ConciergePhysicians

An interesting article appeared in the November 12th issue of Business Week. Here’s the link to that article. The essence of the article is a report on the Commonwealth Fund’s recent study of the healthcare systems in seven countries, including the U.S. Their conclusion seems to be, based on patient surveys, that the U.S. is last in virtually all categories. As an example, 49% of U.S. respondents said that they could get same or next day appointments when they were sick, compared to 75% in New Zealand, 58% in Britain, and 65% in Germany. Only Canada (36%) was lower in this category. 34% of U.S. respondents said that the “system needs to be rebuilt completely,” compared to 18%, 15%, 12% (Canada), 27%, 9%, and 17% in the other six countries. Business Week points out that the other six countries surveyed have universal coverage but spend only half as much of their GDP on healthcare as does the U.S. See here the Centrist Policy Network’s thoughts about the Commonwealth Fund and its work.