The U.S. health care system: leading the world in all the wrong ways

For as much as the United States spends on health care, you would think that we would have the best care in the world. But we don’t. In fact, the United States health care system leads the world in medical errors, according to a 2005 survey by the Commonwealth Fund.

In fact, medical errors contribute to the deaths of 210,000 to 440,000 U.S. patients each year, making medical errors the third leading causing of death for Americans, behind cancer and heart disease. A more conservative 2010 estimate from the Office of the Inspector General for Health and Human Services put the number at around 180,000.

It’s time to get angry, and it’s time to take action to fix this problem.