US Lags Behind Wealthy Nations On Improving Health Outcomes

Raising questions about whether higher healthcare spending means better health outcomes, a new study shows the United States has high expenditures and mediocre population health at the national level.

The United States spends the most per capita on healthcare across all countries but still trails behind other wealthy nations for life expectancy and many other health outcome measures, including death rates and diminished function and quality of life as measured by the authors, according to a study published yesterday in Journal of the American Medical Association.