Of all developed nations, the United States pays the most for health care, yet we don’t get an adequate return on our investment. According to the fifth edition of The Commonwealth Fund's Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally, the U.S. ranks last overall on measures of health system quality, efficiency, access to care, equity, and healthy lives compared with Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
The report, by Karen Davis, Kristof Stremikis, David Squires, and Cathy Schoen, shows that while there is room for improvement in every country, the U.S. stands out for having the lowest performance and the highest costs—$8,508 per person in 2011, compared with $3,406 in the U.K., which ranked first overall on health care. Be sure to check out our infographic as well.