The U.S. and its people spend more on healthcare than all other wealthy nations, yet we have worse outcomes than other nations.
Whether you measure health spending on a per capita basis or as a percentage of gross domestic product, the U.S. spends more than two times the average of comparable countries, according to the American Public Health Association. Relative to the size of its economy, the U.S. spends a much greater amount on health care than other wealthy countries -- about twice as much per person as comparable countries. These charts from the Health System Tracker, show the different spending levels.
Nevertheless, U.S. outcomes for a broad range of diseases and conditions lag those in other wealthy countries. Additionally, life expectancy in the U.S. lags considerably behind life expectancy in comparable wealthy countries. The average for those countries for a child born in 2018 is 82.4 years, while it is 78.7 years for a child born in the U.S, again according to the Health System Tracker.
Despite its high-priced healthcare, the U.S. ranks significantly below comparable countries in many health outcomes, including the mortality rates for respiratory and circulatory diseases. This is shown in a series of charts in the Health System Tracker's "How does the quality of the U.S. healthcare system compare to other countries?" Most notably a chart shows that the U.S. ranks last in a measure of health care access and quality, higher rates of amenable mortality (a measure of the rates of death considered preventable by timely and effective care), than comparable countries. The charts that follow show that the U.S. has higher rates of maternal mortality and hospital admissions for chronic conditions that are risk factors for COVID-19 are more frequent in the U.S. than in comparable countries.
It is important to bear in mind that the comparable countries ensure universal access to healthcare, either through a government-run health system or laws effectively making healthcare a right. The high-priced for-profit U.S. system, on the other hand, does not cover millions of people who can't afford coverage and whose states don't provide Medicaid for poor adults. In the U.S., a 2020 Commonwealth Fund study, found that 12.5 percent of adults were uninsured. "In addition, 9.5 percent of adults were insured but had a gap in coverage in the past year and 21.3 percent were underinsured." Underinsured adults are those with high deductibles and out-of-pocket costs in addition to their premiums. A total of 43.4% of U.S. adults ages 19 to 64 were inadquately insured, according to the study.