As found in the results of a health care oriented study completed last year by the Commonwealth Fund, the United States, although it currently has the most costly health system in the world, is beginning to fall behind several other powerful nations in certain categories, such as care quality and access or health outcomes.

In "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An International Update on the Comparative Performance of American Health Care," the Commonwealth Fund included dialogues with both doctors and patients located in Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the US; they were asked to comment on the state of their national health systems. The situation in the US did not turn out very good. Apart from the aforementioned areas, Americans also ranked last when the question of whether or not residents had a regular doctor was brought up.

It is estimated that about 47 million US residents do not have any kind of health insurance whatsoever and that numbers are constantly going up. Moreover, around 25 million Americans are currently underinsured, which means that in the case of a severe illness, these people would be bankrupt.  

The number of companies that include health benefits in their offers to employees is dropping; while health care premiums have recorded a 78 percent rise since 2001, in the same period, wages have gone up only 19 percent.

Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP have turned out to be quite effective programs, bringing an undeniable amelioration to health outcomes for children, seniors as well as for low-income families to say the least. Obviously enough, things must be taken even further, until a program that would cover all the population is found; an example could consist in the one implemented by Great Britain.