Performance of Six Countries
plus their population-weighted average
compared to the U.S. performance

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Between 1883 and 1975 every other free-market country implemented a health-care-for-all system. Not the United States.

Since about 1982, the United States has been the only free-market country that has out-of-control costs, getting continually worse.

At this web page you can see the dramatic benefits of a health-care-for-all system: the results in six free-market countries which demonstrate getting more, paying less, and covering everyone.

They have excellent health performance at less than half (40%) of the cost.

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Selection of the Six Countries:

Selection of the Countries based on Mortality Amenable to Health Care: minimizing deaths under age 75 due to preventable diseases

The six countries have 250 years of experience as of 2011 with a total population that is greater than the United States.

The Positive Results from Having Health-Care-for-All Systems

Results via small, expandable figures:

Cost per Person;   Visits to Physicians;   Bankruptcies
Life Expectancy;   Maternal Mortality;   Percent Elderly
Physicians;   Nurses;   Hospital Beds

Results with full-size figures 

The primary difference: Complexity in the United States:

        ... the waste within our three types of bureaucracy. It IS that simple!

Figure 1. (click for larger image)	Figure 2. (click for larger image)	Figure 3. (click for larger image)
Deaths due to preventable diseases The United States is dead last.	Drop in U.S. performance related to preventable diseases	Mortality Amenable to Health Care U.S. will save 100,000

250 Years Experience;
More People Than the United States

The selection of the six countries was based on their ability, among nineteen countries studied, to minimize deaths from preventable diseases prior to age 75, which is called “amenable mortality”.

The selected countries have a combined total of 250 years of experience with their health-care-for-all systems. That’s an average of 42 years. Their total population is 375 million people. The United States population is 310 million. The analysis and charts were done in 2010, based on available data.

Their number of years of having health-care-for-all:
France-66, Japan-50, Australia-37, Spain-25, Italy-33, Canada-39. (as of 2011)

Results via Small, Expandable Figures

Figure 4.     (click for larger image) Relative Cost of Health Care

Figure 5. (click for larger image) Physician Visits per 1,000 capita

Figure 6. (click for larger image) Bankruptcies Due to Medical Bills Essentially none in other six, relative to the U.S.

— U.S. costs are more than twice the cost per person.
— Americans visit a doctor far less often due to the high costs.
— Hundreds of thousands of Americans go bankrupt when they get health care.

How can we confirm that other free-market countries have extremely few bankruptcies due to medical bills?

From the testimonials about medical bills of our fellow Americans who live and work in free-market countries.

Figure 7. (click for larger image) Life Expectancy

Figure 8. (click for larger image) Maternal Mortality per 100,000 live births

Figure 9. (click for larger image) Percent Elderly: 65 and older.

— U.S. life expectancy is low.
— U.S. mothers die more often.
— U.S. has fewer elderly.

About U.S. health care professionals and hospital beds:
— number of U.S. physicians per 1,000 population is lower than four of the countries.
     However, the U.S. has physicians who left their practice due to the high amount of complexity due to the administrative functions in combination with excessive malpractice premiums, which will drop significantly. Many of them would love to help during the implementation of health-care-for-all.
— number of U.S. nurses per 1,000 population is higher than all six countries.
— number of U.S. beds per 1,000 population is roughly the same as four of the countries.

Figure 10. (click for larger image) Number of Physicians per 1,000 population

Figure 11. (click for larger image) Number of Nurses per 1,000 population

Figure 12. (click for larger image) Number of Hospital Beds per 1,000 population

Summary

The first step, as indicated below at “Starting Point”, is to implement Improved Medicare for All to …
       eliminate the waste of unnecessary bureaucracy
       and set up a single “low-risk pool” of money to pay health care costs
           (Improved Medicare for All via single-payer health care)
       so that everyone has health care access (Show card and get care.)

Then, as seen in the set of charts below:
       We will get more:
           more visits to physicians, leading to better health
           peace of mind, resulting from lower costs, including no major medical bills,
              such as the elimination of most or all medical-related bankruptcies
       We will pay less: much less!
           including fewer hardships: physical, financial and emotional
       We will cover everyone: Everybody In. Nobody Out.

