I encourage you to visit the LINK and be prepared to gasp. – Ken
Article courtesy of The Commonwealth Fund where you will find alarming statistics – much too many to share here.
While the United States spends more on health care than any other high-income country, the nation often performs worse on measures of health and health care. For the U.S., a first step to improvement is ensuring that everyone has access to affordable care. Not only is the U.S. the only country we studied that does not have universal health coverage, but its health system can seem designed to discourage people from using services.
Affordability remains the top reason why some Americans do not sign up for health coverage, while high out-of-pocket costs lead nearly half of working-age adults to skip or delay getting needed care.20 The Inflation Reduction Act, which will help reduce the high cost of certain drugs and cap out-of-pocket costs for older Americans, is a step in the right direction.21 But it will take much more to make health care as easy to access as it is in other high-income countries.
A second step is containing costs. Other countries have achieved better health outcomes while spending much less on health care overall. In the U.S., high prices for health services continue to be the primary driver of this elevated spending.22 U.S. policymakers and health systems could look to some of the approaches taken by other nations to contain overall health spending, including health care and administrative costs.
A third step is better prevention and management of chronic conditions. Critical to this is developing the capacity to offer comprehensive, continuous, well-coordinated care. Decades of underinvestment, along with an inadequate supply of health care providers, have limited many Americans’ access to effective primary care.23
The findings of our international comparison demonstrate the importance of a health care system that supports chronic disease prevention and management, the early diagnosis and treatment of medical problems, affordable access to health care coverage, and cost containment — among the key functions of a high-performing system. Other countries have found ways to do these things well; the U.S. can as well.
