Health in USA History

Health in USA History

Main article: History of medicine in the United States

The Polio vaccine was discovered by Jonas Salk and distributed to the world

Statistics

Health care facilities are largely owned and operated by private sector businesses. Health insurance for public sector employees is primarily provided by the government. 60–65% of healthcare provision and spending comes from programs such asMedicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Veterans Health Administration. Most of the population under 65 is insured by their, or a family member's employer. Some buy health insurance on their own, and the remainder are uninsured.

Of 17 high-income countries studied by the National Institutes of Health in 2013, the United States was at or near the top in infant mortality, heart and lung disease, sexually transmitted infections, adolescent pregnancies, injuries, homicides, and rates of disability. Together, such issues place the U.S. at the bottom of the list for life expectancy. On average, a U.S. male can be expected to live almost four fewer years than those in the top-ranked country.

A study by the National Institutes of Health reported that the lifetime per capita expenditure at birth, using year 2000 dollars, showed a large difference between health care costs of females ($361,192) and males ($268,679). A large portion of this cost difference is in the shorter lifespan of men, but even after adjustment for age (assume men live as long as women), there still is a 20% difference in lifetime health care expenditures.

There is evidence, however, that a large proportion of health outcomes and early mortality can be attributed to other factors. As a study by the National Research Council concluded, more than half the men who die before 50 die due to murder (19%), traffic accidents (18%), and other accidents (16%). For women the percentages are different. 53% of women who die before 50 die due to disease, whereas 38% die due to accidents, homicide, and suicide. However maternal deaths related to childbirth have increased. In 2013 18.5 mothers died for every 100,000 births. In 1987 the mortality rate was 7.2 per 100,000. The American rate is now more than double the maternal mortality rate in Saudi Arabia and Canada, and more than triple the rate in the United Kingdom.

A study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that there were 38.6 million hospital stays in the U.S. in 2011, an 11 percent increase since 1997. Since the population also grew during this period, the hospitalization rate remained stable at approximately 1,200 stays per 10,000 population.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 49.9 million residents, 16.3% of the population, were uninsured in 2010 (up from 49.0 million residents, 16.1% of the population, in 2009). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States spent more on health care per capita ($7,146), and more on health care as percentage of itsGDP (15.2%), than any other nation in 2008. The United States had the fourth highest level of government health care spending per capita ($3,426), behind three countries with higher levels of GDP per capita: Monaco, Luxembourg, and Norway. A 2001 study in five states found that medical debt contributed to 46.2% of all personal bankruptciesand in 2007, 62.1% of filers for bankruptcies claimed high medical expenses. Since then, health costs and the numbers of uninsured and underinsured have increased. A 2013 study found that about 25% of all senior citizens declare bankruptcy due to medical expenses.

Active debate about health care reform in the United States concerns questions of a right to health care, access, fairness, efficiency, cost, choice, value, and quality. Some have argued that the system does not deliver equivalent value for the money spent. The U.S. pays twice as much as Canada yet lags behind other wealthy nations in such measures as infant mortality and life expectancy. Currently, the U.S. has a higher infant mortality rate than most of the world's industrialized nations. In the United States life expectancy is 42nd in the world, after some other industrialized nations, lagging the other nations of the G5 (Japan, France, Germany, U.K., U.S.) and just after Chile (35th) and Cuba (37th).

Life expectancy at birth in the U.S., 78.49, is 50th in the world, below most developed nations and some developing nations. Monaco is first with 89.68. Chad is last with 48.69. With 72.4% Americans of European ancestry, life expectancy is below the average life expectancy for the European Union. The World Health Organization (WHO), in 2000, ranked the U.S. health care system as the highest in cost, first in responsiveness, 37th in overall performance, and 72nd by overall level of health (among 191 member nations included in the study). In 2008 the Commonwealth Fund, an advocacy group seeking greater government involvement in US healthcare, then led by former Carter administration official Karen Davis, ranked the United States last in the quality of health care among similar countries, and notes U.S. care costs the most.

United States ranks close to the bottom compared to other industrialized countries on several important health issues affecting mortality: low birth weight and infant mortality, injuries and murder, teen pregnancy and STDs, HIV and AIDS, deaths resulting from drug overdoses, obesity and diabetes, heart disease, COPD, and general disability.

A 2004 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report said: "The United States is among the few industrialized nations in the world that does not guarantee access to health care for its population." A 2004 OECD report said: "With the exception of Mexico, Turkey, and the United States, all OECD countries had achieved universal or near-universal (at least 98.4% insured) coverage of their populations by 1990." The 2004 IOM report observed "lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States", while a 2009 Harvard study conducted by co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Program, a pro-single payer advocacy group, estimated that 44,800 excess deaths occurred annually due to lack of health insurance. The group's methodology has been criticized by economist John C. Goodman for not looking at cause of death or tracking insurance status changes over time, including the time of death.

A 2009 study by former Clinton policy adviser Richard Kronick found no increased mortality from being uninsured after certain risk factors were controlled for, and specifically criticized the methodology used by IOM.

Nobel Prize

Since 1966, Americans have received more Nobel Prizes in Medicine than the rest of the world combined.

Providers

Health care providers in the U.S. encompass individual health care personnel, health care facilities and medical products.