Despite Americans paying nearly double that of other nations, the US fares poorly in list of 10 countries

The United States health system ranked dead last in an international comparison of 10 peer nations, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund.

In spite of Americans paying nearly double that of other countries, the system performed poorly on health equity, access to care and outcomes.

“I see the human toll of these shortcomings on a daily basis,” said Dr Joseph Betancourt, the president of the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation with a focus on healthcare research and policy.

The fund said the US would need to expand insurance coverage and make “meaningful” improvements on the amount of healthcare expenses patients pay themselves; minimize the complexity and variation in insurance plans to improve administrative efficiency; build a viable primary care and public health system; and invest in social wellbeing, rather than thrust problems of social inequity onto the health system.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      13 months ago

      For a blood clot I’ve had to wait like 16 hours in Canada, but that’s because for every examination and consultation you had to wait in a separate queue. Like talk to a doctor after 8 hours, get assigned to wait for a ultrasound, wait another two hours, go into the room, wait half an hour for a resident, become a test subject for half an hour, get a real doctor later, wait for them to consult me for another few hours, wait another hour for the script, etc.

      In the US at least they did everything in one shot for my first blood clot, after it my wait they did everything in one go and let me go