In a new survey, researchers found Americans are faring much worse mentally and financially during the COVID-19 pandemic than citizens of other high-income countries around the world
One-third of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced unbearable stress, anxiety, and sadness during the pandemic and more than 30% have faced economic hardships.
The finding demonstrates that U.S. adults when compared to people in eight other high-income countries, face greater mental health and financial consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The research was conducted by a team at the Commonwealth Fund.
The Commonwealth Fund has been comparing health systems around the world for decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic presents a rare instance in which every nation surveyed is facing the same crisis at the same time.
Between March and May, the organization interviewed more than 8,200 adults in nationally representative samples from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The results showed that:
33% of Americans reported emotional problems related to the pandemic, compared with between 10% in Norway and 26% in the United Kingdom and Canada.
31% of U.S. adults said they were able to get the mental health care they needed, compared with 47% in Canada and 54% in Australia.
31% of Americans said they were unable to pay for basic necessities and were either draining their savings or borrowing money to get by, compared with between 6% in Germany and 24% in Canada.
Americans are the least pleased with their government’s response to COVID-19, with only 33% saying Trump is meeting the challenge and 51% praising their state or local government leaders.
In all other countries, at least half of people are happy with their nation’s response.
The crisis has shown weaknesses in the United States’ approach to health care compared with other industrialized nations.
The team says there are five general features of the other countries’ health systems that may be blunting the mental health and economic challenges experienced by people of other countries and may be useful to the U.S.
These features include:
Universal insurance coverage, including the elimination of underinsurance that exposes Americans to high out-of-pocket costs.
Providing everyone access to a reliable primary care physician.
Guaranteeing social support systems that will help people through rough times, including paid sick leave, unemployment insurance and child care assistance.
Avoiding the politicization of public health crises by basing decisions on science and expertise.
Copyright © 2020 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
