Country’s care lags

By a broad range of indicators, U.S. health care is on the upswing but remains behind other wealthy countries, a Kaiser Family Foundation report finds. In the U.S., mortality rates, teen pregnancy, hospital-acquired conditions and the number of unvaccinated children are all declining. However, health-related quality of life and obesity have worsened.

On average, comparable countries such as Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Canada and the U.K. fared better on 14 indicators, even though “the U.S. spends far more on health care than any other country per person and as a share of the economy,” the report reads. Those countries had longer life expectancies, lower mortality rates, fewer cost-related access barriers, shorter wait times for primary care doctors' visits and less use of emergency rooms for nonemergencies.