IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ebg/iesewp/d-0525.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Comparing non-fatal health across countries: Is the US medical system better?

Author

Listed:
  • Cutler, David M.

    (Harvard University)

  • Mas, Nuria

    (IESE Business School)

Abstract

The primary focus of the paper is to assess whether the US, which spends significantly more than any other country in health care, has better health outcomes. It has long been clear that mortality as a whole is not better in the US than in other countries. We focus our analysis on the US performance for the treatment of non-fatal health outcomes and we compare the health of the United States to that of Canada, the United Kingdom and Spain. Our results indicate a discrepancy between high quality of life for some outcomes and low quality of life for others. Such discrepancy is not attributable to measurement issues in determining a person's quality of life, nor is it attributable to differing performance by income. Our results suggest that the discrepancy is due to the fact that the US does better for the treatment of conditions where high-tech medicine is a key to better health and worse in conditions requiring substantial chronic disease management.

Suggested Citation

  • Cutler, David M. & Mas, Nuria, 2003. "Comparing non-fatal health across countries: Is the US medical system better?," IESE Research Papers D/525, IESE Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0525
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.iese.edu/research/pdfs/DI-0525-E.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Janet Currie & Patricia Reagan, 1998. "Distance to Hospitals and Children's Access to Care: Is Being Closer Better, and for Whom?," NBER Working Papers 6836, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Cutler, David M & Richardson, Elizabeth, 1998. "The Value of Health: 1970-1990," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 97-100, May.
    3. David M. Cutler & Mark McClellan, 1996. "The Determinants of Technological Change in Heart Attack Treatment," NBER Working Papers 5751, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. David M. Cutler & Elizabeth Richardson, 1999. "Your Money and Your Life: The Value of Health and What Affects It," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, volume 2, pages 99-132, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Carol Propper & Neil Söderlund, 1998. "Competition in the NHS internal market: an overview of its effects on hospital prices and costs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(3), pages 187-197, May.
    6. David Cutler & Mark McClellan & Joseph Newhouse, 1998. "The Costs and Benefits of Intensive Treatment for Cardiovascular Disease," NBER Working Papers 6514, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Joseph P. Newhouse, 1992. "Medical Care Costs: How Much Welfare Loss?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 3-21, Summer.
    8. T. D. McBride, "undated". "Uninsured Spells of the Poor: Prevalence and Duration," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1131-97, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    9. Alan M. Garber, 1999. "Frontiers in Health Policy Research, volume 2," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number garb99-1.
    10. Mossey, J.M. & Shapiro, E., 1982. "Self-rated health: a predictor of mortality among the elderly," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 72(8), pages 800-808.
    11. David M. Cutler & Elizabeth Richardson, 1997. "Measuring the Health of the U.S. Population," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 28(1997 Micr), pages 217-282.
    12. Martin Neil Baily & Alan M. Garber, 1997. "Health Care Productivity," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 28(1997 Micr), pages 143-216.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laurence C. Baker, 2000. "Managed Care and Technology Adoption in Health Care: Evidence from Magnetic Resonance Imaging," NBER Working Papers 8020, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. David M. Cutler & Ellen Meara, 2000. "The Technology of Birth: Is It Worth It?," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, Volume 3, pages 33-68, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Cameron, Trudy Ann & DeShazo, J.R., 2013. "Demand for health risk reductions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 87-109.
    4. Laurence C. Baker & Ciaran S. Phibbs, 2000. "Managed Care, Technology Adoption, and Health Care: The Adoption of Neonatal Intensive Care," NBER Working Papers 7883, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Beni­tez-Silva, Hugo & Ni, Huan, 2008. "Health status and health dynamics in an empirical model of expected longevity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 564-584, May.
    6. David M. Cutler & Elizabeth Richardson, 1999. "Your Money and Your Life: The Value of Health and What Affects It," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, volume 2, pages 99-132, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Jeffrey S. McCullough, 2008. "The adoption of hospital information systems," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(5), pages 649-664, May.
    8. Kurt Hornschild & Stephan Raab & Jörg-Peter Weiß, 2005. "Die Medizintechnik am Standort Deutschland: Chancen und Risiken durch technologische Innovationen, Auswirkungen auf und durch das nationale Gesundheitssystem sowie potentielle Wachstumsmärkte im Ausla," DIW Berlin: Politikberatung kompakt, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, edition 2, volume 10, number pbk10.
    9. David M. Cutler & Louise Sheiner, 1998. "Managed Care and the Growth of Medical Expenditures," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, Volume 1, pages 77-116, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Laurence Baker & Joanne Spetz, 1999. "Managed Care and Medical Technology Growth," NBER Chapters, in: Frontiers in Health Policy Research, volume 2, pages 27-52, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Cutler, David M & Epstein, Arnold M. & Frank, Richard G. & Hartman, Raymond & King, Charles III & Newhouse, Joseph P. & Rosenthal, Meredith B. & Vigdor, Elizabeth Richardson, 2000. "How Good a Deal Was the Tobacco Settlement? Assessing Payments to Massachusetts," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 21(2-3), pages 235-261, November.
    12. Karine Lamiraud & Stephane Lhuillery, 2016. "Endogenous Technology Adoption and Medical Costs," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(9), pages 1123-1147, September.
    13. Stolpe, Michael, 2003. "Ressourcen und Ergebnisse der globalen Gesundheitsökonomie: Einführung und Überblick," Kiel Working Papers 1177, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    14. Friedrich Breyer & Normann Lorenz & Gerald Pruckner & Thomas Schober, 2021. "Looking into the Black Box of “Medical Progress”: Rising Health Expenditures by Illness Type and Age," CDL Aging, Health, Labor working papers 2021-01, The Christian Doppler (CD) Laboratory Aging, Health, and the Labor Market, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    15. Kerry Hickson, 2014. "The GDP Value of Twentieth-Century Health Improvements in Developed Economies: Initial Estimates for England," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(2), pages 385-399, June.
    16. Amitabh Chandra & Courtney Coile & Corina Mommaerts, 2023. "What Can Economics Say about Alzheimer's Disease?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 61(2), pages 428-470, June.
    17. Olga Lazareva, 2009. "Health Effects of Occupational Change," Working Papers w0129, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    18. Mas, Núria & Seinfeld, Janice, 2008. "Is managed care restraining the adoption of technology by hospitals?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 1026-1045, July.
    19. David M. Cutler, 2002. "Equality, Efficiency, and Market Fundamentals: The Dynamics of International Medical-Care Reform," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(3), pages 881-906, September.
    20. Kajal Lahiri & Zulkarnain Pulungan, 2006. "Health Inequality and Its Determinants in New York," Discussion Papers 06-03, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    international comparison; healthcare systems; chronic diseases; technology; health;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0525. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Noelia Romero (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ienaves.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.