A first-ever detailed scoring of the U.S. health care system shows serious deficiencies in most critical areas of care, with an overall rating of just 66 out of a possible 100.
The nonprofit Commonwealth Fund Foundation, which unveiled its report card on American health care last week, predicted that $100 billion and 150,000 lives could be saved each year if higher standards were applied to the U.S. health care system.
They found that health care in the U.S., while more expensive than in most developed nations, lagged in many key indicators — with wide variations in the quality of care by race, income and other factors.
The report should serve as a wake-up call, said Dr. Marsha Lillie-Blanton, vice president of the Medicare Policy Project and a director of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Clearly, there are many disparities [in health care] that must be addressed, and this report is but the first step in informing people what they are,” Lillie-Blanton told The Examiner.
Until people understand these disparities, and can sift through the hard data backing up the assertions, the problem won’t be fully addressed, she said.
The study looked at 37 national indicators from patient services, outcomes of care, access to services, and equality among services offered to different types of patients by age, income and race.
According to the report, the U.S. ranks 15th out of 19 countries for deaths that could be prevented by better health services, and found 115 people per 100,000 Americans died every year from illnesses that could be prevented or better treated before age 75.
In the top three ranked countries, only 75 to 84 per 100,000 died of such causes.
According to the Foundation’s Mary Mahon, this is the first rating to assess the country’s health care system across all key aspects of care and compares national averages to standards of performance.
It is also the first to offer international comparisons as well as comparisons within the U.S. by state.
For example, for the 12 months ending in December 2005, the District had the nation’s second highest rate of infant mortality surpassed only by Mississippi.
The report card also showed that those with the highest income levels sustained the best care, while those at the lowest tier had the lowest levels of access to care and were often uninsured.
One third of adults younger than 65, some 61 million Americans, were either underinsured or had been uninsured during the previous year. Thirty-four percent said that they had difficulty paying their medical bills or had new debt from unpaid medical bills.
Mahon told The Examiner the report was only the first step in placing the issue of the state of U.S. health care before both the public and policy makers.
“We’ve made the diagnosis,” she said, and over the coming months and years the fund’s health care commission will develop recommendations for improvements and establish benchmarks for providers and others to follow.
“The commission will help in setting strategies as a way forward,” she said.
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