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| |  U.S. Drops In Rank Of Industrialized Nations For Infant Mortality, Life Expectancy BALTIMORE, MD -- November 11, 1997 -- Despite the fact that the United States spends more money per capita on medical care than any other industrialized nation in the world, it ranks in the bottom quartile of a list of 29 industrialized nations in both life expectancy and infant mortality and its relative ranking in both these categories has been declining since 1960. These and other findings about the relationship of the U.S. to other countries in regard to cost, access and outcomes of health care were published in yesterday’s issue of Health Affairs. "(The U.S.) spends more resources than any other industrialized nation by a wide margin," said study author Gerard Anderson, PhD, professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. “Yet, between 1990 and 1995 the United States fell to position 23 out of the 29 leading industrialized nations in terms of infant mortality. This country was ranked twentieth out of 29 in 1995 in terms of life expectancy for women and twenty-first in terms of life expectancy for men.” Dr. Anderson used data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on per capita health care spending, utilization rates, health status, demographic factors and other topics. He -- In 1996 the U.S. spent 14.2 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care. The next closest country was Germany with 10.5 percent. -- The U.S. also spent the most per capita on health care in that year with $3,708 US spent per person on health care services, followed by Switzerland with spending of $2,412 US. -- Of all the G7 countries (U.S., France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Canada and Italy) only the U.S. has not achieved nearly universal publicly mandated health insurance coverage. -- In 1995 only the U.S. had less than half of its population eligible for publicly-mandated health insurance. -- Between 1990 and 1995 the infant mortality rate in the U.S. declined to 8.0 per 1,000 live births but this still left the U.S. at 23 out of 29 industrialized countries because other countries had shown more rapid improvement in reducing infant mortality. -- In 1960, the U.S. was ranked 13th in life expectancy for women; in 1995, it had slipped to 20th. -- In 1960, the U.S. was ranked seventeenth in life expectancy for men; in 1995, that position had dropped to 21st.
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