[EQ] How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall:
How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally, 2010 Update

 

Karen Davis, Cathy Schoen, and Kristof Stremikis
Commonwealth Fund June 2010

Available online PDF [34p.] at: http://bit.ly/bPSyNT

Chartpack (859K PPT)
Chartpack (274K PDF)

Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance, relative to other countries.

This report—an update to three earlier editions—includes data from seven countries and incorporates patients' and physicians' survey results on care experiences and ratings on dimensions of care. Compared with six other nations—Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—the U.S. health care system ranks last or next-to-last on five dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives.

Newly enacted health reform legislation in the U.S. will start to address these problems by extending coverage to those without and helping to close gaps in coverage—leading to improved disease management, care coordination, and better outcomes over time.

Interactive tool:

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/usr_doc/site_docs/slideshows/MirrorMirror/MirrorMirror.html

 

 

Other New International Resources 

·         Health Care Abroad and Reform at Home: The latest podcast from the Fund's "New Directions in Health Care" series examines the costs of providing medical services in other parts of the world and considers how health care reform might change the bottom line in this country. 

·         International Profiles of Health Care Systems: These overviews, covering Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.S., provide detailed information for each nation on health insurance coverage and benefits, health system financing, delivery system organization, quality assurance mechanisms, efforts to improve efficiency and control costs, and recent innovations and reforms.

 

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