Americans, despite spending the most on health care, are the sickest and die youngest compared to nine other high-income countries, according to a new report.
The report, released Thursday by independent research group The Commonwealth Fund, found that the United States has the worst-performing health care system overall, despite spend the most of all nations in the study.
Using data from the World Health Organization and other sources since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the study looked at five key measures of health care, including health equity, access to care, process of care, administrative efficiency and health outcomes.
Here is the ranking of countries according to the overall score:
1. Australia
2. Netherlands
3. United Kingdom
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 one obvious exception is the United States, where health system performance is considerably lower,” the report says.
In addition to ranking last overall, the United States also ranks last on specific health measures, including access to care and health outcomes. Australia and the Netherlands, the two highest-ranking countries overall, also have the lowest health spending, while the United States is the highest spender in this group.
“When it comes to life expectancy And preventable deaths“The United States comes in last,” the report’s press release said.
But despite their overall ranking, all countries have strengths and weaknesses.
“No country leads or trails in all performance areas. Even the highest-ranking country, Australia, performs worse, for example, on measures of access to care and process of care. And even the United States, which has the lowest-ranking health system, ranks second in the process of care area,” the report says.
