Pre-ACA survey: U.S. has most expensive, least effective health care system

By Lenny Bernstein, WashPost, June 16 at 12:01 AM



There are painful losing streaks that don’t really matter — say, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26-game disaster in 1976 and 1977 — and losing streaks that really mean something. This one means something.

A report released Monday by a respected think tank ranks the United States dead last in the quality of its health-care system when compared with 10 other western, industrialized nations, the same spot it occupied in four previous studies by the same organization. Not only did the U.S. fail to move up between 2004 and 2014 — as other nations did with concerted effort and significant reforms — it also has maintained this dubious distinction while spending far more per capita ($8,508) on health care than Norway ($5,669), which has the second most expensive system.

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