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Home › Relationships

Relationships | 07/17/2008 4:07 pm

U.S. Health Care Ranks No. 1 in Spending, No. 19 in Preventing Deaths

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

The United States is spending the most money on health care out of 19 industrialized countries included in a study released today and, at the same time, has the most preventable deaths.

The study reveals that the U.S. spends more than twice as much money per person for health care compared to other industrialized countries, but ranked last place below Ireland and Portugal in preventing deaths through use of timely and effective medical care, according to the report by the Commonwealth Fund’s analysis of World Health Organization data.

Although the U.S. has reduced the number of deaths for people under the age of 75 to 110 deaths for every 100,000 people, compared with 115 deaths five years earlier, other countries have made greater strides. France, Japan and Australia ranked as the top three in preventing mortality.

Read more about: Death, death rate, Health, Healthcare, Mortality, News

9 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Elizabeth Bennett
This is so bizarre, but not surprising. Anyone who saw Michael Moore’s film Sicko or the PBS documentary Sick Around the World pretty much knows this already. The figure I find absolutely disgraceful is the U.S. infant mortality figures. That statistic, thought by some to be indicative of a failed state when it is too high, finds the US at 180 out of 222 nations, meaning that dozens of nations are doing better for babies than we are. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/20… Anyone who has not seen Sick Around the World who is interested in solving the health care crisis in the US may want to look for it. It compares the different ways different countries have found their way to universal health care. In many of the nations they had to reduce the pay doctors could expect, in order for it to work. Still, the majority of US doctors want a single payer health care system. No one running for President from a major party is advocating a single payer system.
By Elizabeth Bennett on 07/17/2008 11:26 pm
Frank Peterson
Elizabeth here is another article in the Financial Times. Infant mortality in this country ranks way down—most European countries have better health care and their citizens live a lot longer. In Japna the average woman can expect to probably reach the high 80’s; in the US 10 or more years less than that. here are some figures from Wiki: # Spain:… . . 81.02 years in 2002, 82.31 years in 2005[citation needed] # Australia: . . 80 years in 2002, 80.39 years in 2005[citation needed] # Italy:… … 79.25 years in 2002, 79.68 years in 2005[citation needed] # France: … .79.05 years in 2002, 79.60 years in 2005[citation needed] # Germany: . . 77.78 years in 2002, 78.65 years in 2005[citation needed] # UK: … … 77.99 years in 2002, 78.4 years in 2005[citation needed] # USA: … . . 77.4 years in 2002, 77.7 years in 2005[cit and that’s just Europe. Essentially we spend more for less. and that ius a national disgrace.
By Frank Peterson on 07/18/2008 12:27 am
Frank Peterson
Elizabeth: I just e-mailed the site admins about hiding these important topics.
By Frank Peterson on 07/18/2008 12:43 am
Frank Peterson
The US ranks 42 in the world in life expectancy—every Euopean country but one exceeds us.
By Frank Peterson on 07/18/2008 1:07 am
Frank Peterson
Here’s an article in the NY TImes re this topic and it’s an eye-opener; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/business/17health.html?ref=health
By Frank Peterson on 07/18/2008 1:17 am
Elizabeth Bennett
It is really terrifying, isn’t it? It costs so much and the quality is not so good. Or as Pogo said, We have met the enemy and he is us. Bin Laden has nothing on our health care system. Someone said this is the wrong phrase, that it is not about health, certainly not about care and anything but a system.
By Elizabeth Bennett on 07/18/2008 12:06 pm
Frank Peterson
As usual Elizabeth, you’ve put this near disaster into a few superb words.. Thank you :-)
By Frank Peterson on 07/18/2008 1:11 pm
Maggi D
I really don’t think it is the doctors. It is the drug companies (who also sell the newest machines), the insurance companies, and the polititians who are in their pockets.
By Maggi D on 07/20/2008 3:11 am
Elizabeth Bennett
Mostly I think the insurance companies. The doctors, a majority recently polled, want a single payer system, which would wipe out the insurance companies. The insurance companies cause a great deal of waste in the system. Not that the pharmaceutical companies are good guys, but they could be tamed substantially if Congress would wise up and allow negotiated prices for Medicare medications. Or wise up even further and set up a single payer system for the whole USA instead of spending money on stupid things that do not save lives. [I include most war in this category.]
By Elizabeth Bennett on 07/20/2008 2:25 pm