Do You Really Get What You Paid For

Recent health care policy reforms proposed by President Obama have prompted an increased interest in the efficiency of the US health care system. Looking at total health expenditure and life expectancy alone, the President has good reason to be hasty in his desire for change. Comparing the US to 18 other Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries at similar levels of development; namely: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK; one finds that the US has much to improve upon in these areas. In 2006, the US spent approximately 15.1% of its GDP on health care, more than any other OECD country and considerably larger than the 9.0% average of its peer nations (OECD Health Data, 2009). This is quite negatively juxtaposed with the fact that the US also has the lowest female and male life expectancies at birth of the same 18 OECD nations. The US female life expectancy at birth is 80.7 years (tied with Denmark), falling 2.1 years below the average of 82.8 years; the US male life expectancy at birth is 75.4 years, again, falling two years below the average of 77.4 years (OECD Health Data, 2009). This raw and partial evidence suggests that the US health care system may be performing inefficiently compared to its peer nations.