US Spends More but is Less Healthy than Other Rich Countries

1Athena1

Not specifically cancer related, but though I would share (my bold)...

"The United States is among the wealthiest nations in the world, but it is far from the healthiest. For many years, Americans have been dying at younger ages than people in almost all other high-income countries. This health disadvantage prevails even though the U.S. spends far more per person on health care than any other nation. To gain a better understanding of this problem, the NIH asked the National Research Council and the IOM to investigate potential reasons for the U.S. health disadvantage and to assess its larger implications.

No single factor can fully explain the U.S. health disadvantage. It likely has multiple causes and involves some combination of inadequate health care, unhealthy behaviors, adverse economic and social conditions, and environmental factors, as well as public policies and social values that shape those conditions. Without action to reverse current trends, the health of Americans will probably continue to fall behind that of people in other high-income countries. The tragedy is not that the U.S. is losing a contest with other countries, but that Americans are dying and suffering from illness and injury at rates that are demonstrably unnecessary."

http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2013/US-Health-in-International-Perspective-Shorter-Lives-Poorer-Health.aspx

This is a study from the Institute of Medicine, which is probably the most highly regarded biomedical panel in the country. It is part of the National Academy of Sciences.

Anonymous

Interesting.  Though when I open up one of the charts for "Causes of Death for Women before Age 50" it appears that the overall difference in "years of life lost" is 1/2 a year.  Am I reading that correct?