Spending more on health care has not produced a longer-living population for the United States, research shows.

 

When compared to survival rates in a dozen other countries, Americans aged 45 and 65 fared worse, suggesting that the value of health care spending has been declining over time.

 

In 1950, for example, the U.S. ranked fifth among leading industrialized nations in terms of female life expectancy at birth. However, according to the most recent available figures, Americans women have dropped to 46th place in the world.

 

This is despite the fact that U.S. per capita spending on health care increased at twice the rate of other wealthy nations between 1970 and 2002, and the U.S. spends far more as a percentage of the nation’s gross domestic product than other industrialized countries.

 

Although some have tried to blame the nation’s poor value for money spent on such factors as obesity, racial diversity, smoking and a high homicide rate, researchers Peter Muennig and Sherry Glied from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University came up with three more likely explanations:

 

·         As the cost of health care rises, the number of people who cannot afford adequate health insurance also goes up;

 

·         Rising government health spending leaves less money for other important life-saving programs;

 

·         Unregulated fee-for-service reimbursement and an emphasis on specialty care increases the cost of health care, while leading to unnecessary procedures and fragmentation of care.

-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff

 

What Changes in Survival Rates Tell Us about US Health Care (by Peter A. Muennig and Sherry A. Glied, Health Affairs)