Article on how bad the US health care system is

[ventana]

US spends most on healthcare but has worse outcomes: 6 report findings

Mariah Taylor (Email) - Tuesday, January 31st, 2023

 

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The U.S. spends two to four times as much on healthcare as most other high-income countries, but the health outcomes lag behind, a new Commonwealth Fund study found.

"U.S. Healthcare from a Global Perspective, 2022: Accelerating Spending, Worsening Outcomes" is an ongoing report by the Commonwealth Fund that compares healthcare spending and outcomes, health status and healthcare usage in the U.S. with 12 other high-income nations and the average for all 38 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development members.

The U.S. remained the only nation within the OECD that does not offer universal health coverage despite spending nearly 18 percent of its GDP on healthcare, according to the report.

Here are five other findings:

1. The U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at 77 years compared to the 80 years average for other wealthy nations.
    
2. The U.S. has the highest rates of avoidable deaths from causes such as diabetes, hypertensive disease and certain cancers.
    
3. The U.S. has the highest COVID-19 death rate among high-income countries, at 3,000 deaths in every 1 million cases between Jan. 22, 2020, and Jan. 18, 2023.
    
4. Physical assault, which includes gun violence, is seven times higher in the U.S. than in other high-income countries, except New Zealand.
    
5. U.S. infant and maternal deaths are more than triple the rate of most other high-income countries.

"Americans are living shorter, less healthy lives because our health system is not working as well as it could be," lead author Munira Gunja, senior researcher for the Commonwealth Fund's International Program in Health Policy and Practice Innovations, said in the report. "To catch up with other high-income countries, the administration and Congress would have to expand access to healthcare, act aggressively to control costs, and invest in health equity and social services we know can lead to a healthier population."

[rev ronin]

2 hours ago, ventana said:

Physical assault, which includes gun violence, is seven times higher in the U.S. than in other high-income countries, except New Zealand.

That's not definitionally true.  Gun violence is a conglomerate of four things: assault/criminal infliction of harm, legal intervention (criminal shot by potential victim or cops), suicide, and accidental discharge. Only one part of gun violence--and by no means the largest sector; that would be intentional self-inflicted GSW's--is included in physical assault.

If they've put all gun violence in those stats, they just treated a huge chunk of suicides as murders. Still very bad, but a different problem with a different approach.

[kettle]

Insert gif of a dead horse being hit with a bat. I admire your passion on the subject @ventana but how many times are we going to go over this article. 

Issues with Healthcare in the states is multifaceted and Medicare for all will benefit some but hurt others. Lots of these outcomes are western society Issues secondary to obesity 

[iconic]

Ozempic for everyone eh. 
 

on a serious note, I disagree with the term worst health “care”, I would agree to say worst health outcomes or population health. Health care is only a part of that. Attitudes towards health, economic stability, diet, nutrition, physical activity are all other factors that are hardy modifiable by the health care industry 

Edited February 12, 2023 by iconic

[SedRate]

14 hours ago, iconic said:

Ozempic for everyone eh. 
 

on a serious note, I disagree with the term worst health “care”, I would agree to say worst health outcomes or population health. Health care is only a part of that. Attitudes towards health, economic stability, diet, nutrition, physical activity are all other factors that are hardy modifiable by the health care industry 

[wilso2ar]

As far as adult disease, as the American lifestyle creeps into other countries maybe they will catch up with our poor numbers. I believe that its a combination of lack of personal responsibility and lack of education on what is actually healthy. Story this morning on NPR, I believe it was the FDA that did a literature review on whether chocolate is healthy or not.  I don't think it was original research, but that is a waste of money. It does nothing to promote health. 

As far as the infant mortality, that is probable a lack of access as well as lack of education and is something that maybe we can convince change easier than telling folks that the ads for all the products on TV are making them unhealthy.