Health Care Statistics-Assessing Health Care in the U.S.-Part III of a III Part Series
(7/19/08)- The 2nd Annual scorecard from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group in New York showed that this country spends more than twice as much on each person for health care as does most other industrialized countries. What do we get for our money? We are in last place among those countries in preventing deaths through use of timely and effective medical care.
Access to health care in the U.S. has worsened since the fund's first report card in 2006 as more people (75 million) are believed to lack adequate health insurance or are uninsured altogether.
The study assesses the U.S. on 37 health care measures, and found that the cost of health care continues to rise steadily without a commensurate improvement in results.
We did improve the number of preventable deaths for people under 75 to 110 deaths for every 100,000 people, compared with 115 deaths five years ago, but other countries have made greater improvements. The U.S. now ranks last in preventable mortality, just below Ireland and Portugal, with France doing the best, followed by Japan and Australia.
The report also emphasizes the inefficiencies of the American Health System. The administrative costs of the medical insurance system consume much more of the current health care dollar, about 7.5% than in other countries.
Bringing those costs down to the level of 5% or so as in Germany and Switzerland, where private insurance play a significant role would save an estimated $50 billion a year, according to Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund.
Please see: Health Care Statistics:
Part I-National Hospital Discharges
Health Care Statistics: Part II-
Ambulatory Medical Care
FOR AN INFORMATIVE AND PERSONAL ARTICLE ON PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS WHEN SELECTING A NURSING HOME SEE OUR ARTICLE "How to Select a Nursing Home"
Allan Rubin
posted July 19, 2008
http://www.therubins.com
e-mail: hrubin12@nyc.rr.com or rubin@brainlink.com