Politics Magazine
Republicans will tell you that the United States has the best health care system in the world. If you are a corporate CEO, or you were born into a wealthy family, that might be true. But for most Americans it is NOT true.
Every three years, The Commonwealth Fund does a survey of the health care systems in eleven developed nations (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The charts above show the results of the 2017 survey.
As usual, the United States finished last among all of those nations. As the top and bottom charts show, the United States spends the most on medical care (as a percentage of GDP and per capita health spending). But the result of all that spending has it in 11th place out of the eleven nations.
Obamacare had put a band-aid on our system, but did not fix it (failing to control costs or cover all Americans with health insurance). The Republicans said they had a better way, but all they did was damage the little good that Obamacare had done. When it comes to health care for all Americans, we are the laughingstock of the developed world -- and that is not good for most Americans when they must access that health care (something we all must do sooner or later).
Why can't we provide all Americans with adequate health care? The other ten nations do it, and they do it at a lower cost than the U.S. does. Is it greed, political cowardice, or just that we don't care about each other?