While the U.S. healthcare system was shown to be the most expensive when compared with six other industrialized nations—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—it failed to achieve better health outcomes when compared to those countries, according to a new Commonwealth Fund updated report, Mirror Mirror On The Wall: How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally.
Overall, the U.S. stood out for not getting good value for its healthcare dollars—ranking last despite spending $7,290 per capita on healthcare in 2007 compared to the $3,837 spent per capita in the Netherlands, which ranked first. The U.S. had ranked last in value as well in the previous three Commonwealth Fund studies that compared it with the other countries.
"These findings are clearly disappointing for U.S. patients and their families. We're simply not getting commensurate return for a much higher investment in healthcare," said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis, PhD, in a telebriefing.
However, the new healthcare reform legislation may hold "substantial promise" for changing some of these results, Davis said. The Fund's analysis shows that investments in improved coverage, expanded health information technology, a stronger primary care foundation, and expanded quality and safety initiatives "could bear fruit in the upcoming decade," she said.