U.S. healthcare ranking poor--again

The U.S. health system ranks last of 11 countries ranked in the Commonwealth Report. This marks the fifth time the U.S. made the bottom of the list.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally, used criteria such as quality, efficiency and access to care to reach its conclusion. The report, however, expects the U.S. to score better next time due to the Affordable Care Act.

The U.K. took first place, spending $3,406 per person, on average, compared with $8,508 in the U.S. That higher spend does not link to better outcomes.

For example, the U.S. ranked last on infant mortality and on potentially preventable deaths with timely access to effective healthcare and second-to-last on healthy life expectancy at 60. More than one-third of U.S. adults said they skipped a recommended test, a treatment or follow-up care because of cost. About 40 percent of U.S. adults who had visited an emergency room could have been treated by a regular doctor, if one had been available, the report said.

Karen Davis, of the Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was the lead author of the report which has previously been published in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2010.

The 10 countries that outranked the U.S., according to the report are: U.K., Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Germany (tied), The Netherlands (tied), New Zealand (tied), Norway (tied), France (tied) and Canada.