The United States spends more than any country in the world for health care. In fact, it spends 17.6% of its GDP on health. That’s the equivalent of $8,233 for each person residing in the country. With such high expenditures on health, America should have a great health system and a healthy population. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
In fact, America has the worst health system of all industrialized nations. Even countries like Finland, which spends just 8.9% of its GDP on health expenditures, fared much better than the United States.
There are numerous health problems that affect Americans. Obesity is often described as being an epidemic in the country and if we look at the numbers, it reaches alarming proportions. Over 1/3 of all American adults are obese. This results in an obesity rate is nearly double than the average in other industrialized nations. Obesity often leads to other health conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, which are among the leading causes of preventable deaths in America.
While the United States has many modern medical facilities and numerous innovations, such as new drugs, have been made by American scientists, the country’s overall health system is seen by many around the world as an example of “what not to do.” The United States has large number of citizens that are unable to obtain health insurance. This makes them unable to get access to the primary care they need to stay healthy.
Due to the high costs of medical care for those without insurance, millions of individuals in the country don’t see a physician until it’s too late. Plenty of health problems that could have been diagnosed before they become too serious go unnoticed.
All of these health problems, combined with a lack of accessibility to medical care for a large portion of its population give America the lowest life expectancy of all industrialized countries. Statistics show that life expectancy at birth is 75.64 years for men and 80.78 years for women.
Source: America’s Health Disadvantage
