Published 5 November 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4561
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4561

News

US lags behind 10 other countries in primary care

Bob Roehr

1 Washington, DC

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A large international survey of primary care doctors in 11 industrialised nations has found that the United States is often the outlier in medical practice, contributing to the higher cost of care in the US and its relatively poor health outcomes. The survey findings point to policy changes that might improve care in the US.

Access to care was poorer in the US than in the other countries, with 58% of US primary care doctors reporting that patients often have difficulty paying for drugs or for the copayments required under their insurance plan. That figure was nearly 1.5 times that in the next highest country, Italy (37%), and about double the average of the other 10 countries. Primary care doctors in the United Kingdom (14%), Sweden (6%), and Norway (5%) reported the lowest rates of concern about access.

The survey gathered more than 10 000 responses from doctors in Australia, . . . [Full text of this article]


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