A key question is this: the economy as a whole has grown by an average of 3.2 percent per year for the past three plus decades, and this is a commitment to reduce the growth in health care costs to
4.7 percent. How does that fix a system on which we already spend
close to twice as much per person on care than other wealthy countries, and
get consistently poorer results? (We rank 42nd in the world in infant mortality and 46th in life expectancy. According to
a study conducted by the Commonwealth Fund comparing health care in six wealthy countries, the U.S. ranked “last on dimensions of access, patient safety, efficiency, and equity.” Among residents of 30 rich countries polled by Gallup, Americans came in 18th in terms of
satisfaction with their care, despite the fact that we out-spend everyone else on the list by a significant amount.)
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