Americans, despite spending the most on health care, are sickest and die youngest compared to nine other high-income countries, according to a new report.
The reportreleased Thursday by the independent research group The Commonwealth Fund, found that the United States has the worst-performing health care system overall despite spends the most of all countries in the study.
Using data from the World Health Organization and more since the pandemic began in 2020, the study looked at five key healthcare interventions, including equality in healthaccess to care, care process, administrative efficiency and health outcomes.
This is how the countries were ranked based on total points:
1. Australia
2. The Netherlands
3. Great Britain
4. New Zealand
5. France
6. Sweden
7. Canada
8. Switzerland
9. Germany
10. United States
“The differences in overall performance between most countries are relatively small, but the only clear outlier is the United States, where health system performance is dramatically lower,” the report said.
In addition to ranking last overall, the United States also ranked lowest for specific health measures including access to care for health outcomes. Australia and the Netherlands, the two countries with the highest overall rankings, also have the lowest health care expenditures, while the United States spends the most among the group.
“As far as life expectancy and avoidable deathsThe US comes last,” the report says press release noted.
But all countries have strengths and weaknesses despite their overall ranking.
“No country is at the top or bottom in all areas of performance. Even the highest-ranked country – Australia – does less well, for example, on measures of access to care and care processes. And even the United States, with the lowest- ranked health system, ranks second in the care process domain,” the report states.