Prometheus 6

The study is the latest of many to document that the United States lags on some measures of health and care despite spending more on medical care than any other nation. Annual U.S. medical spending was $5,635 per person in 2003.

U.S. Lags in Several Areas of Health Care, Study Finds
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 3, 2006; A14

Americans have a harder time than residents of several other countries getting after-hours appointments with a nurse or primary care physician without going to an emergency room, a study released yesterday found.

Forty percent of U.S. primary care doctors said they had arrangements for after-hours care, according to the survey of more than 6,000 physicians in seven countries. That compared with 95 percent in the Netherlands, 90 percent in New Zealand, 87 percent in the United Kingdom, 76 percent in Germany and 47 percent in Canada.