January 31, 2023 – The United States spends significantly more on health care than other high-income countries but has the worst health outcomes in nearly every area, a brand new report shows. Despite high health spending, affordability of health care was the highest reason Americans cited for forgoing or delaying treatment.
“Americans are living shorter and less healthy lives because our health care system is not working as well as it could,” said the report’s writer, Munira Gunja, in line with CNN“To catch up with other high-income countries, the administration and Congress would need to expand access to health care, aggressively contain costs, and invest in health equity and social services that we know can lead to healthier populations.”
Published on Tuesday by The Commonwealth Fund, the report examines health outcomes within the United States in comparison with other high-income countries on the earth, equivalent to Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
The US was the one country within the study that doesn’t guarantee medical health insurance. The authors found that 8.6% of individuals within the US were uninsured in 2021 and said the country's health care system appears “designed to discourage people from using services.” Compared to other countries, people within the US had the fewest annual doctor visits, with only 4 per 12 months.
30% of adults have multiple chronic diseases, including two or more of the next: asthma or chronic lung disease; cancer; depression, anxiety or one other mental illness; diabetes; heart disease, including heart attack; or hypertension/hypertension. Australia was the country with the second highest variety of individuals with multiple chronic diseases at 26%.
In the categories of life expectancy, deaths from physical injury, preventable deaths, infant and maternal mortality, and obesity, the United States had the worst scores among the many twelve comparison countries examined.
One of the one metrics within the report where the United States didn’t rating the worst in comparison with other countries was suicide rates. The United States ranked third with 14.1 suicides per 100,000 people. The highest suicide rates were in Japan with 14.6 suicides per 100,000 people and South Korea with 24.1 suicides per 100,000 people.