Last week, The New York Times editorial page asked if the United States really has the best healthcare system in the world. The editors agree that at the top medical centers that is probably true, while addressing the fact that the U.S. healthcare system lags behind according to many studies, including a recent one by the Commonwealth Fund.
On the cancer front, according to the report, the U.S. has done a good job on reducing smoking when compared to other countries, but we still have a lot of work to do regarding obesity . We do rank high on preventative care, like Pap screens and mammograms.
When compared to Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the U.S. had the best survival rate for breast cancer, second best for cervical cancer and childhood leukemia and almost-worst for colorectal cancer.
The editorial page concludes that we have to get past this idea that we have "the best health care system in the world" if we are to fix its deficits including reducing the number of uninsured. For the full editorial, please see here.
1. A study by the Karolinska Institute in Sweden reported that the American health care system outperforms the European health care system in getting new medicines to cancer patients. According to the study, the proportion of colorectal cancer patients with access to the drug Avastin was 10 times higher in the United States than it was in Europe.
In other words, if you are a colorectal cancer patient, you are far better off in the United States (if you are lucky enough to have health insurance) than in Europe. It says that our health care system is good at delivering expensive drugs, but what it also says is that our health care system is not so good at simple medicine like preventive care, compared to Europe. Our profit-based health care system is very good at creating new health care products that will make a lot of money, but if it's something that has no chance of profit, forget it.
Posted at 11:13AM on Aug 21st 2007 by Gregory D. Pawelski