My Perspective of Healthcare Around the World There is no doubt that the United States has the

Furthermore, the United States spends nearly double the average $3,923 for the 15 countries ("Health Care Cost," 2011).” Accordingly the U.S. throws away more money than any other country on healthcare which consequently could jeopardize the medical attention that is being provided.

In “Is US Health Really the Best in The World?”, Barbara Starfield (M.D.) discusses health indicators that result in the poor performance of the U.S. health care. Starting by covering th mortality rates from neonatal to elderly ages. Establishing that a strong primary care infrastructure, where there is access to care, includes universal health insurance, and delivers efficient care, associates to better health ranking. Explaining how the U.S. neglects to take these factors in to consideration, averaging to almost 225,000 deaths per year, because of iatrogenic damage. She also mentions income inequality as being another indicator, socioeconomic status, with the way the health system works, leading to inadequate care or failure to recognize

Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.

The United States of America, the self-proclaimed sole remaining superpower, often touts that it is the greatest nation in the world. Yet, when the data is analyzed, this claim is proven time and time again to be wrong, whether it is math or science, literacy or numbers, household income or workforce. Time and time again, and the numbers continue to slip. Healthcare is no exception. In 2012, the United States ranked thirty-second worldwide in life expectancy (Avendano and Kawachi 2014). Of the thirty-four Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations in 2010, the United States ranked twenty-sixth in infant mortality (MacDorman et al. 2010). In a 1998 study of thirteen developed nations (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States), the United States ranked, on average, twelfth. The rankings for the United States on each of the sixteen health indicators was: thirteenth for low-birth-weight percentages; thirteenth for neonatal mortality and infant mortality overall; eleventh for post neonatal mortality; thirteenth for years of potential life lost (excluding external causes); eleventh for life expectancy at one year for females and twelfth for males; tenth for life expectancy at fifteen years for females and twelfth for males; tenth for life expectancy at forty years for females and ninth for males; seventh for life expectancy at sixty-five years for

According to the Garber & Skinner (2008), the United States spends more on health care than other nations but continues to score below other nations in numerous areas of measurement. These scores in, consideration with amount spent, suggest that healthcare is the United States is inefficient. Additionally, the United States has a significantly large portion of under

Contrary to what many people believe, America’s health status is not quite “up-to-par,” to say the least. Over forty-seven million people in the United States lack health insurance; that is more than 15% of our nation’s population! At first this disturbing truth seems impossible to believe, being as America is one of the most technologically advanced and economically developed countries in the world. “We spend trillions of dollars per year on medical care. That’s nearly half of all the health dollars spent in the world. But we’ve seen our statistics. We live shorter, often sicker lives than almost every other industrialized nation. “We rank 30th in [global] life expectancy” (Adelman 2008). Knowing this brings rise to the question: why are

What does America have to show for all the money it is spending on health care? It wouldn’t be unreasonable to speculate that the U. S. should have the lowest infant mortality,

The single most important impetus for healthcare reform throughout recent history has been rising costs (Sultz, 2006). In the book called The healing of America: a global quest for better, cheaper, and fairer health care, Reid wrote that the nation’s health care system has become excessively expensive, ineffective, and unjust. Among the world’s developed nations, the US ranks near the bottom for healthcare access and quality. However, the US ranks at the top for health expenditure as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and average of $7,400 per person (Reid, 2010). Therefore, Americans are spending

Though the United States is known for having the highest quality health care in the

Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.Health care costs are far higher in the United States than in any other advanced nation, whether measured in total dollars spent, as a percentage of the economy, or on a per capita basis. And health costs here have been rising significantly faster

With these outstanding evidences the Commonwealth Fund placed United States last in terms of overall health system ranking measured by different categories of access to care, equity, quality, efficiency and healthy lives compared to other developed countries. Among those rank categories, our health system is specifically placed last in access to care and efficiency. 37% of the adults in United States reported that they did not receive the recommended treatment, surgery or follow up care due to high cost. 40% of adults who had visited emergency room reported that they could have instead just visited a regular doctor if it was available. U.S. was also ranked last in infant mortality rate and amount of deaths preventable through timely access to healthcare.

What does America have to show for all the money it is spending on health care? It wouldn’t be unreasonable to speculate that the U. S. would have the lowest infant mortality, the highest life expectancy, and the most efficient health care in the world. Unfortunately, however, that is not the case. The United States according to the same article, ranks 46th out of 48th in health care efficiency, Serbia and Brazil are the only two ranking lower. Infant mortality and life expectancy in the United States rank 167thand 44th out of 224 respectivelyaccording to the CIA World Factbook (2015). Additionally, approximately 15 percent of people in the U.S. are still uninsured. The return on investment in health care needs to have better results; a system that provides the highest quality care that leaves no one out.

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), health care spending in the United States has grown at a rate of 3.7 percent since 2012 to $2.8 trillion, costing the U.S. 17.9 percent of total its GDP and ranking it number one spending on health care (Martin et al 67; world bank). Despite having the most expensive healthcare per capita, according to The Commonwealth Fund - a private American foundation dedicated to the promotion of a high performance healthcare system - the U.S. ranks at the bottom of the top ten wealthiest nations in terms of “access, efficiency, and equity” (Davis

According to data presented by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US health care cost exceeded $ 8,000 per capita, in 2010, comparing to the next most expensive system (Norway) $5,000 per capita (OECD Health Data, 2012). Despite being the most expensive system in the word, US healthcare system has failed on many areas of performance and quality. According to OECD data, US has much lower life expectancy than other industrialized countries, also the infant mortality rate is higher than those countries. Moreover, the US is the only industrialized country that does not provide its citizens a protection of a universal health care coverage.

According to data presented by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US health care cost exceeded $ 8,000 per capita, in 2010, comparing to the next most expensive system (Norway) $5,000 per capita (OECD Health Data, 2012). Despite being the most expensive system in the world, US healthcare system has failed in many areas of performance and quality. According to OECD data, US has a much lower life expectancy than other industrialized countries, also the infant mortality rate is higher than those countries. Moreover, the US is the only industrialized country that does not provide its citizens a protection of a universal health care coverage.