Healthcare in the U.S. isn’t measuring up to systems in other industrialized nations, according to a Commonwealth Fund survey.
A survey of 12,000 adults in Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. found that one-third of U.S. adults wanted the healthcare system to be rebuilt, the highest rate in any country surveyed.
One-third of U.S. patients with chronic conditions have reported a medical, medication or test error in the past two years, the report found. Yet, 30% of U.S. respondents spent more than $1,000 in out-of-pocket costs in the past year—a level that is rare in most of the other countries, according to the survey.
U.S. patients, along with Canadians, are also the least likely to be able to get a same-day appointment with physicians and the most likely to seek care in emergency rooms as an alternative. In other findings, U.S. patients reported more fragmented and inefficient care, such as medical-record and test delays, perceptions of waste and more time spent on paperwork. The study was published as a Web-exclusive article by the journal Health Affairs. -- by Jennifer Lubell
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