Expensive Healthcare Doesn’t Help Americans Live Longer

Among developed countries, a new report says, the U.S. ranks very low in translating health dollars into longer lives—particularly for women

We already know American healthcare is pricey, much more so than that of other industrialized countries. But a new analysis published this week in the American Journal of Public Health points out that all that spending doesn’t translate to longer lives for Americans.

The results are particularly atrocious for women: Among the 27 industrialized nations studied, the United States ranks 25th when it comes to reducing women's deaths by spending more on healthcare.

The authors used data from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries collected between 1991 and 2007, and they performed a regression analysis while controlling for behavior and economic factors.