First-ever global study finds massive health care inequity
By the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)
EurekAlert, May 18, 2017
A first-ever global study finds massive inequity of access to and quality of health care among and within countries, and concludes people are dying from causes with well-known treatments.
“What we have found about health care access and quality is disturbing,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, senior author of the study and Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. “Having a strong economy does not guarantee good health care. Having great medical technology doesn’t either. We know this because people are not getting the care that should be expected for diseases with established treatments.”
Professor Martin McKee, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who participated in the study, commented: “Using deaths that could be avoided as a measure of the quality of a health system is not new but what makes this study so important is its scope, drawing on the vast data resources assembled by the Global Burden of Disease team to go beyond earlier work in rich countries to cover the entire world in great detail, as well as the development of a means to assess what a country should be able to achieve, recognizing that not all are at the same level of development. As the world’s governments move ahead to implement the goal of universal health coverage, to which they committed in the Sustainable Development Goals, these data will provide a necessary baseline from which they can track progress.”
The United States had an overall score of 81, tied with Estonia and Montenegro. As with many other nations, the US scored 100 in treating common vaccine-preventable diseases, such as diphtheria, tetanus, and measles. But the US had nine treatment categories in which it scored in the 60s: lower respiratory infections (60), neonatal disorders (69), non-melanoma skin cancer (68), Hodgkin’s lymphoma (67), ischemic heart disease (62), hypertensive heart disease (64), diabetes (67), chronic kidney disease (62), and the adverse effects of medical treatment itself (68).
“America’s ranking is an embarrassment, especially considering the US spends more than $9,000 per person on health care annually, more than any other country,” Dr. Murray said. “Anyone with a stake in the current health care debate, including elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels, should take a look at where the US is falling short.”
The study was published today in the international medical journal The Lancet, and represents the first effort to assess access and quality of services in 195 countries from 1990 to 2015. Researchers used a Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index, based on death rates from 32 causes that could be avoided by timely and effective medical care, known as “amenable mortality.”
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Healthcare Access and Quality Index based on mortality from causes amenable to personal health care in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a novel analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015
The Lancet, May 18, 2017
Drawing from GBD 2015 (Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study), we constructed a novel measure of personal health-care access and quality — the HAQ Index (Healthcare Quality and Access Index) — by using highly standardised estimates of 32 different causes that are amenable to personal health care. Compared with previous efforts, the HAQ Index provides a clearer signal on personal health-care access and quality over time and place because GBD provides enhanced comparability of cause of death data, helps to account for variation due to behavioural and environmental risk factors, and includes 195 countries and territories over time. Our analysis showed large differences in personal health-care access and quality, spanning from a low of 23·1 in Ethiopia in 1990 to higher than 90 in Andorra, Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, and Sweden in 2015. The global HAQ Index improved from 40·7 in 1990 to 53·7 in 2015, and 167 of 195 countries and territories significantly increased their HAQ Index during this time. Although the HAQ Index and SDI (Socio-demographic Index) were highly correlated, we noted substantial heterogeneity for geographies at similar SDI.
The Healthcare Access and Quality Index (HAQ Index) for the highest quartile of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI):
95 Andorra
94 Iceland
92 Switzerland
90 Sweden
90 Norway
90 Australia
90 Finland
90 Spain
90 Netherlands
89 Luxembourg
89 Japan
89 Italy
88 Ireland
88 Austria
88 France
88 Belgium
88 Canada
87 Slovenia
87 Greece
86 Germany
86 Singapore
86 New Zealand
86 South Korea
86 Denmark
86 Israel
85 Cyprus
85 Qatar
85 Malta
85 Czech Republic
85 United Kingdom
85 Portugal
82 Kuwait
82 Croatia
81 Estonia
81 United States
81 Montenegro
80 Lebanon
80 Hungary
80 Poland
79 Saudi Arabia
79 Bermuda
79 Bahrain
79 Slovakia
78 Latvia
78 Taiwan
77 Puerto Rico
77 Lithuania
76 Macedonia
76 Chile
75 Serbia
74 Romania
74 Belarus
74 Cuba
73 Ukraine
72 United Arab Emirates
72 North Mariana Islands
72 Russia
71 Bulgaria
71 Greenland
70 Virgin Islands
70 Brunei
68 Argentina
68 Armenia
67 Barbados
67 Antigua and Barbuda
67 Malaysia
66 Seychelles
64 Azerbaijan
64 The Bahamas
63 Guam
62 Georgia
62 Trinidad and Tobago
61 Kazakhstan
58 Grenada
58 Turkmenistan
The full PDF of this Lancet article (36 pages) can be downloaded for free at this link:
http://www.thelancet.com…
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Comment:
By Don McCanne, M.D.
This study establishes a new landmark in health policy research. It provides a basis of determining how all nations are doing in reducing premature deaths by providing timely and effective health care, that is, in improving their “amenable mortality” rates.
To no surprise for those who follow health policy, the Healthcare Access and Quality Index (HAQ Index) for the United States falls about in the middle of nations in the highest quartile of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Although our per capita spending on health care is about twice the average of these nations, our access and quality are only average. We do not have the best health care system in the world, in spite of what reform opponents say.
As Christopher Murray, a senior author of this study, states, “America’s ranking is an embarrassment.” Look at the countries that rank above us. If, like them, we used our public resources more effectively we would no longer have to be ashamed of our performance. Just through the tax system alone we are already spending more per capita than almost all of the other nations do in both public and private spending combined.
It’s not that we need to make a decision to finance health care through our taxes; we already largely do that. Instead we need to improve the allocation of our tax funds plus our private spending. We can do that best by enacting and implementing a well-designed single payer national health program – an improved Medicare for all. With all that we are spending, we should be at the top of the list.
