Friday, April 10, 2009

New U.S. Health Report

The Associated Press reported last week that America spends much more on health care than the healthiest countries do, yet lags 23% behind other leading nations like Canada, Japan, Germany, the U.K. and France, and as much as 46% behind emerging powers like China, Brazil and India.

These conclusions were drawn by the Business Roundtable, a forum of CEOs of major corporations who sponsored the study to analyze the cost-benefit disparity on health care delivery worldwide. By their observations, the $2.4 trillion dollars a year and the almost $2,000 spent per capita on health care in the United States in 2006 was more than twice the rate of any other major country.

The research project examined each nation’s health care costs and statistics on life expectancy, mortality and morbidity, and physiological findings like cholesterol levels and blood pressure readings. “What’s important is that we measure and compare actual value – not just how much we spend on health care, but the performance we get back in return,” said H. Edward Hanway, CEO of CIGNA. “That’s what this study does, and the results are quite eye-opening." Read the entire article.

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