Global Survey Reveals Weakness in U.S. Senior Care

In comparison to other wealthy nations around the world, the United States ranks pretty poorly in terms of senior care. The International Health Policy Survey, conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, found that the U.S. ranked right at the bottom, or very close to it, in comparison to other countries. Several different categories were examined, and the U.S. did not fare well in comparison to countries in Europe and North America.

 

Examined by this survey were topics such as affordability, ease of access to care, coordination of care, and timeliness of care. Although this was the 20th time this survey has been conducted, there were some differences in what was looked at. For example, this year the needs of the sickest and oldest members of society were examined. The hope was that this new feature would shed some light on how nations take care of some of their most vulnerable citizens. The U.S. ranked very poorly in this category, too. The countries included in the survey were the U.S., Canada, Germany, Australia, France, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.

 

Regardless of country, about one in every eight respondents had three or more chronic conditions. In the United States, more than one in three had multiple conditions. This is concerning as it was well above the global average, but it was fitting with many of the other concerning pieces of data that were presented.

 

A global survey shows that the U.S. is behind most other wealthy nations in terms of quality senior care.

 

The most concerning portion of this survey for me was the fact that many (23 percent) of those that receive Medicare insurance say that they don’t go to the doctor when they need to, skip filling their prescriptions, or ignore some other aspect of their health. In those that ranked the highest on the survey, less than 5 percent of people did these things. There are likely a variety of reasons for this happening, but some of those that were cited in the survey included the cost of medicine or treatment, and the overall complexity of the healthcare system. The end result is that many seniors in our country suffer from a much lower quality of care than those in other wealthy nations.

 

This gap in quality of care makes sense, in a way. If you ask most anyone in our country about their experience with health insurance, even those that are happy with where they currently are will admit that it is a confusing and overwhelming process to find and keep good insurance. The U.S. continually ranks poorly in comparison to overall health care when examined next to other countries. The fact that our senior care system is in need of improvement does not come as a surprise to anybody when thinking about these things.

 

That’s why we take so much pride in what we do at Paradise In-Home Care. We know that there’s always room for improvement in the care that the people that you love receive, and we take great strides to try and make sure that this happens on our part.

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