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Despite Progress in Healthcare Access, the US Still Ranks Last Among All Other Developed Nations
Since taking office three and a half years ago, the Biden/Harris administration has:
•Invested $12 billion in new funding for women’s health research
• Capped out-of-pocket expenses for pharmaceutical drugs at $3,000
• Lowered the cost of hearing aids by allowing them to be made available over the counter;
• Launched the American Rescue Plan ARPA-H initiative for advanced
research on cancer and other diseases
• Reignited the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative with the goal of cutting the cancer death rate by at least half over the next quarter century
13 million families covered under the Affordable Care Act are seeing health insurance costs decrease by an average of $800 a year, and three million more Americans are now insured.
Most “surprise billing” medical charges from out-of-network insurance providers are now banned under the “No Surprises Act”.
Medicare is negotiating for more affordable pharmaceutical drugs.
Insulin costs are capped at $35 per month for almost four million diabetic seniors on Medicare.
These are just a few consequential health care accomplishments in a long and growing list the Biden administration can boast of as this election currently underway unfolds.
But while we are seeing progress on the healthcare front, the United States still ranks dead last in access to care and overall health outcomes, according to a recent report from The Commonwealth Fund, an organization that studies countries’ healthcare systems.
The study, titled “Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System,” ranks ten countries--Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States — according to access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity, and health outcomes.
What the report finds is that, still, “The United States lags its international peers considerably on health system performance.” It concludes:
