U.S. spends most, but health quality lags - Yahoo! News

Description

Americans are more likely than people in 10 other countries to have trouble getting medical treatment because of insurance restrictions or cost, an international survey of primary care doctors released on Wednesday found.

While the United States spends more than twice as much as other developed countries on healthcare, it lags well behind in key measures of quality, the annual survey found.

The survey of more than 10,000 primary care doctors in 11 developed countries -- Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom -- found problems in all of them.

In the United States, cost and access to care stood out as a major challenge for primary care doctors.

"The majority of U.S. doctors -- some 58 percent -- say their patients often have difficulty paying for medications and other medical care, by far the highest rate in the survey," Cathy Schoen of the Commonwealth Fund, whose study appears in the journal Health Affairs, told the briefing.

Insurance restrictions, such as provisions to limit or control medication or treatment, are a major impediment for U.S. doctors, with half of 1,400 physicians surveyed saying the time they and their staff spend dealing with insurance companies is a major problem.

"It appears that U.S. doctors are adding staff to their offices that would not be typical of other countries just to cope with our complex, fragmented insurance system and advocate for their patients," Schoen said.

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