All Content

This Commonwealth Fund-sponsored survey provides an international perspective from patients from Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Overall, the findings collectively suggest that no single country stands alone as the best or worst in the identified health care issues. These issues included transitional care and care coordination, medication safety, chronic care management and patient-centered care, and timely access. The United States, for instance, seemed to suffer from fragmentation of care and inadequate insurance as well as limitations in access and efficiency. However, each country shared certain strengths and challenges. The findings suggest that fundamental changes to health care will be necessary, beyond current efforts targeting payment and delivery systems.