U.S. Spending on Pharmaceuticals is Twice OECD Average, Says OECD

 

Link to the Report | Findings for the United States | Findings for Canada (VF) | Dataviz

 

WASHINGTON, November 4, 2015 -- US expenditure on retail pharmaceuticals is twice as high as the OECD average, while total health expenditure is 2.5 times higher, a new OECD health report finds.

 

Health at a Glance 2015 shows that pharmaceutical spending In the United States reached USD 1026 per capita in 2013, far ahead of Canada (USD 713) and the OECD average (USD 515). Overall US health expenditure was USD 8,713 per capita compared to USD 4,351 in Canada, and the OECD average of USD 3,453.

 

The growth in health spending has slowed down considerably in recent years in the United States, growing at an annual average rate of 1.5% between 2009 and 2013. In Canada, spending grew by only 0.3% over the same time period. However, the proliferation of high-cost specialty medicines will be a major driver of health spending growth in the coming years, says the report.

 

The share of GDP allocated to health spending in the United States (excluding capital expenditure) was 16.4% in 2013, compared with 10.2% in Canada and 8.9% as the OECD average. This share has remained unchanged in the United States since 2009, as health spending growth matched economic growth.

 

Health at a Glance 2015 provides a series of dashboards allowing readers to visualize the relative performance of different OECD countries on selected indicators. These dashboards show that all countries have wide scope for improving the quality of health care and tackling unhealthy lifestyles, such as obesity and harmful alcohol consumption.

 

No country consistently performs at the top of the country ranking on key indicators of quality of care, even those that spend the most on health. There is room for improvement in all countries in the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of different health problems.

 

The United States, for example, is doing well in providing acute care for people having a heart attack or a stroke and preventing them from dying, but is not performing well in preventing avoidable hospital admissions for people with chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes.

 

Other Findings:

- The United States has seen a significant decrease in its uninsured population since 2013, with said population dropping from 14.4% to 11.5% in 2014.

- Most OECD countries have achieved universal (or near-universal) coverage of health care costs for a core set of services, with the exception of Greece, the United States and Poland.

- Life expectancy has increased in the United States, but less rapidly than in many other OECD countries, so there is now a gap of almost two years between life expectancy at birth in the United States compared with the average in OECD countries (78.8 years in the US in 2013 compared with 80.5 years for the OECD average).Life expectancy at birth in Canada (81.5 years in 2011, latest year available) is one year higher than the average across OECD countries and about three years higher than in the United States, but is still lagging behind other OECD countries that have much longer life expectancy (Japan, Spain and Switzerland, which all have a life expectancy of 83 years or more.

- Perceived Health Status: Almost 80% of Americans and Canadians aged 65 or over report being in good or very good health, almost twice the OECD average of 43.4%.

- Smoking rates are low in the US and Canada, where only 14% and 15% of adults smoke, respectively.

- Across OECD, the most educated people can expect to live an average of six years longer.

 

For more information, journalists should contact Ryan Perry (Ryan.Perry@oecd.org) or Miguel Gorman (Miguel.Gorman@oecd.org) at the OECD Washington Center.

 

More information is also available at http://www.oecd.org/els/health-systems/health-at-a-glance.htm.