Healthcare USA

There is no doubt that healthcare in the US is world class for those who can afford it, but overall healthcare in the US is abysmal. The main indices used to assess a healthcare system include infant the mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, and life expectancy. A direct comparison of infant mortality in the US with other countries is difficult due to differences in reporting, but by most measures it is significantly worse in the US than in similar countries. Maternal mortality and life expectancy are readily comparable though.

The maternal mortality rate in the US was 32.9 deaths per 100,000 births in 2021, ten times the comparable country average of 3.2 deaths per 100,000 births. And life expectancy in the US was 77.5 in 2022, 4.7 years less than the comparable country average of 82.2 years. Other indices, such as morbidity rates and years lived with disease, give similar results, making the US healthcare system the worst performer of the OECD nations. It is, however, a world leader on cost.¹

The cost of healthcare in the US was $13,432 per capita in 2023. This was nearly double the comparable country average of $7,393 per capita, and nearly $4,000 more than Switzerland, the second most expensive at $9,688. Despite the astronomical cost, 8% of the US population, some 26.6 million Americans, did not have health insurance in 2022. This is a vast improvement on the 16% uninsured in 2010 thanks to the Obama administration.²

Even those who are insured can be bankrupted by their out-of-pocket medical expenses, an all-to-common problem in the US. In a survey of 910 debtors who declared bankruptcy from 2013-2016, 37% claimed that medical expenses were a major reason they declared bankruptcy, and a further 21.5% said that medical expenses were partly to blame. To someone living in a wealthy country with public healthcare, the fact that Americans are having to declare bankruptcy because of their medical bills is obscene.³

References

1. www.healthsystemtracker.org/indicator/quality/maternal-mortality/#Maternal%20mortality%20rate%20per%20100,000%20live%20births,%C2%A0by%20maternal%20age,%202018-2021 – Maternal mortality rates. www.healthsystemtracker.org/indicator/health-well-being/life-expectancy/ – Life expectancy.
2. www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/#Health%20expenditures%20as%20percent%20of%20GDP,%201970-2022 – Cost of healthcare in the US. www.healthsystemtracker.org/indicator/access-affordability/percent-uninsured/ – No health insurance.
3. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6366487/ – Medical bankruptcy.