US Spends Most on Health Care of Rich Countries But Has Worst Life Expectancy

[riversedge]

Source: Truthout




A new report uncovers the myriad ways in which the U.S. is a global outlier in health spending and health outcomes.

Sharon Zhang , February 1, 2023


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A report released on Tuesday found that, in 2021, the latest year for which data is available, the U.S. spent 17.8 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care. This is nearly twice the proportion that the average country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) — a group of 38 wealthy countries in the global North — spent on health care in 2021, or about 9.6 percent.

The difference between U.S. spending and that of other OECD countries is also stark when broken down by dollars per capita. The U.S. spent over $10,600 per capita on health care in 2021. This is nearly double the per capita spending of the next highest country, Germany, and three or four times the amount spent by South Korea, New Zealand, and Japan, which each spent about $3,000 to $4,000 per capita.


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The U.S. has the highest number of avoidable deaths per population, with 336 avoidable deaths per 100,000 people versus 225 on average in OECD countries; the highest infant and parental mortality, with 23.8 parents dying per 100,000 live births versus the OECD average of 9.8 deaths; the highest COVID-19 death rate; and by far the highest number of deaths from assault, due in large part to gun violence, with 7.4 deaths due to assault per 100,000 people. This is nearly seven times higher than the country with the next highest assault death rate, New Zealand, which has 1.3 assault deaths per 100,000 people.

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As a result of high costs, millions of Americans are avoiding or putting off seeking care. Gallup polling from earlier this month found that 38 percent of Americans report that they or a family member put off seeking medical treatment in 2022, an all-time high. Over one in four Americans said that they had put off treatment for a “very” or “somewhat” serious condition.

Read more: https://truthout.org/articles/us-spends-most-on-health-care-of-rich-countries-but-has-worst-life-expectancy/

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[IbogaProject]

1. But we have the best profits

USA !!

[SouthernDem4ever]

16. Yes!

They are more worried about squeezing every dime from our system than providing good care for a reasonable price.

[Diamond_Dog]

2. Kicking with disgust

[OneCrazyDiamond]

3. I bet it levels out

if you exclude anti-vaxxer, anti-masker, anti-science MAGATS. Imagine our healthcare system without their bloated diabetic "contributions".

[paleotn]

4. Best healthcare in the world....if you can afford it.

If you can't, it's poorcare or nocare. If you're unfortunate enough to have a serious health crises, and aren't independently wealthy, welcome to personal bankruptcy.

What a country!!!

[Evolve Dammit]

8. Exactly

[hunter]

17. That's not true. Plenty of wealthy people receive inappropriate medical care here in the U.S.A..

Sometimes it kills them.

It is true that wealthy people with excellent insurance are less likely to go bankrupt.

When there are lawsuits everybody pays for those.

[Hortensis]

18. Fortunately, a very large majority of Americans can afford to get medical care.

Insurance so inadequate to the need that it causes genuine hardship (selling one's home) instead of just hurting bad, is still a huge issue. We spent most of the first 20 years of our marriage paying off medical debt in spite of being insured, but, like most, we got the care we and our children needed.

According to the 2020 census 91% of Americans had insurance for all or part of that year. 8.6% did not have insurance at any point during the year.

Since these census statistics are for insured healthcare, uninsured care, such as when people go to an ER knowing they won't be paying and cancer care for un/underinsured children, is not mentioned. But medical care is real, uninsured or insured.

In 2020, private health insurance coverage continued to be more prevalent than public coverage at 66.5 percent and 34.8 percent, respectively.

Of the subtypes of health insurance coverage, employment-based insurance was the most common, covering 54.4 percent of the population for some or all of the calendar year, followed by Medicare (18.4 percent), Medicaid (17.8 percent), direct-purchase coverage (10.5 percent), TRICARE (2.8 percent), and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) coverage (0.9 percent).

Between 2018 and 2020, the rate of private health insurance coverage decreased by 0.8 percentage points to 66.5 percent, driven by a 0.7 percentage-point decline in employment-based coverage to 54.4 percent.

Between 2018 and 2020, the rate of public health insurance coverage increased by 0.4 percentage points to 34.8 percent.

In 2020, 87.0 percent of full-time, year-round workers had private insurance coverage, up from 85.1 percent in 2018. In contrast, those who worked less than full-time, year-round were less likely to be covered by private insurance in 2020 than in 2018 (68.5 percent in 2018 and 66.7 percent in 2020).

Are we where we should be? No. But medical care is not only far more available than agitprop spreaders try to make people believe, as shown above, but also far better. Of course, better than similar in to what tRump calls "shithole countries" wouldn't need to be much of a bar to reach, but I'm not making that comparison. Much of the best care on the planet is widely available.

[NullTuples]

5. Financial sites: USA health care the most profitable for investors

[bullimiami]

6. Our bad food and lack of public health initiatives is big business.

[Kennah]

7. Not the only health outcome where we don't excel

[mpcamb]

9. "US Spends Most on Health Care" with worst outcomes.... indicating

that money is going into the wrong hands and wrong places.

[Evolve Dammit]

10. #1 cause of bankruptcy: health care debt. It's a fucking criminal enterprise.

[IronLionZion]

11. The best profits in the world

Some people have gotten rich from our expensive system while many others just die.

[Irish_Dem]

12. Translation: The US has the most corrupt healthcare system in the world.

[News Junkie]

13. Obamacare was a step, not the endgame

We need Medicare for All. Full stop. That needs to a staple of who we are on the left.

[dlk]

14. US healthcare is as much about profits as it is about outcomes

Not everything should be monetized.

[ck4829]

15. ...