Our Highly Inefficient Health Care System

TW: There is this perception that Americans have the best health care system in the world. We certainly have the most expensive, but the best? Not really. The best would not only provide great health care to the many (we certainly do not provide systematic care to the all) but do so efficiently.

We spend 2.5 times what the Europeans and Canada spend per capita to achieve inferior results per the study. The costs are escalating at an unsustainable rate yet the public refuses to support significant reform. It is our own fault. The system is failing but we are afraid to change, or at least those vested interests are so entrenched they prevent change.

From AP:

"...The report from the Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs of major companies, says America's health care system has become a liability in a global economy...Americans spend $2.4 trillion a year on health care. The Business Roundtable report says Americans in 2006 spent $1,928 per capita on health care, at least two-and-a-half times more per person than any other advanced country

...the report took those costs and factored benefits into the equation.
It compares statistics on life expectancy, death rates and even cholesterol readings and blood pressures. The health measures are factored together with costs into a 100-point "value" scale...The United States is 23 points behind five leading economic competitors: Canada, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and France. The five nations cover all their citizens, and though their systems differ, in each country the government plays a much larger role than in the U.S.

...What's important is that we measure and compare actual value — not just how much we spend on health care, but the performance we get back in return," said H. Edward Hanway, CEO of the insurance company Cigna..."