Report: Health Care for Elderly Better in USA than UK

A new study is out that seems to show that medical care for older Americans—of increasing interest to me!—is better than for oldsters in the UK.  From the story in Science Daily:

Researchers found that while Americans aged 55 to 64 have higher rates of chronic diseases than their peers in England, they died at about the same rate. And Americans age 65 and older — while still sicker than their English peers — had a lower death rate than similar people in England, according to findings published in the journal Demography.

Why might that be?

Researchers say there are two possible explanations why death rates are higher for English after age 65 as compared to Americans. One is that the illnesses studied result in higher mortality in England than in the United States. The second is that the English are diagnosed at a later stage in the disease process than Americans. “Both of these explanations imply that there is higher-quality medical care in the United States than in England, at least in the sense that these chronic illnesses are less likely to cause death among people living in the United States,” Smith said.

Could it be that a primarily privatized system such as that in the USA—even under Medicare in which only about 50% of expenses are paid by the government, and private options are rife—works better than a primarily publicly financed NHS model?  Could it also be that the NICE style rationing in the UK cuts against the elderly—it sometimes definitely does—and keeps them from receiving the best efficacious treatments that extend lives?  Much of that is informal, but NICE rations osteoporosis drugs even for seniors under the age of 75.

In any event, these are complex matters for which there are no simple explanations.  But it is interesting.