OECD Health Data on US System

This report on health data from OECD countries has some distressing, though not entirely new, news for US citizens. The US spent 17.9% of GDP on healthcare in 2009; OECD average was 9.6%. The US spent two-and-a-half times more per person than the OECD average. For that pricetag, we ended up ranked 28th out of 34 for life-expectancy (78.2 years, just behind Chile, compared to the OECD average of 79.5). We're fourth from the bottom on premature death, have more than twice as many avoidable asthma hospital admissions than the OECD average, see our doctors less often, and pay more for our drugs. On the plus side, the colorectal cancer survival rate is excellent, and our breast-cancer survival rate is best in the OECD. We're good at the pricey stuff, and terrible at the inexpensive basics.