“National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care (amenable mortality).” That is the premise of a paper published by the Lancet May 18 that took into account the capabilities of poor, middle-income, and wealthy countries. The United States was found to rank 35th. The lead author, Christopher J.L. Murray of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, calls the finding “an embarrassment, especially considering the U.S. spends $9,000 per person on health care annually.”
The U.S. exceeded many wealthy countries in medical mistakes and malpractice, and lagged in curing pneumonia, lymphoma and skin cancer, and in managing diabetes and heart disease.
Iceland, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Australia are doing best by their citizens. Doing best of all is the little principality of Andorra.
