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The US Health System: How does it compare? Presentation: John Martin Director, Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, OECD Discussants: Michael O'Grady, National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago

Event Description:

The United States spends 15.3 percent of its GDP on health care, far more than any other country. On a per capita basis, the U.S. devotes $6400 for health expenditures – more than twice the OECD average. The unusually high level of U.S. health care expenditures raises serious policy issues regarding affordability and the competitive impact on U.S. companies, but also questions for healthcare policymakers:

• Are Americans healthier as a result of having the highest levels of healthcare spending in the world?
• How does the U.S. allocate its healthcare spending as compared with other countries?
• What are the major risk factors for the U.S. population and what can be done to minimize these risks?
• What can the U.S. learn from other countries to increase the cost-effectiveness of its healthcare system?

John Martin, OECD Director for Employment Labor and Social Affairs, will address these and other key questions as he presents the findings of the recently released fourth edition of Health at a Glance. This report provides the latest comparable data and trends on different aspects of the performance of health systems in the United States and other OECD countries. It provides striking evidence of large variations across countries in indicators of health status and health risks, as well as in the inputs and outputs of health systems. For the first time, this publication also includes a chapter on new comparable indicators of quality of care, showing variations across countries in measures such as survival rates after heart attack, stroke and cancer. Michael O'Grady will provide comments.

Biographies:

John P. Martin is Director for Employment, Labor and Social Affairs at the OECD; his brief also covers OECD work on health and international migration. Mr. Martin joined the OECD in 1977 and has held several posts in his current directorate and in the Economics Department. He was the founding editor of the OECD Employment Outlook from 1983 to 1986, and he edited the OECD Economic Outlook in 1992 to 1993. He was a member of both the Editorial Board of OECD Economic Studies and an associate editor of Labor Economics for many years.

Michael J. O’Grady, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago and a Principal of O’Grady Health Policy LLC. He is a veteran health policy expert with 24 years working in Congress and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). He served as the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at DHHS and previously was the Senior Health Economist on the majority staff of both the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Economic Committee. In addition, he was a senior analyst for three Medicare Commissions established by Congress and prior to that time spent many years with the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress developing econometric and actuarial models of social legislation. Throughout his career, Dr. O’Grady has shaped significant health care legislation and a broad spectrum of health reimbursement issues. He has been instrumental in the development of key Federal policy and programs tackling some of the most complex and controversial health issues facing the county. He holds a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Rochester.