As a Dutch person who spoke to US people in Dutch hospitals —- who needed to pay full price —- I daresay the US health care system is worse than some 3rd world countries their health care system.
I think there are some differences though. "Worse" is a term that needs to define quantitatively what is worse. The quality is actually quite good here.
Agreed. In the US (just like in many places) you're not exposed to many problems if you have a good insurance and/or have enough money. The system is usually fast, you're treated well and the infrastructure, equipment etc. are great.
The US is a huge outlier: we spend way more than other countries and don't even live as long.
There are other ways to measure it too, which is good to investigate, as it is a complicated subject.
Here's a HN relevant way to measure it: how much time does your average 5, 50, and 500 person company spend dealing with health insurance stuff?
The startup I worked for in Italy spent 0 time on it, because it's not relevant to the company at all. Of course, Italy has massive amounts of bureaucracy for other things, which more than make up for the lack of it in health care, but that's another story.
Using life expectancy to measure quality of health care is like using income to measure how smart you are. There may be some relationship, but too many confounding factors for it to be useful at all.
It is indeed infuriating.