Quality Health Care?

Just in case you haven’t noticed, there is a health care crisis in the United States; one that is different from the much touted health insurance crisis.  For example, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical School the United States spends 44 percent more per capita on health care than Switzerland, which has the second most expensive health care system in the world.[i]  The same study reported that the per capita health care expenditure in the Untied States was 134 percent more than the average in developed countries.   One might expect that such a large expenditure would result in world-class health care.  It doesn’t.  The United States ranks 27^th in the world in life expectancy at birth and 39^th in infant mortality.  Here are a few more statistics on the state of health care in the United States:

·          Today about 66 percent of U.S. adults, about 134 million people, are overweight or obese.  By comparison, only 44.8 percent of the population was overweight or obese in the period between 1960-1962.

·         Nearly one-third of U.S. adults, about 64 million people, are obese.

·         The percent of children and adolescents who are overweight or obese has increased from 4.2 percent (1963-65) to 17.5 percent (2001-04).

·         Obesity is associated with about 112,000 excess deaths per year in the U.S. population relative to healthy weight individuals.

·         23.5 million people, or 10.7 percent of the U.S. population over age 20 have diabetes.

·         The percentage of the population with hypertension (high blood pressure) has increased from 21.7 percent (1988-94) to 26.7 percent (2001-04).

·         Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States.

·         While deaths from heart disease and stroke have declined due to improvements in long-term and emergency care, cancer deaths have remained relatively constant since 1950, at about 200 deaths per 100,000 people.

·         Only 31 percent of adults over age 18 engage in regular physical activity (three or more sessions per week of at least 20 minutes each).

Take control of your health, don't expect your doctor to do it for you!

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[i] Anderson, G. F., U. E. Reinhardt,  P. S. Hussey, and V. Petrosyan.  (2003).  It’s the Prices, Stupid:  Why the United States is So Different from Other Countries.  Health Affairs, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 89-105.