France is healthcare leader, US comes dead last: study --> was RE: Value for health care $

[Guest guest]



Per our ongoing discussion of healthcare in the US.

Lots of socialized medicine countries in there.

Is Japan socialized?

Wiki says...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Japan

In the Japanese health care system, healthcare services, including free screening examinations for particular diseases, prenatal care, and infectious disease control, are provided by national and local governments. Payment for personal medical services is offered through a universal health care insurance system that provides relative equality of access, with fees set by a government committee. People without insurance through employers can participate in a national health insurance program administered by local governments. Since 1973, all elderly persons have been covered by government-sponsored insurance. Patients are free to select physicians or facilities of their choice.

I'm not a big fan of having the gov't run anything in general, but one has to wonder if all these other countries are just healthier or if it is because they have socialized medicine and an emphasis on primary care and access to care...or not.

Locke, MD

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France is healthcare leader, US comes dead last: study

Tue Jan 8, 2:13 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - France is tops, and the United States dead last, in providing timely and effective healthcare to its citizens, according to a survey Tuesday of preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries.

The study by the Commonwealth Fund and published in the January/February issue of the journal Health Affairs measured developed countries' effectiveness at providing timely and effective healthcare.

The study, entitled "Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis," was written by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It looked at death rates in subjects younger than 75 that could have been prevented by timely and effective medical care.

The researchers found that while most countries surveyed saw preventable deaths decline by an average of 16 percent, the United States saw only a four percent dip.

The non-profit Commonwealth Fund, which financed the study, expressed alarm at the findings.

"It is startling to see the US falling even farther behind on this crucial indicator of health system performance," said Commonwealth Fund Senior Vice President Schoen, who noted that "other countries are reducing these preventable deaths more rapidly, yet spending far less."

The 19 countries, in order of best to worst, were: France, Japan, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Some countries showed dramatic improvement in the periods studied -- 1997 and 1998 and again between 2002 and 2003 -- outpacing the United States, which showed only slight improvement.

White the United States ranked 15th of 19 between 1997-98, by 2002-03 it had fallen to last place.

"It is notable that all countries have improved substantially except the US," said Ellen Nolte, lead author of the study.

Had the United States performed as well as any of the top three industrialized countries, there would have been 101,000 fewer deaths per year, the researchers said.

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of GuinnSent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 8:15 AMTo: Subject: Re: Value for health care $

No dashboard, but good feedback on how the practice is doing through "Hows Your Health," a patient generated survey that gives feedback in critical areas such as access and efficiency, also gives quality information on how well patients are educated about their chronic disease and are managing it.�

The copy of the powerpoint slide below looks at just a few examples of the data available: