The research is a cross-national comparison of the health care systems in such countries as Australia, France, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and some others and the definition of factors that might delay or speed up the enhancement of the health care system in the United States. The tendency of the issue is that government spends more and more money; however, people have poor health outcomes that are expressed in chronic diseases and a shorter lifespan.
Among the results of the research, one might note the following aspects comparing with other high-income countries:
- the United States has fewer hospitals and clinics, however, they use specific medical technologies like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines more;
- Americans have fewer therapeutic programs and physician visits;
- all in all, the US spends more money on health care (The Commonwealth Fund, 2013).
The answer lays in the utilization of expensive services rather than frequent visits to the doctor.
The data was collected mainly from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Authors use a quantitative method of the research procedure to prove their point of view. Speaking of the procedural design advantages, the issue worth turning one’s attention to is the presence of illustrative material such as tables, diagrams, and drawings. It is a convincing argument that the article comprises some proven data or statistics organized in graphs.
In conclusion, the authors pointed out the main trends and changes that are connected to the US health care system in comparison with different high-income countries all over the world. Consequently, one may conclude that the goal desired by the authors was achieved because they provided a reader with useful and comprehensible information. However, the results of this study might be generalized only to high-income countries, where the health care system stands on a high level.
References
The Commonwealth Fund. (2013). U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective. Web.