US Health Care Compared to Other Nations – Term Paper

The topic that I will be talking about is the United States health care compared to other nations. I chose this topic because of my concern over the state of health in the United States. The state of health in the United States is both positive and negative compared to other nations. Whereas there is much available research pointing to the fact that it is performing poorly, there is little research suggesting that it is on the positive trend. My primary research questions include; RQ1: How much does the United States spend on health care each year compared to other countries? RQ2. What is the impact of the resources put on health care in relation to the output in the United States compared to other countries? RQ3. How expensive is it to access health care in the United States in relation to other countries? RQ4. On the bright side, what are the achievements of the United States on health care compared to other nations?

The United States spends spend a bigger part of the gross domestic product every year on health care according to World Health Organization. This is higher than any other nation in the world. It ranks 37 in the world health organization list out of 137 countries health care systems. The United States health care has many failures compared to other developed world; however, there are a few successes.

The resources invested by the United States on health issues are not felt by Americans due to the poor performance of the health sector. According to a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and development, the rate of physicians per person in the United States is fewer than most of the developed countries. In 2010, the rate of practicing physicians serving 1,000 individuals was 2.4 below the organizations average of 3.1. On the other hand, there was an increase in life expectancy at birth by almost nine years from 1960 to 2010. This is less than that of Japan for over 15 years.

The United States citizens spend much money on health care compared to citizens in another developed world. It is very expensive to access good health care especially if you will be spending a night in the hospital. For example, one-night hospital spending for United States citizen costs 5.6 more compared to a person in Japan. 

On the bright side, the United States is on the leading side regarding cancer treatment and health care research. It is ahead of other developed countries like the United Kingdom. This is because there have been many researches done by the countrys top health experts on the different field of health care. For example, the breast cancer survival rate, which is five years, is higher compared to other major economies.