According to the survey published by the Commonwealth Fund in the journal Health Affairs Americans spend double on the health care in comparison with what people in other industrialized countries do. Also the Americans have more trouble in seeing doctors and problems in paying the medical bills.

The survey was made on seven nations and it comprises 12,000 adults in Britain, the United States, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand and Australia. Only the U.S. doesn’t have a universal health care system.   

The report, published on the internet said that Americans spent in 2005 $6,697 per capita on healthcare while the other countries spent less than half of that: $3,326 in Canada, $3,128 in Australia, $ 2,343 in New Zealand and $3.128 in Australia.

According to Reuters, Karen Davis, president of the fund said: “The survey shows that in the U.S., we pay the price for having a fragmented health care system.”

According to the survey Americans and Canadians go to emergency departments for routine issues.

Davis said: “In the U.S., nearly two of five (37 percent) of all adults and 42 percent of those with chronic conditions had skipped medications, not seen a doctor when sick, or foregone recommended care in the past year because of costs -- rates well above all other countries.”

A benefit for the U.S. health care system is easy access to elective surgery. Patients in the U.S., Germany, New Zealand, and Australia have waited less than a month for this kind of surgery while about 15 percent of patients in countries like UK or Canada have to wait more than six months. In UK waits dropped from 2001 when 28 percent reported waiting more than six months.

Regarding the safety of the patient Americans have the highest reports of lab test errors and medical or medication errors.

In the past two years one-third of U.S. patients that presented chronic conditions reported a medical, medication, or test error.