10 Reasons Why The US Health Care System Is The Envy Of The World (2024)

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1. Most preemptive cancer screening

American women are most likely to have received a Pap smear or a mammogram in the past two years, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

We're also beating Canada on nearly all measures of preventive cancer screening, according to NBER.

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2. Highest rate of cancer survival

America has the best survival rates for colon, rectum, lung, breast, and prostate cancer, according to various studies cited by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

This has to do with high GDP-per-capita in the U.S., which provides for expensive cancer treatments.

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3. Best treatment of chronic disease

A German study in 2002 found that Americans administered more state-of-the-art medicine than Europeans.

56 percent of Americans with high cholesterol were taking statins in 2002. Only 17-36 percent in Europe were taking them.

Moreover, 60 percent of antipsychotic drugs prescribed in the U.S. were of the newest generation. Only 10 percent in Germany were new.

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4. Most identification and treatment of psychological disease

American kids are the most likely to be prescribed psychotropic medication. American women are the most likely to be prescribed antidepressants.

You can call it too thorough, but that's a problem every country in the world would like to have.

Source: ScienceDaily.com and Scientific American

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5. Most advanced equipment per capita

America is kicking the world's ass in MRI units per million population (25.9) and CT scanners per million (34.3).

Source: OECD

6. Highest pay attracts the best doctors

Source: NYT

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7. Most advanced research

American hospitals perform far-and-away the most clinical tests, according to the NYT. There's also this chart of the most important recent medical innovations floating around the internet.

The payoff for patients in America is immediate access to advanced information and medicine.

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If you have the money, US health care is nonpareil

America embraces the idea that you get what you pay for.

If you are in the upper-middle class and can afford good health insurance, then you have access to the biggest network of World's biggest network hospitals, specialists, and technology.

Photo: Screenshot of the original cast of ER

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If you are injured by malpractice, you can sue like mad

America's tort liability system lets patients pursue in court the full value of injury that results from malpractice. With the possibility of a huge (albeit capped in many states) settlement, patients can worry little about medical errors.

In countries that use a no-fault system -- most of the OECD -- patients automatically receive care for medical complication. However, they are more limited in their ability to pursue damages in court.

Source: World Bank

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Health care reform will be even harder in countries that take excellent coverage for granted

Like France.

France has been pursuing cuts to their heath care system since the 1970s and massively failed. For instance, last summer public outcry stopped their government from considering cuts to the extensive coverage granted to people with chronic diseases, according to the WSJ.

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But don't call us one-sided...