Ohio Health Care

Americans pay far more for health care than any other advanced nation in the world. Are we getting our money's worth? Plenty of evidence says no.

Americans have shorter life spans and die at faster rates because of major diseases than the averages for 30 democracies that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The mortality rate for infants is especially chilling: The United States came in third worst, ahead of only Mexico and Turkey.

But that dismal showing by the nation doesn't necessarily say anything about the cost and quality of health care in Ohio.

How does Ohio measure up to its Canadian Neighbors?

Not very well:

• At birth, the difference in life expectancy is greater for Ontario residents — 76 years for Ohioans, compared to nearly 81 years in Ontario.

• In Ohio, nearly eight of 1,000 newborns die each year In Ontario, the infant mortality rate is 5.5

• Ontario also has lower mortality rates for each of the top six causes of death: heart disease, cancer, stroke, emphysema and other chronic lower respiratory diseases, diabetes and accidents.

Overall, the gap in these key health-care yardsticks was wider between Ohio and Ontario than between the two nations as a whole in all but two categories: strokes and accidents.

That difference was striking because the state and the province are so similar demographically.