America's Health Care Compares Poorly, Part II

America ranks last in potential years of life lost to diseases of the circulatory system and the respiratory system.  

Gerard F. Anderson, Ph.D., and Patricia Markovich, Johns Hopkins researchers, have compared the performance of several nations' health systems in a report supported by The Commonwealth Fund, entitled Multinational Comparisons of Health Systems Data, 2008.  We ranked last among eight developed nations in potential years of life lost to diseases of the circulatory system.  (Click to enlarge graph.)

America suffered about 50 percent more potential years of life lost when compared to the next poorest performing country -- the United Kingdom.   France and Switzerland suffered fewer than half the potential years of life lost as the United States.

America also suffered the most potential years of life lost to diseases of the respiratory system.  Five of the eight countries compared had fewer than half as many potential years of life lost as did America.  (Click to enlarge graph.)

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will help America improve its performance on these measures, and those discussed yesterday.  Health reform will provide improved access to preventive services and more timely diagnosis and treatment of disease.  

Our cardiologists and vascular surgeons, our endocrinologists and pulmonologists are among the best in the world.  Health reform will get patients to primary care physicians early so that some disease can be prevented.  Because more of us will have regular access to primary care physicians, more disease will get diagnosed early.  This will enable patients to see specialists soon enough that they will be able to use their skill and knowledge to heal more of us.

America's Health Care Compares Poorly

America suffers far more Years of Potential Life Lost for several disease categories than do other developed countries that provide universal coverage for their populations.  The years of potential life lost calculation considers the age at death, so more potential years of life are lost when a 20-year-old dies from any cause than when a 74-year-old dies from the same cause.

Gerard F. Anderson, Ph.D., and Patricia Markovich, Johns Hopkins researchers, have compared the performance of several nations' health systems in a report supported by The Commonwealth Fund, entitled Multinational Comparisons of Health Systems Data, 2008. Their research shows that the United States health system performed best in its treatment of malignant neoplasms (cancer) as you'll see in the following graph.  

While this was the best performance of the America's health system, we still ranked in the bottom half of the eight countries compared, with four countries suffering fewer potential years of life lost per 100,000 people, and three countries suffering more potential years of life lost per 100,000.   France, which has the world's top rated health sytem, turned in the worst performance of the eight countries compared.  (Click to enlarge graph.)

As I discussed here, America ranks last among eight nations in the potential years of life lost due to diabetes.  The United States' suffered nearly four times more potential years of life lost per 100,000 as did France, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.  America suffered about 50 percent more potential years of life lost per 100,000 than the next worst performing country -- New Zealand.

Tomorrow, we'll look at how the United States compared with other countries in potential years of life lost to circulatory and respiratory diseases.