Despite leading the world on medical care spending, Americans have worse health and shorter lives than people in other affluent nations. Our international ranking has been slipping over time, and it is not only poor Americans who are affected. Middle-class and even wealthy Americans also are less healthy than their counterparts in other affluent countries.
These disturbing facts are presented in a January 2013 report from the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine documenting our nation’s health disadvantage relative to other affluent countries on most measures of health.
Equally concerning are the results of new analyses in this report, Overcoming Obstacles to Health in 2013 and Beyond, showing dramatic differences in health among Americans from different income, education, and racial or ethnic groups. These differences—between the United States and other countries, and within our own borders—adversely affect almost everyone, with serious human and economic costs. As a nation, we are failing to achieve our health potential.
This report reviews existing knowledge and interprets new analyses to address three questions:
- What does the evidence tell us about America’s unrealized health potential?
- Why are Americans not as healthy as they could be?
- What do we know about solutions that can help all Americans reach their full health potential?