Summary:Â A national poll of US adults yields terrible scores for our healthcare system: more âpoorâ and âfailâ marks than âexcellentâ and âgoodâ. The Gallup organization calls these Cs and Ds, but thatâs a generous interpretation â weâre failing. We need a total do-over, adopting methods proven in other wealthy nations.
Majorities Rate Cost, Equity of U.S. Healthcare Negatively, Gallup News â Politics, October 6, 2022, by Nicole Willcoxon
Comment:
By Jim Kahn, M.D., M.P.H.
Yowzah. Thatâs massive under-performance. Only 21% of US adults think our healthcare system grade is good or excellent. Only 7% for costs, 22% for equity, and 31% for access. Quality of care scores highest â 47% say itâs good or excellent. But what is quality without access?
Sad, but not surprising. Indeed, weâve performed at the bottom of wealthy countries for a long time. See HJM on the latest Commonwealth comparison here, and cross-national satisfaction surveys here and here.
If only we had better examples of how to pay for healthcare. If we could find, somewhere in the world, places that spend less while faring much better on access and outcomes. Oh, wait, all those countries that do better, they also cost a lot less.
Sorry Iâm dripping with sarcasm today. Itâs SO frustrating that we donât learn our lesson. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, âAmericans always do the right thing, after first trying everything else.â Well, weâve tried everything else. Time to do the right thing â single payer!
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