Value-based health care drives debate

(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

There is arguably no industry under such enormous pressure to change as health care.

Health care costs in the United States have spiraled out of control while providing citizens with some of the poorest outcomes in the developed world. According to the World Health Organization, the per-capita total expenditure on health care by U.S. citizens in 2012 was $8,895. By comparison, using a country roughly the same size, on the same continent and in the same hemisphere, Canadian citizens spent $4,676 and were significantly less likely to die between the ages of 15 and 60 (83 men and 52 women per 1,000 in Canada compared with 130 men and 77 women per 1,000 in the United States).