U.S. drops in ranks of industrialized nations for infant mortality, life expectancy
For Immediate Release:
Monday, November 10
Lisbeth Pettengill; 410-955-6878
Sharon Rippey; [email protected]
Despite the fact that the United States spends more money per capita on
medical care than any other industrialized nation in the world, it ranks in
the bottom quartile of a list of 29 industrialized nations in both life
expectancy and infant mortality and its relative ranking in both these
categories has been declining since 1960. These and other findings about
the relationship of the United States to other countries in regard to cost,
access, and outcomes of health care were published in the November 10, 1997
issue of Health Affairs.
Author Gerard Anderson, PhD, professor, Health Policy and Management,
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health said, "This country spends more
resources than any other industrialized nation by a wide margin. Yet,
between 1990 and 1995 the United States fell to position 23 out of the 29
leading industrialized nations in terms of infant mortality. This country
was ranked twentieth out of 29 in 1995 in terms of life expectancy for
women, and twenty-first in terms of life expectancy for men."
Dr. Anderson used data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on per capita health care spending, utilization rates,
health status, demographic factors and other topics. He compared the recent
performance of the United States health care system to other countries,
looking specifically at cost, access and outcomes. Included in his
findings were the following:
COST
* In 1996 the United States spent 14.2 percent of its gross domestic
product (GDP) on health care, the next closest country was Germany with
10.5 percent
* The United States also spend the most per capita on health care in that
year with $3,708 spent per person on health care services, followed by
Switzerland with spending of $2,412
ACCESS
* Of all the G7 countries (United States, France, Germany, Japan, Great
Britain, Canada, and Italy) only the United States has not achieved nearly
universal publicly mandated health insurance coverage
* In 1995 only the United States had less than half of its population
eligible for publicly mandated health insurance
OUTCOMES
* Between 1990 and 1995 the infant mortality rate in this country declined
to 8.0 per 1,000 live births but this still left the United States at 23
out of 29 industrialized countries because other countries had shown more
rapid improvement in reducing infant mortality
*In 1960 the United States was ranked thirteenth in life expectancy for
women, in 1995 it had slipped to twentieth
*In 1960 this Country was ranked seventeenth in life expectancy for men, in
1995 that position had dropped to twenty-first
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