Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Wednesday, June 18th, 2014

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, 2014 Update: How the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally

Author:     KAREN DAVIS, KRISTOF STREMIKIS, DAVID SQUIRES, and CATHY SCHOEN
Source:     The Commwealth Fund
Publication Date:     16-Jun-14
 Link: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, 2014 Update: How the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally
Stephan:   Once again truth confronts myth. What no one will say, because now more people are covered under the Affordable Care Act, is that the system is still essentially an illness profit system in which wellness, if it results is lovely, but not the point. The Illness Profit System of the United States is about only one thing -- profit. And, because that is the bitter vulgar truth, we continue to have the most costly and worst healthcare in the developed world, while telling ourselves we have the best healthcare in the world. Here is the evidence. I think it is also worth noting that not a SINGLE news program or newspaper, so far as I can discern, even thought this story worthy of being reported. Click through to see the charts. To download the actual report: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/files/publications/fund-report/2014/jun/1755_davis_mirror_mirror_2014.pdf

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. underperforms relative to other countries on most dimensions of performance. 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 (Exhibit ES-1).

Expanding from the seven countries included in 2010, the 2014 edition includes data from 11 countries. It incorporates patients’ and physicians’ survey results on care experiences and ratings on various dimensions of care. It includes information from the most recent three Commonwealth Fund international surveys of patients and primary care physicians about medical practices and views of their countries’ health systems (2011-2013). It also includes information on health care outcomes featured in The […]

Read the Full Article