U.S. HEALTH CARE SYSTEM FALLS SHORT
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According to a report released this week by the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, a nonprofit research group in New York, U.S. health care is the most expensive in the world, but does not meet critical benchmarks for quality, access, and other major performance measures. While America spends twice as much per capita on health care, it ranks lower than most other industrialized nations on numerous indicators of overall care; the U.S. score averaged 65 out of 100 over 37 categories, and fell to last for "preventing deaths through use of timely and effective medical care." As health care costs increase and even the insured face medical bills they cannot afford, Americans also have less access to care than they did a year earlier - an estimated 75 million people in the U.S. have either no or inadequate health insurance. As rising costs make care even harder to afford, we must work even harder to achieve a universal health care system.

A publication of the Commonwealth Fund Commission states:

"The United States provides some of the best medical care in the world, yet growing evidence indicates the system falls short. Although national health spending is significantly higher than the average rate of other industrialized countries, the U.S. is the only industrialized country that fails to guarantee universal health insurance. Today, health care coverage is deteriorating, leaving millions without affordable access to preventive and essential health care. Quality of care is highly variable and delivered by a system that is too often poorly coordinated, driving up costs, and putting patients at risk. With rising costs straining family, business, and public budgets, access deteriorating and variable quality, improving health care performance is a matter of national urgency."