Failing U.S. Health System

Due to who I follow on LinkedIn, there are several posts on Commonwealth Fund’s ranking of US Healthcare system for 2024 – last against its peers.

In my work on the Current State of US Health for the past year, I found the work of Commonwealth Fund to provide an excellent scorecard on a variety of metrics when it came to the US health. Sadly, this year's results are no different for what they have been the last few decades.

Furthermore, these metrics move or change at glacier-like speed - a mere fraction of a fraction at a time on an annual basis. As such, these metrics are unlikely to change for the next few decades (as they have not changed for three decades) unless there is a strong force to act upon it - legislation and a significant culture shift.

Mr. Peabody's WABAC Time Machine

Going into Mr. Peabody's WABAC (pronounced - 'Wayback') Time Machine, Commonwealth Funds' findings are no different from what I was reading in the early 1990's.

Although I am dating myself and revealing my statistics nerd in me, I purchased a book (the cover of this article) by Andrew L. Shapiro "We're Number One" - published in 1992.

The entire book provides a very sobering view of the United States progress in a variety of areas - economic, social, health, politics, etc. against comparable peer nations. Needless to say, this book really shines the light on a variety of metrics that paints the US in a very uncomfortable challenging position.

Relevant to this article, the first chapter of the book mirrors with Commonwealth Fund findings of 2024 (and 2023, 2022, 2021, so on and do forth) - titled "Chronic Disorder".

Shapiro's "Chronic Disorder" chapter demonstrates much of the US Health shortcomings - life expectancy, spending and coverage, infant mortality and child health, cancer, malpractice, and diet (beef consumption and snacking), with data and country rank with footnotes spanning from 1988 through 1990. Again, we are ranked poorly against all other nations.

My overarching point to this article is that as sad as the Commonwealth Funds' findings are from last week, the U.S. results are no different for at least the last 30 years with many widely-known and published metrics that I read about in a book published decades ago.

Does This Report Change Anything for the Next Decade or Two?

How will this report be treated differently and be received in 2024?

Or, will we just continue to progress with the theme "It just doesn't matter" (Bill Murray as Tripper - motivational speech from Meatballs 1979 movie) - image below.

Do we just keep trudging and limping forward with a shortened lifespan and truncated healthspan?

?#healthcare #medicine #health #future

I include a few of LinkedIn followers that are very close to this subject matter.

Stacy Mays Ellen Brown Andrew Harrison Preston Alexander Michael Mircea Bidu Kristen Hicks-Roof Ph.D., RDN, LDN, FAND Mehrose N NISA Dr Amit Bugalia Robert Bowman Saima Hasnin Ross Meyer Sheri S. Lisa Bailey-Davis David Contorno Amaris Jones Bob Rava Alissa Wassung Dean Jargo Peter Cranstone Beatriz Jacoste Lozano Katie Stebbins Erin W. Martin Courtney Younglove, M.D., FOMA, FACOG, DABOM Scott Fulton Johannes Boshkow

Joseph W. Sunderman is an Intelligence Analyst/Strategist that is a student of understanding the Current State of the US Health and its impact for the next decade. I developed the thesis over several months for Directions Research Group.? Upon completion of boiling the ocean on the topic and created an impeccable deliverable, revenue shortfalls and project delays led to my role being eliminated as part of a budget cut.

?In the past, Joe spent seven years at medical device giant Ethicon (division of Johnson & Johnson) with the most recent role as US Regional Manager of Strategic Insights and Pricing.? In his seven years at JNJ, he received recognition for his servant leadership, where he was a stand out in performance by being a top 10% recipient of Encore and Inspire Awards over multiple years.? Dozens and dozens of accolades from contributors to senior leaders for his collaborative work.? Prior to Ethicon, Joe has had a wide variety of experiences in medical claims, banking, publishing, and retail.? He began his career at Schaeffer's Investment Research as a financial analyst, where he was ranked by Bridge Information Systems as one of the top 10 market analysts for three straight years for his commentary and stock picks found in Schaeffer's Daily Bulletin. Joe has been published in the Market Pulse Journal and Chartpoint and his market comments have been printed in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Dow Jones News Wire, and Reuters. Also, Joe has made appearances on Bloomberg television.