Better health includes saving lives, such as
   — better amenable mortality (minimizing deaths under age 75
                        due to preventable diseases)
    — saving women’s lives, as per maternal mortality
    — longer lives as per better life expectancy and percent elderly.

Can we implement this quickly? Yes; as seen below,
we have the necessary people and resources.

Results via Full-Size Figures

The Elimination of Waste
Will Reduce our Costs

APPLES TO APPLES: basing the USA numbers on the insured. If the above chart was based on the number of insured, then the USA number would have to exclude the percent of Americans who are either underinsured or uninsured. The bar chart above would have an even higher relative cost for the United States. For those who consider these numbers a more “apples to apples” comparison, the other countries spend 25% of what the U.S. does per person, not 44% of what the U.S. does per person.

The Lower Cost
Will Improve Access as Seen in Visits to Physician

Associated with Lower Costs …
We Will Slash the Number of Hardships
Such As Number of Bankruptcies

The topic of bankruptcies with a medical cause is just one example of the hardships.

 

We Will Have Life-Saving Results
From the Lower Cost and Improved Access

Results

As indicated in the bar charts below,
— Our health will improve by minimizing deaths due to preventable diseases.
— We will save women’s lives, as measured by an improved maternal mortality ratio.
— Our lifespan will improve significantly.
— We will have longer, healthier lives, as also indicated by more people living to 65 years and older.

Special Note: Our Focus on Health Care Access

Beyond health care access, this web page of data analysis does not include other factors which impact our health. Those other factors certainly also have an impact on health outcomes. But …

The premise of this web page … and the expected results … is that:
1) the United States is uniquely a very bad performer regarding health care;
2) the lowering of costs is an extremely obvious need for the U.S. compared to the other six countries;
3) the elimination of bureaucracy is a straightforward action that the U.S. can take;
4) the resulting lower costs and more doctor visits is simply plain common sense to have as a primary starting point for improving the physical and financial health of the Americans and America.

Based on the experiences of the other six countries …

We Will Perform Better in Minimizing Deaths
from Preventable Diseases

Unnecessary Death Every Five Minutes (101,000 per year). This situation should be enough for us to know that we must implement health care for all as quickly as possible via Improved Medicare for All.

About the United States’ Performance

The United States is reportedly very good at extending life of those persons who have preventable diseases. That situation is apparently for the people who can actually get to the doctor. Other countries provide the timely and effective care for more of their people. Other countries’ cost is lower, allowing more people to get to the doctor to get necessary care.

We Will Save Women’s Lives

Our Lifespan Will Increase

We Will Live Long, Healthy Lives

Summary

What is Possible (with a health care for all system) Because It’s Been Demonstrated

When we eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy
we will reducing the cost
so that more people can visit the doctor.

The United States will do a better job of saving lives
… such as preventing deaths under the age of 75
and saving women’s lives, as per maternal mortality …
Then …
bankruptcies due to U.S. medical bills will go to zero or very close to zero;
life expectancy in the U.S. will increase, as also indicated by the percent elderly

The Implementation

About the Transition to Improved Medicare for All

• Number of Physicians per 1,000 population
  • Since the U.S. has more physicians than two of the top performing countries, we should be able to smoothly manage the transition to having health care for all.
• Number of Nurses per 1,000 population
  • We already have a comparable number of nurses for having health care for all.
• Number of Hospital Beds per 1,000 population
  • We have a similar number of beds as four of the six countries, so we should be able to manage the transition to having health care for everyone.

The Primary Difference

Complexity in the United States

We must eliminate the waste
within our three types of bureaucracy
and reduce the size of the bureaucracy.

About Bureaucracy

Within the United State we have a complex way to pay for health care within three types of bureaucracy.

We must eliminate the unnecessary administrative functions and reduce the size of the bureaucracy itself.

We can achieve the necessary simplicity when we implement Improved Medicare for All (explanation) with single-payer health care.

The benefits of the improved efficiency is over $400 billion per year that is being spent on unnecessary administrative functions instead of health care.

About Simplicity

What we have today:
     complexity and 69% efficiency

Hundreds of payers within three types of bureaucracy:
— hundreds of government programs
— over 1300 health insurance companies
— thousands of related activities
Hundreds of plans

Result: Complexity with 69% efficiency.

