Aaron Carroll, of the Incidental Economist, has been dissecting the latest results from the annual Commonwealth Fund survey of health care in economically advanced nations. Among the findings worth noting are the ones that go with the graph above:
It’s not just that more people in the US report access issues because of cost than any other country. It’s that even those with “above average” incomes experience these barriers. In fact, more people with “above average” incomes in the US experience cost-related access issues than people with “below average” incomes in seven of the other ten countries. It’s not just that our poorer citizens can’t afford the care; our wealthier citizens can’t either.
The Affordable Care Act may not solve this problem, but it will make it a great deal less severe. So here's my question for those who want to repeal the law: Do you a proposal that will credibly reduce the problem even more?
For more on the survey and what it says, I highly recommend Carroll's other posts, as well as the paper in Health Affairs summarizing the survey.
Note: The Commonwealth Fund has underwritten some of my own research about health care systems abroad.