While the U.S. spends more on health care than any other country, we often have worse health outcomes than comparable nations. For example, Americans generally live shorter lives than people in comparable countries, in part, because Americans die from treatable illnesses at a higher rate than people in other high-income nations. Countries with universal health care use a variety of approaches to cover their populations and each system has important differences on a number of key issues, including eligibility, administrative efficiency, cost controls and care delivery. Medicare-for-All would allow us to improve an already popular program, Medicare, and expand it to everyone in the United States. We would finally join our peer nations in providing universal access to health care as a right and not a privilege.
Compare the U.S. with Multiple Countries
- Journal Article: In New Survey of Eleven Countries, U.S. Adults Still Struggle with Access and Affordability of Health Care
- Journal Article: Variations in Amenable Mortality — Trends in 16 High-Income Nations
- News Article: The U.S. Spends More on Healthcare Than Any Other Country — but Not with Better Health Outcomes
- News Article: ‘An Embarrasment’: U.S. Health Care Far from the Top in Global Study
- News Article: Why Down Under Comes Out on Top in Health Care
- News Article: The Best Health Care System in the World: Which One Would You Pick?
- Journal Article: A Comparison Of Hospital Administrative Costs In Eight Nations: US Costs Exceed All Others By Far
- Journal Article: Comparisons of Health Care Systems in the United States, Germany and Canada
- News Article: Health Costs: How the U.S. Compares With Other Countries
- Report: Mirror, Mirror 2017: International Comparison Reflects Flaws and Opportunities for Better U.S. Health Care
- Report: Universal Health Coverage and Health Outcomes
- News Article: What Country Spends The Most (And Least) On Health Care Per Person?
- Journal Article: Healthcare Access and Quality Index Based on Mortality From Causes Amenable to Personal Health Care in 195 Countries and Territories, 1990–2015
- News Article: 5 People From Around the World Share What it’s Like to Have Single-Payer Healthcare
Compare the U.S. with Canada
- Journal Article: Medical Spending Differences in the United States and Canada: The Role of Prices, Procedures, and Administrative Expenses
- Journal Article: U.S. Docs Spend Four Times More on Payer Interactions Than Canadians
- Journal Article: U.S. Physician Practices Versus Canadians: Spending Nearly Four Times as Much Money Interacting With Payers
- Journal Article: Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and Canada
- Journal Article: Comparing Canadian and U.S. Physician pay
- News Article: A Tale of Two Nations
- Journal Article: The Financial Burden of Out-of-Pocket Expenses in the United States and Canada: How Different is the United States?
Explore Country Profiles
- Blog Post: Single-Payer Health Care in Taiwan: Borrowing Ideas, Improving on Medicare
- News Article: Single Payer? Take a Look At How South Korea Did It.
- News Article: Why Switzerland Has the World’s Best Health Care System