France, Italy provide best care for money spent, study shows
By Lauren Neergaard
Associated Press,
WASHINGTON - The United States spends more per person on health
care than any other country, yet in overall quality its care ranks
37th in the world, says a World Health Organization analysis. It
concluded that France provides the globe's best health care. Italy
ranked No. 2, says the World Health Report, being published today a
controversial first attempt to compare the world's health systems.
Tiny countries with few patients to care for San Marino, Andorra,
Malta crowd onto the World Health Organization's surprising best list.
Singapore, Spain, Oman, Austria and Japan round out the top 10. That
doesn't mean the French and Italians are the world's healthiest people.
Japan actually won that distinction.
Instead, the WHO report basically
measures bang for the buck: comparing a population's health
with how effectively governments spend their money on health, how well
the public health system prevents illness instead of just treating it
and how fairly the poor, minorities and other special populations are
treated. When each country's measurements were added together, even
study co-author Dr. Christopher Murray, the health organization's
chief of health policy evidence, was surprised. He had expected
Scandinavian countries or Canada to be the world's best because
they're always presented as models. Instead, Norway hit No. 11, Canada
30. The report sparked immediate controversy. "Any set of rankings that
puts Finland at 31 and Italy at 2, or even France at No. 1, raises
questions," said Nick Bosanquet, health policy professor at London
University's Imperial College. It's long been clear "the U.S. is
woefully lacking," said E. Richard Brown, director of the University
of California, Los Angeles, Center for Health Policy Research. Proof,
he said, is in the 40 million uninsured Americans amid a patchwork of
different quality private and government programs.
While good at expensive, heroic
care, Americans are very poor at the low-cost preventive care that
keeps Europeans healthy, said Princeton University health economist
Uwe Reinhardt. The United States spends $3,724 per person on health
each year. But measuring how long people live in good health not just
how long they live the Japanese beat Americans by four and a half
years, and the French lived three more healthy years. Yet Japan spends
$1,750 per person on health and France $2,100. How did Oman, which
spends just $334 per person on health care, rate No. 8? The new
analysis praises health systems "that utilize few resources very well."
Twenty years ago, one in four children in Oman died before their
fifth birthday. Today that has plummeted to 15 deaths per 1,000
children. Also cited, 24 hour clinics and a new taxfunded universal
care system.
WHO recommended that countries extend health insurance to
as many people as possible. That doesn't mean endorsing government-run
insurance, Frenk stressed. He said countries with good mixes of
private and public programs do well.
toll free 1-888-765-HERB
Denver area 303-421-9900
[Home] [Email] [Security]
