U.S. scores dead last again in healthcare study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans spend twice as much as residents of
other developed countries on healthcare, but get lower quality, less
efficiency and have the least equitable system, according to a report
released on Wednesday.

The United States ranked last when compared to six other countries --
Britain, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, the
Commonwealth Fund report found.

"As an American it just bothers me that with all of our know-how, all of
our wealth, that we are not assuring that people who need healthcare can
get it," Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis told reporters in a
telephone briefing.

Previous reports by the nonprofit fund, which conducts research into
healthcare performance and promotes changes in the U.S. system, have
been heavily used by policymakers and politicians pressing for
healthcare reform.

Davis said she hoped health reform legislation passed in March would
lead to improvements.

The current report uses data from nationally representative patient and
physician surveys in seven countries in 2007, 2008, and 2009. It is
available here

In 2007, health spending was $7,290 per person in the United States,
more than double that of any other country in the survey.

Australians spent $3,357, Canadians $3,895, Germans $3,588, the
Netherlands $3,837 and Britons spent $2,992 per capita on health in
2007. New Zealand spent the least at $2,454.

This is a big rise from the Fund's last similar survey, in 2007, which
found Americans spent $6,697 per capita on healthcare in 2005, or 16
percent of gross domestic product.

"We rank last on safety and do poorly on several dimensions of quality,"
Schoen told reporters. "We do particularly poorly on going without care
because of cost. And we also do surprisingly poorly on access to primary
care and after-hours care."

NETHERLANDS RANKED FIRST OVERALL

The report looks at five measures of healthcare -- quality, efficiency,
access to care, equity and the ability to lead long, healthy, productive
lives.

Britain, whose nationalized healthcare system was widely derided by
opponents of U.S. healthcare reform, ranks first in quality while the
Netherlands ranked first overall on all scores, the Commonwealth team found.

U.S. patients with chronic conditions were the most likely to say they
gotten the wrong drug or had to wait to learn of abnormal test results.

"The findings demonstrate the need to quickly implement provisions in
the new health reform law," the report reads.

Critics of reports that show Europeans or Australians are healthier than
Americans point to the U.S. lifestyle as a bigger factor than
healthcare. Americans have higher rates of obesity than other developed
countries, for instance.

"On the other hand, the other countries have higher rates of smoking,"
Davis countered. And Germany, for instance, has a much older population
more prone to chronic disease.

Every other system covers all its citizens, the report noted and said
the U.S. system, which leaves 46 million Americans or 15 percent of the
population without health insurance, is the most unfair.

"The lower the performance score for equity, the lower the performance
on other measures. This suggests that, when a country fails to meet the
needs of the most vulnerable, it also fails to meet the needs of the
average citizen," the report reads.