Health care: We pay much more for much less

Infant deaths in the United States declined two percent in 2006, but the rate still remains well above that of most industrialized countries and is one of many indicators suggesting that Americans pay more but get less from their health care system. In 1960, the United States ranked 12th lowest in the world, but by 2004, the latest year for which comparisons were issued by the CDC, that ranking had dropped to 29th lowest, reported the NYT. This international gap has widened even though the United States devotes a far greater share of its national wealth to health care than other countries: in 2006, Americans spent $6,714 per capita on health - more than twice the average of other industrialized countries-
(NYT, 10/15/08).