The US Health Care System Performs Extremely Underwhelmingly, Study Shows

A recent report of the Commonwealth Fund provided a shocking assessment regarding America’s health care system.

In contrast to comparably wealthy countries, the U.S. is last when it comes to health care, registering the highest infant and maternal mortality rates.

The Commonwealth Fund is a nonprofit organization that occasionally publishes a so-called Mirror report in which the U.S. health care system is compared to that of similarly high-income countries.

The 2021 edition of the report compares the U.S. to ten other countries, including France, Norway, Switzerland, and the U.K.

All o the countries were analyzed with regards to five fundamental aspects of health care, from access to healthcare to real-world outcomes, according to recent and publicly available information.

The three best overall performing countries were Norway, the Netherlands, and Australia, closely followed by the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.

The only metric in which the U.S. performed well was in the care process, where it came in second. In the other metrics, the results were disappointing, as the country was ranked 11th in four out of the five analyses.

The care process refers to the country’s ability to provide residents with preventive treatments, including cancer screenings, safe care in general, organized coordination between various specialized M.D.s in combination with quality communication between doctors and patients regarding risks involved by activities like drinking and smoking.

However, in all other categories, the country performed underwhelmingly at protecting the health and longevity of its residents.

The U.S. registers 5.7 deaths in 1000 live births, which is nearly three times more than Norway.

As for maternal mortality, the U.S. also ranked worst, with 17.4 deaths for every 100,000 live births, which is more than twice the rate of France, its closest peer.

Also, the country ranked worst in life expectancy over the age of 60, with 23.1 years.

Australian citizens are expected to live, on average, at least two years longer than those in the U.S.