US Healthcare

US Healthcare

The World Health Report 2000, Health Systems: Improving Performance, ranked the U.S. health care system 37th in the world, a result that has been discussed frequently during the current debate on U.S. health care reform and the passage of the PCAA. Evidence shows that 36 other countries perform better than the US in ensuring the health of their residents. The framework of the WHO rankings proposed that health systems should be assessed by comparing the extent to which public health and medical care were contributing to serious social objectives; such as improving health, decreasing health disparities, guarding households from destitution due to increasing medical expenses, and providing services that are responsive and that respect the dignity of patients.

Many people the U.S. health arena claim that international comparison is not useful because of the uniqueness of the United States.  With that said Murray; etal. stated in 2010, “It is hard to ignore that in 2006, the United States was number 1 in terms of health care spending per capita but ranked 39th for infant mortality, 43rd for adult female mortality, 42nd for adult male mortality, and 36th for life expectancy. These facts have fueled a question now being discussed in academic circles, as well as by government and the public: Why do we spend so much to get so little?

                                                                     Reference

Murry, C., Phil, D., & Frenk, J. (2010, January 14). Ranking 37th — Measuring the Performance

          of the U.S. Health Care System. In The New England Journal of Medicine. Retrieved  

         June 4, 2013, from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0910064