U.S. health care system said to be slipping

WASHINGTON - The U.S. health care system is lagging further and further behind other industrialized countries on major measures of quality, efficiency and access to care, according to a report from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, a leading health-policy foundation.

That is having a profound effect on overall health in the United States, the report found.

Americans die far more frequently than their counterparts in other countries as a result of preventable or treatable conditions such as bacterial infections, screenable cancers, diabetes and complications from surgery.

In 2006-07, the United States recorded 96 preventable deaths per 100,000 people. By comparison, France, with the best-performing health care system, recorded 55 deaths per 100,000.

And while the United States improved between 1997-98 and 2006-07, other countries made more progress. Ireland and Britain, which had higher mortality rates than the United States, now have lower rates.

"We are slipping behind," said Commonwealth Fund senior vice president Cathy Schoen, one of the report's authors.

The poor outcomes reflect the widespread problems that millions of Americans have getting access to health insurance and health care, the authors said.

And a third of adults did not get medical care, did not fill a prescription or did not have a needed test or treatment because of cost.

In Britain, just 5 percent of adults reported such an access problem.

Despite the problems with access and quality, however, the United States continues to spend far more than other industrialized nations on health care, with per-capita spending on health care now topping $8,000 a year, more than twice what most other industrialized countries spend.

One bright spot in the report is evidence that Americans with some chronic conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure are better at managing their diseases, which the authors credited to increased effort to highlight these issues.