American Healthcare Statistics
- Americans without health insurance-43 million and rising, includes 30 million working adults
- For US companies employee health insurance is their second largest expense-and employers are reducing or eliminating health benefits. The latest escape hatch for employers (including Aetna Inc., the insurers, and Novartis Inc., a pharmaceutical company) is to give employees a sum of money to find and manage their own healthcare. 1
- Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the US annually-250,000 deaths annually due to iatrogenic causes, which are complications caused by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy such as unnecessary surgery, medication errors, and negative effects of drugs. This figure does not include disabilities or recoveries from these errors2
See also Status of Healthcare
Footnotes:
- Washington Post, Co-Pay or You Pay?, July 28, 2002, H1
- Journal of the American Medical Assn., JAMA, 284, July 26, 2000
- US heath care system is the most expensive in the world, yet quality of health in the US rates poorly. A World Heath Organization (WHO) study of 25 industrialized nations ranked the US 15th.
