According to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the U.S. lags behind several other wealthy nations in healthcare quality.
Despite spending more money per capita on healthcare than any similarly large and wealthy nation, the United States has a lower life expectancy than peer nations and has seen worsening health outcomes since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While inconsistent and imperfect metrics make it difficult to firmly assess system-wide health quality, measures of long-term health outcomes, treatment outcomes, patient safety, and patient experiences suggest the U.S. health system provides lower-quality care than its peers.
In an article reporting on the research, an analyst at WalletHub, an award-winning personal finance company that empowers consumers to lead financially healthy lives, added this comment:
"Health care has two crucial components: cost and quality. The best health care in the nation isn't helpful if it bankrupts the people who try to get it, and cheap health care isn't worth paying for if it provides subpar or ineffective treatment. Therefore, the best states for health care are those that make high-quality care affordable, on top of providing many options for doctors and making insurance easily accessible."
