• Front page
• Receive letters on your RSS reader

RE: Our sickly health care
Paul Compos contends that the U.S. does not get good value for its health care dollar because we lag behind other nations in life expectancy and infant morality. Yet life expectancy and infant mortality tell us next to nothing about the performance of a health care system. Research shows that life expectancy is determined by factors such as gross domestic product per capita, literacy, diet and sanitation. Factors such as health care spending or doctors per capita have no effect.
Infant mortality is measured too inconsistently across nations to be a meaningful measure. For instance, Switzerland does not count any infant born measuring less than 12 inches while France excludes any infant born prior to 26 weeks.
When one measures areas where the health care system actually has an impact, the U.S. shines. For example, a recent study in the journal Circulation found that the five-year mortality rate among patients who had severe heart attacks was higher in Canada than in the U.S. because the U.S. does more angioplasty and bypass surgery than Canada. Given that the U.S. does more angioplasty and bypass surgery than other nations, it is a safe bet that the U.S. is the best place for treating heart attacks.
In general, the U.S. does have better health outcomes than other nations.
The problem is that folks like Campos look at the wrong measures.

David Hogberg
Washington, D.C.
National Center for Public Policy Research

This letter has not been edited.