Low Marks for American Health Care

Americans are fond of claiming to have the best health care system in the world. We certainly have the most expensive health care. But a new scorecard released by the Commonwealth Fund shows that healthcare quality in the U.S. has been dropping. We scored at the bottom of the 16 industrialized countries with regard to preventable deaths.
More alarming, many fewer adults have access to healthcare. In 2003 61 million Americans were uninsured. In 2010, that number rose to 81 million. Almost half of adults said that they don’t have a regular doctor. Older people were especially vulnerable. Roughly 25 percent of Medicare recipients received a prescription for a potentially inappropriate medication. One fifth of Medicare patients had to be rehospitalized after discharge. With so many people out of work, health care has moved out of reach for tens of millions of Americans.
[Commonwealth Fund: Why Not the Best?]