The Patriot Post® · Does the U.S. Have the World's Worst Health Care System?

Another week, another “completely unbiased” study finds the U.S. medical system at the bottom of those in 11 developed nations. The report comes from the Commonwealth Fund, a leftist foundation dealing with health care policy. It regularly “discovers” that America’s health care system is inferior to those of European nations.

This study includes 10 other developed nations, all of which coincidentally have socialized medical systems. The five main indicators on which the study focuses are “quality,” “access,” “efficiency,” “equity” and “healthier lives,” each of which is subject to the interpretation of the Commonwealth Fund.

Take “efficiency,” which we define as doing the most with the least. However, Commonwealth defines it in this case as the percentage of the GDP spent on medical care. The study has its agenda.

Oddly, the report rates the United Kingdom’s as the overall best system. But the National Health Service has undergone a series of major scandals in recent years, especially those involving downright neglect of patients with chronic or terminal illnesses. These scandals have caused some single-payer advocates to make France’s system their new poster child.

The study is notable as much for what it chooses to include as for what it chooses to ignore. For example, the survey neglects to mention America’s innovations in medicine, which have improved treatment and care everywhere. It also ignores America’s great success in increasing cancer survival rates. A five-year American Cancer Society study reports our success rates surpassed the UK in 23 of 25 cancers.

One study criterion lowering our standing is “equity,” a word that to the Left means the downtrodden masses receiving treatment equal to that of the wealthiest. Predictably, Commonwealth finds that people in the U.S. go without needed care, causing us to wonder why so many have failed to sign up for ObamaCare, which provides everyone with excellent and equitable health care, cheaper than before. Or so Democrats would have us believe.

Another criterion, the infant mortality rate, also hurts the U.S. position. But comparing infant mortality internationally is pointless. Our immensely diverse racial and ethnic population profoundly affects our infant mortality, as does the fact we actually count early premature births as live births. Many nations do not. The other 10 nations have a total combined population that barely exceeds ours (Germany at 81 million is largest) and all but two have near homogeneous populations. It is, however, interesting to note we’re right up with the other nations in overall life expectancy. It ranges from 80-82 years among all 11.

The U.S. also ranks low on measures of quality, but since scandal-plagued UK ranks first in quality, we’ll just let the silliness of that ranking speak for itself.

Also ignored is the massive regulation the U.S. medical system endures. And it’s fast becoming far worse. Hospitals and doctors currently use a system of 18,000 codes to describe medical services on invoices. But the new Obama codes expand the number to around 140,000, forcing absurd detail on the services provided. The cost will be enormous, requiring thousands of additional coding specialists. It addition, Medicare and Medicaid’s consistently poor reimbursement rate to doctors and hospitals makes it so difficult to operate profitably that many doctors are refusing Medicare and Medicaid patients or quitting altogether. That’s what we call inefficiency.

One of the greatest flaws in all Commonwealth studies is their reliance on self-reporting, i.e., asking people (often loaded) survey questions. Their subjectivity makes the responses extremely unreliable.

None of this is to say the American system has been ideal – it has its fair share of problems. (Ever try to find out how much something costs before you go in for repairs?) But before Medicare and Medicaid bullied their way into our lives (not to mention ObamaCare of Veterans Affairs), our medical system was far less expensive and far friendlier to all involved. Half a century ago, few people had medical insurance, but that problem could have been solved without the gargantuan government bureaucracy crushing our medical system today. As with all leftist organizations, Commonwealth believes that Europeans do everything better. But their darling ObamaCare, which proves the U.S. is finally following their lead, could very well crash our system altogether. That must be supreme “efficiency.”