A recent report by the Commonwealth Fund, compared the health status, affordability of health plans, and access to health care by women in the United States to those of ten other high-income countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. It was reported that U.S. women had “the greatest burden of chronic illness, highest rates of skipping needed health care because of cost, difficulty affording their health care, and are least satisfied with their care.”
With the U.S. Affordable Care Act (ACA), great gains were made, giving more than seven million working-age women access to health care and thus closing the gap a little. However, fears loom that the current U.S. administration threaten to repeal much of that progress.
Some of the other highlights of the report were that U.S. women had the highest rate of maternal mortality due to pregnancy and childbirth complications and have the highest rates of caesarean sections. On a good note, U. S. women had the highest rates of breast cancer screenings and the lowest rates of cancer-related deaths.
Source: Munira Z.Gunja et al., What is the Status of Women’s Health and Health Care in the U.S. Compared to Ten Other Countries? (Commonwealth Fund, Dec. 2018). https://doi.org/10.26099/wy8a-7w13