After reading this you may have a better idea why President Obama and millions of Americans desperately wanted to overhaul the U.S.'s incredibly expensive, highly inefficient - when compared to other countries - no-universal coverage health care system.
A new report from the Commonwealth Fund based in New York ranks the U.S. healthcare system as the most expensive in the world — and the worst.
The worst when it is compared to other modern nations such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
In the fund's 2014 rankings titled "Mirror Mirror on the wall 2014," the U.S. was last or near-last in categories of health access, efficiency and equity, according to the report. Particularly in equity - how equitable the system is when looking at how high and low income people are cared for - America showed the biggest difference among all modern nations in care for high-income and low-income patients.
The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency.
The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy.
The 2014 rankings also found that England's health care system - often derided by American political conservatives as an inherently bad "socialist" health care system - was ranked #1 above all others.
The United Kingdom, which has a national health insurance program that provides for universal coverage for all citizens and a single payer system, ranked first, and Switzerland came in second.
The study's authors say the U.S. ranking was so low in part because America does not have universal health coverage, however the research was done before the Affordable Care Act (e.g., Obamacare) rolled out so the U.S. rankings may rise in the future.
From the report's executive summary:
"The United States health care system is the most expensive in the world, but this report and prior editions consistently show the U.S. under performs relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance.The U.S. spends most of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on health care — 17.7% — while Australia spends the least, 8.9%.
Among the 11 nations studied in this report—Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the U.S. ranks last, as it did in the 2010, 2007, 2006, and 2004 editions of Mirror, Mirror.
Most troubling, the U.S. fails to achieve better health outcomes than the other countries, and as shown in the earlier editions, the U.S. is last or near last on dimensions of access, efficiency, and equity. In this edition of Mirror, Mirror, the United Kingdom ranks first, followed closely by Switzerland."
The full rankings are below:
1. United Kingdom
2. Switzerland
3. Sweden
4. Australia
5. Germany & Netherlands (tied)
7. New Zealand & Norway (tied)
9. France
10. Canada
11. United States
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