From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/health/02cnd-health.html
(registration required, free)
Excerpt:
An article in the May 3 issue of JAMA said "middle-aged to
older U.S. residents have higher rates of diabetes,
hypertension, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, lung disease
and cancer than their English counterparts."
The article said American per capita expenditure on medical care
was $5,274 a year compared to $2,164 in Britain, where many
people depend on the state-run National Health Service,
currently facing huge deficits that have made thousands of
hospital beds not longer available.
"However, whether greater financial expenditures translate into
better health for a country's citizens is uncertain," JAMA said
in a press release summarizing the article.
The conclusions followed an inquiry, using American and British
data, to compare the relative health of older individuals and
the way health varies as a result of social and economic status.
"The researchers found that U.S. citizens in late middle age are
much less healthy than their English counterparts for diabetes,
hypertension, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, lung disease
and cancer," the press release said. For instance, it said, the
prevalence of diabetes was twice as high in the United States as
in England and hypertension was 10 percent more common in
America.
Comparing the habits of older people, the article said "smoking
behavior was similar in both countries, with about one in five
people between the ages of 55 and 64 years currently smoking."
But it observed: "Obesity rates were much higher in the U.S. and
heavy drinking was more common in England."
The article concluded that wealthier and better-educated people
in both countries were much healthier than poorer and less-
educated people. "Differences in socio-economic groups between
the two groups were so great that those in the top education and
income level in the U.S. had similar rates of diabetes and heart
disease as those in the bottom education and income level in
England," it said.
The JAMA article said that "health insurance cannot be the
central reason for the better health outcomes in England because
the top socio-economic status tier of the U.S. population have
close to universal access but their health outcomes are often
worse than those of their English counterparts."
Among its "simple but powerful conclusions" the article found
that: "Americans are much sicker than the English."