For anyone following my articles, I hope it has come across that I am extremely frustrated with our system. Much of that revolves around the incredibly high cost. But that’s only part of the story…

If we paid as much as we do and it resulted in a top-notch system, I think my frustration would be at levels that are more manageable. However, the World Health Organization ranked our system 37^th, meaning we sit just below Costa Rica and barely above Slovenia! Largely based on outcomes, this report speaks to a system that doesn’t put the patient first, where the few quality providers are largely out of reach to the masses, and one in which we often wind up worse off after we receive care than we were before.

It is on this point that I get the most amount of pushback from the public. They ask me “Why do people travel from all over the world to get care in the U.S.?” This is a legitimate question. Let me give you a statistic. As of 2007, the nation with the second highest number of MRI machines per 1 million residents was Italy, with 1,097. France, the top-ranked health care system, had 350. The U.S.? We have 7,810 per 1 million residents. This is an insane number that requires mass volume of MRIs just to be financially viable. CT scanners are even worse. We had 10,535 per million versus France, with 659. So, why do people come to the U.S. for care? Because sometimes, faster access to mediocre care (at best) is better than waiting months for really good care.