wrong drug or had to wait to learn of abnormal test results.

Overall Britain, whose nationalized healthcare system was widely derided by opponents of US healthcare reform, ranks first, the Commonwealth team found.

"The findings demonstrate the need to quickly implement provisions in the new health reform law and stimulus legislation that focus on strengthening primary care, realigning incentives to reward higher quality and greater value, investing in preventive care, and expanding the use of health information technology," the report reads.

Critics of reports that show Europeans or Australians are healthier than Americans point to the US lifestyle as a bigger factor than healthcare. Americans have higher rates of obesity than other developed countries, for instance.

"On the other hand, the other countries have higher rates of smoking," Davis countered. And Germany, for instance, has a much older population, more prone to chronic disease.

Every other system covers all its citizens, the report noted and said the US system, which leaves 46 million Americans or 15 percent of the population without health insurance, is the most unfair.

Davis said she hoped health reform legislation passed in March would lead to improvements.

Jodie Humphries

Jodie Humphries graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA Hons in Creative Writing in 2008. She has worked for GDS Publishing for the digital group since July 2009. She has previous experience with writing for the web, running her own website since April 2007.

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