US health system falls short: 6 takeaways from new global report card
Health system performance in the U.S. is dramatically lower than that of nine other countries in a new assessment from the Commonwealth Fund.
In Commonwealth Fund's "Mirror, Mirror 2024" report, the foundation analyzed 70 health system performance measures in five areas — access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity and health outcomes — for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
In its eighth report comparing countries' health systems, the Commonwealth Fund finds that no single country ranks at the top or bottom across all performance areas. However, the report notes: "Nevertheless, in the aggregate, the nine nations we examined are more alike than different in terms of their higher and lower performance across various domains. But there is one glaring exception — the U.S."
Americans have the shortest life expectancy and the highest rates of avoidable deaths among the 10 countries, placing the U.S. last for health outcomes. Notably, this year's report accounts for the impact of COVID-19 on health system performance, using data collected since the pandemic began and excluding data from before 2020.
