U.S. healthcare falls short in survey of 7 nations

By Maggie Fox

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans spend double what people in other industrialized countries do on health care, but have more trouble seeing doctors, are the victims of more errors and go without treatment more often, according to a report released on Thursday.

Patients in the Netherlands struggle the most with paperwork, while British and Canadian citizens wait the longest for elective surgery, the Commonwealth Fund reports in the journal Health Affairs.

The report, published on the Internet here 17T , provides an annual comparison from the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports research on health systems.

This year it may be especially important as the 2008 U.S. elections are featuring health care reform as one of the most important issues, fund president Karen Davis said.

"The survey shows that in the U.S., we pay the price for having a fragmented health care system," Davis told reporters in a telephone briefing.

Harris Interactive researchers surveyed 12,000 adults in the United States, Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Of these, only the United States lacks a universal health care system.

The report said Americans spent $6,697 per capita on healthcare in 2005, or 16 percent of gross domestic product. All the other countries spent less than half of that -- $3,128 in Australia or 9.5 percent of GDP, $3,326 in Canada or 9.8 percent of GDP, down to a low of $2,343 in New Zealand or 9 percent of GDP.

Davis said the Netherlands is included for the first time and is interesting because of its mix of mandated employer-sponsored, private and public insurance.