Health Care

Similarly on health care, the Obama administration can learn from what works in Europe. The World Health Organization (WHO) rates European countries as having the best health care systems in the world, spending, on average, far less than the United States for universal coverage and quality results. France has the top-rated health care system, while the United States is ranked 37th - just ahead of Cuba and Slovenia. In the Czech Republic, a proposal to introduce a 30 K? co-payment per office visit nearly toppled the government, as health care is considered a basic right in the social contract.

The United States ranks 28th in the world in infant mortality, at seven deaths per 1,000 live births, tied with Poland and Slovakia, and substantially higher than Sweden (3.4 deaths), France (4.3 deaths) and Germany (4.5 deaths). In life expectancy, the United States ranks 29th, its 77 years lags behind Italy (81 years), France (80 years), Sweden (81 years) and Germany (79 years), and about the same level as South Korea (76 years) and Cuba (77 years). The United States has fewer per capita physicians, nurses and hospital beds, fewer MRI and CT scanners than the average for other advanced nations, and has the highest rate of medical errors (receiving the wrong medication, incorrect test results, a mistake in treatment or late notification about abnormal results). Due to excessively high out-of-pocket expenses, Americans are also much more likely than citizens of other nations to skip recommended follow-up care, fail to fill prescriptions and forgo doctors' visits altogether, things which exacerbate health problems and lead to preventable suffering and more expensive treatments down the road.

In addition to providing better health coverage, somehow Europe also manages to spend less. According to the WHO, the United States spends the equivalent of 16.5 percent of its economy on health care, about $6,100 per person, compared to an average 8.6 percent in EU countries. France spends just $3,500 per person, or about 10.7 percent of its economy. As Dr. Christopher Murray, director of WHO's Global Program on Evidence for Health Policy, says, "Basically, you die earlier and spend more time disabled if you're an American rather than a member of most other advanced countries."