The US Health Care system is the most expensive and the lowest performing of any developed country on Earth.

From a Commonwealth Fund Report on 09/19/24

Abstract

• Goal: Compare health system performance in 10 countries, including the United States, to glean insights for U.S. improvement.

• Methods: Analysis of 70 health system performance measures in five areas: access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity, and health outcomes.

• Key Findings: The top three countries are Australia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, although differences in overall performance between most countries are relatively small. The only clear outlier is the U.S., where health system performance is dramatically lower.

• Conclusion: The U.S. continues to be in a class by itself in the underperformance of its health care sector. While the other nine countries differ in the details of their systems and in their performance on domains, unlike the U.S., they all have found a way to meet their residents’ most basic health care needs, including universal coverage.

It is a fact that the US Health Care System is the lowest performing and the most expensive of any developed nation on Earth.

Why?

There are many factors that could be identified which might lead to the conclusion that the US Health Care system is what is called a “wicked problem.”

A wicked problem is a complex social or cultural issue that is difficult or impossible to solve. The term was coined in 1973 by design theorists Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber to describe the challenges of addressing planning and social policy problems.

But actually it might be a lot simpler. The US health care system started to dysfunction when it became profit making. The idea that health is a commodity that can be marketed, quantified, manipulated by “procedures” that can be billed for is insane and has created the mess the US Health Care system is in.

If we thought of health care as a human service to which all people have a right in a fair and just society, and profit was removed as an incentive for health care delivery, we could create a much more humane, dignified, efficient, and effective health care system.

The path forward is simple - take the profit motive out of our health care system.