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May 3rd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda THURSDAY, May 3 (HealthDay News) — Despite the fact that
Americans spend more on their health care than citizens of 12 other
developed nations, a new report finds that more does not necessarily equal
better when it comes to quality of care.
The Commonwealth Fund report, led by senior research associate David
Squires, revealed that the United States is shelling out roughly $8,000
per capita for health care, according to 2009 figures. By contrast, the
Japanese and New Zealanders spend just one-third of that amount on health
care, while Norwegians and the Swiss cough up about two-thirds.
Yet Americans now fare the worst in terms of preventable asthma
fatalities among patients aged 5 to 39. The country also ranks poorly —
alongside Germany — in diabetes-related amputations. As for in-hospital
heart attack and stroke death rates, the United States stacks up as
average at best.
“It is a common assumption that Americans get more health care services
than people in other countries, but in fact we do not go to the doctor or
the hospital as often,” Squires said in a Commonwealth Fund news release.
“The higher prices we pay for health care and perhaps our greater use of
expensive technology are the more likely explanations for high health
spending in the U.S. Unfortunately, we do not seem to get better quality
for this higher spending.”
Released on Thursday, the report analyzed health spending in Sweden,
Australia, New Zealand, France, Canada, Germany, Norway, Japan,
Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as well as
the United States — the only nation among those studied that does not
provide universal health care.
The authors found that in 2009, the United States ranked No. 1
(followed by the Netherlands) in the proportion of its gross domestic
product devoted to health care: a full 17 percent. By comparison, the
other countries in the report spent 12 percent or less, with Japan ranking
as the lowest spender at about 9 percent.
Despite their country’s spending, Americans can expect poorer access to
physicians than people in other industrialized nations, with just 2.4
doctors for every 100,000 citizens. On that score, only Japan fared worse,
according to the report.
Other troubling indicators included the fact that Americans also have
the second-worst rate of physician consultations (behind Sweden),
relatively few hospital beds, fairly short hospital stays in acute-care
situations and a low rate of hospital discharges.
It wasn’t all bad news, however. The United States is No. 1 in survival
rates among breast cancer patients. It also shares the top spot (with
Norway) for survival rates among colorectal cancer patients.
But when it comes to both hospital and prescription drug costs,
Americans are at the highest peak by far.
By the time a U.S. patient is discharged from a hospital, he or she
will have cost the health care system about $18,000 on average. Care for a
similar Canadian patient comes to just $13,000, while in many other
countries (Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany) it dips
below $10,000.
When comparing the cost of the 30 most common prescription medications,
the report found that Americans are paying one-third more than Canadians
and Germans, and twice as much as their Australian, French, Dutch, British
and New Zealand counterparts.
Americans can take some solace in the report’s observation that every
nation in the study is battling a trend of ever-increasing health care
costs. Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, noted that recent
legislative changes have the potential to help improve the financials of
health care across the country.
“The Affordable Care Act gives us the opportunity to build a health
care system that delivers affordable, high-quality care to all Americans,”
Davis said in the news release. “To achieve that goal, the United States
must use all of the tools provided by the law, including new methods of
organizing, delivering and paying for health care, that will help to slow
the growth of health care costs while improving quality.”
More information
Visit the World Health Organization to learn about global
health expenditure.
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