Measuring the Health of Nations

Posted on January 8, 2008  Comments (5)

Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis

In a Commonwealth Fund-supported study comparing preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries, researchers found that the United States placed last. While the other nations improved dramatically between the two study periods (1997–98 and 2002–03) the U.S. improved only slightly on the measure.

Rankings: 1) France 2) Japan 3) Australia 4) Spain 5) Italy 6) Canada… 18) Portugal 19) USA. Maybe the United States is last but still not significantly behind?

According to the authors, if the U.S. had been able reduce amenable mortality to the average rate achieved by the three top-performing countries, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths annually by the end of the study period.

It might seem like a stretch to compare the lowest ranked country to the average of the top 3, but, for all those that feel the USA is the best health care system it raises the questions of why they don’t think 100,000 annual deaths is a significant enough problem to lower their opinion of the current system. And remember the USA system costs something like twice as much as the average system: up to 16% of GNP in 2006.

I must say I would rather have the Toyota mindset shown by those talking about the USA health system instead of the claims of how the current USA health system is number 1. In Toyota’s horrible last year they still had a profit of about $14 billion (I believe something like 20 companies have every made that much). The United States health system sure has some things to point to positively but the system seems to be losing ground to the rest of the world more and more quickly while many cling to a belief it is the best system around.

Related: Evidence-based Management – posts on improving health care – Improving Hospital Performance – articles on improvement health care – Best Research University Rankings – Top 10 Manufacturing Countries – Dr. Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases of Western Management

5 Responses to “Measuring the Health of Nations”

  1. International Health Care System Performance at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog
    February 9th, 2008 @ 1:33 pm

    National health spending – Percent of GDP: Australia 9.5%; Canada 9.8%; Germany 10.7%; Netherlands 9.2%; New Zealand 9.0%; UK 8.3%; USA 16%…

  2. Curious Cat » USA Spent $2.1 Trillion on Health Care in 2006
    February 20th, 2008 @ 10:27 am

    Health care spending reached a total of $2.1 trillion, or $7,026 per person in 2006, up from $6,649 per person in 2005…

  3. CuriousCat: Our Failed Health-care System
    September 10th, 2008 @ 8:32 am

    The issue many fail to understand is how much the excessive costs of health care in the USA harm the ability of companies in the USA to compete – many even fail to appreciate the human cost of tens of millions of people without health insurance…

  4. USA Spends Record $2.3 trillion ($7,681 Per Person) on Health Care in 2008 at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog
    January 5th, 2010 @ 8:08 pm

    [...] USA Spent $2.2 Trillion on Health Care in 2007 – International Health Care System Performance – Resources to Help Improve the Health Care System – Applying Disruptive Thinking to the [...]

  5. USA Spends $7,960 Compared to Around $3,800 for Other Rich Countries on Health Care with No Better Health Results at Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog
    January 26th, 2012 @ 7:04 am

    [...] Measuring the Health of Nations – USA Paying More for Health Care – Traveling for Health Care – resources for [...]

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