Survey says....

Deloitte has just released its 2011 Survey of Health Care Consumers: Global Report and the results don’t look good for the United States in spite of us spending 17.6% of our GDP on health care (far more than any other country included in this survey).

Here are just a couple revealing survey results.

--Only 22% of U.S. consumers give our health care system an “A” or “B” grade. That puts us just ahead of Portugal (18%) and Mexico (15%). Brazil brought up the bottom at only 8%. Which health care systems were liked the best by consumers? Luxembourg (69%), Belgium (57%), Switzerland (52%), France (51%), Canada (50%), and the United Kingdom (46%).

-- 37% of U.S. consumers give our health care system a failing “D” or “F” grade. That makes only Portugal (39%), Mexico (44%) and Brazil (57%) the countries in which their people dislike their health care systems more than we dislike ours. Even fewer Chinese give their health care system a failing grade (29%). Here are some of the other countries and their “D” or “F” grades—Germany (20%), United Kingdom (15%), Switzerland (17%), Canada (14%), France (11%), Belgium (8%) and Luxembourg (4%).


So the next time you hear a politician brag about the U.S. having the best health care in the world, remember that they are talking about health care services for those who have easy access and can afford the insurance premiums, deductibles and co-payments.

For the rest of the country, and especially the 37% who gave our health care system a failing grade, we’re looking forward to 2014. That is when most of the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare for some of you), is in place so that most Americans can get that great health care.