Click here to display the flow chart of current complexity

What we'll have with Improved Medicare for All:
     simplicity and 95+% efficiency:

One payer: one public agency
One plan: all medically-necessary care

Result: Simplicity.

Click here to display the flow chart of our future simplicity.

 

 

It IS that simple!

We must establish simplicity via

Improved Medicare for All.

 

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Explanation(s), Sources, Additional Information

About the Six Countries

What follows is an explanation about R. C. Haiducek’s (Bob’s) use of the data for and average of six countries’ as reference points for the data analysis. The United States is compared to six countries in the bar charts of this web page.

• As you can see at all the bar charts, the six countries are: Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Italy, and Spain.
• As of 2011, they have a total of 250 (total) years of success at providing high quality health care for all at a very low cost relative to the United States.
  • Australia 37 years, Canada 39 years, France 66 years
  • Japan 50 years, Italy 33 years, Spain 25 years
• The populations of those six countries add up to a total of 375 million citizens. The United States population is 310 million.
• Most importantly, those countries are superstars when it comes to minimizing deaths under age 75 due to preventable diseases, thus having a low rate of amenable mortality:
         France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Italy and Canada.
         those countries in the order shown, are at the top (out of 19)
         the USA is at the bottom.
• Return to the top of this web page after you please note that you can learn (below) about the source of the data of the six countries and see the list of the other 18 countries.

 

Sources and Additional Information

See Amenable Mortality for the source of that information from the University of London: a January 2008 report based on an analysis of 2002-2003 data.
       For more information see the chart of the “Real People” web page.

See OECD Health Data 2009 for the source of the OECD data. The bar chart data is based on available data for the 5 years 2003 through 2007. The OECD Health Data 2009 web page provides more explanation about how the data is reported. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an organization of 30 industrialized countries.

See Maternal Mortality regarding the 2008 data from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IMHE).

See Improved Efficiency regarding the $400 billion of administrative cost.

Total Experience of the Other 18 Countries. The years of success is actually more if one considers all 18 countries which perform better than the United States: France, Japan, Australia, Spain, Italy, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece, Austria, Germany, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Britain, Ireland, and Portugal.

Selected additional links related to this web page:

• Bureaucracy
• Improved Efficiency

Return to the top of this web page.

Observations

When we recognize our health care crisis as a crisis, will we be able to implement an Improved Medicare for All quickly? As documented above, we should have enough physicians, nurses and hospital beds to proceed. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Where there is knowledge, there’s power.

• We will immediately have progress on saving a hundred thousand lives each year and free up four billion dollars each year that was spent on administrative costs.
• Current physicians and nurses and staff will spend less time on administrative topics and have more time to provide health care.
• We will readily have an influx of more medical professionals.
  • We will have many medical professionals coming back to their practice for the initial years while new ones are added.
  • More students will be interested in the medical profession knowing that there is:
    • less administration
    • lower operating costs for a physician practice (such as lower malpractice premiums)
    • the opportunity to participate in a higher benefit to society than previously: by improving health, such as amenable mortality.
• Return to the starting point at the top of this web page.

 

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List of the Bar Charts

• Relative
  • U.S. will cut over half of its costs per person by performing as well as other countries
• Visits to Physicians ... "physician visits" per 1,000 population
  • More people will be able to go to the doctor when we perform as well as the other countries
• Bankruptcies due to medical bills
  • Americans will join the other countries in having citizens experience ZERO bankruptcies due to the medical bills within their country
• Amenable Mortality among 19 countries
  • USA will save 101,000 lives per year by performing as well as the top 3 countries: France, Japan and Australia
• Maternal Mortality Ratio
  • Maternal mortality Ratio (deaths of women per 100,000 live births) will improve dramatically. It will be much safer for a woman to be pregnant and go through childbirth in the United States.
• Life Expectancy
  • Americans will have the result of longer, healthier lives when the U.S. performs as well as other countries. In the other countries life expectancy is three years longer and the percent of elderly is 4% higher than the United States.
• We Can Implement Improved Medicare for All quickly, based on the number of physicians, nurses, and hospital beds

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We Can Be the Best!

We’ll Make This Happen!

Invitation: Know What Americans Should Know and then Sign Up to Stand Up for Single-Payer.