August 2009 - Taken collectively, the findings from international studies of healthcare quality do not in and of themselves provide a definitive answer to the question of how the United States compares in terms of the quality of its health care. While the evidence base is incomplete and suffers from other limitations, it does not provide support for the oft-repeated claim that the “U.S.health care is the best in the world.” In fact, there is no hard evidence that identifies particular areas in which U.S. health care quality is truly exceptional. #healthcare
Elizabeth Docteur and Robert A. Berenson - About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - About Prizm Share
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How Does the Quality of U.S. Health Care Compare
Internationally?
Timely Analysis of Immediate Health Policy Issues
August 2009
Elizabeth Docteur and Robert A. Berenson
Introduction
There is a perception among many
Americans that despite coverage,
cost and other problems in the
health care system, the quality of
health care in the United States is
better than it is anywhere else in
the world and might be threatened
by health reform. In fact, 55
percent of Americans surveyed last
year said U.S. patients receive
better quality of care than do those
in other nations, even though only
45percent said they thought the
United States had the world’s best
health care system.1 And while
Americans overwhelmingly
support government action to
increase coverage and reduce the
costs of health care, a recent poll
found that 63 percent worry that
the quality of their own care would
get worse if the government
ensured health care for all.2
Another poll found that as many as
81percent of Americans have such
concerns.3
Participants in the current reform
debate refer to the relative quality
of U.S. health care as providing
support for their views, and
perceptions of health-care quality
— what it is and where it can be
found — are often at the heart of
disagreements over what form of
health reform the country should
adopt. But hard facts to support
claims are often missing, and it is
clear that quality of care experts,
policy makers, health care
providers and the general public all
have different ideas as to which
aspects of health care signify its
quality and which ones are most
important.
This brief brings together available
evidence on how quality of care in
the United States compares to that
of other countries and comments
on the implications of the evidence
for the health reform debate. By
exploring how the quality of our
care compares internationally, we
can address the underlying
attitudes and concerns that people
have about health reform. For
example,