It is nothing short of amazing to me. There are people who truly believe that our health care system is the best in the world. Lets look at some numbers and research reports and see what we find.

Since profit is at the heart of our health care system, with some very notable exceptions, lets look at the costs and studies associated with the United States system of health care delivery and its results.

Where do you imagine that our spending on health care ranks compared to other developed countries? A variety of sources including the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment all seem to conclude that we rank No. 1 in the world on the amount of money we spend on health care. This ranking looks only at highly developed countries because there are a few places that spend more, such as the Marshall Islands and Syria.

Are we getting good value for this expenditure? If we rank No. 1 in money we spend, I would imagine and the conservative Republicans apparently believe we would rank near the top in comparison to other highly developed nations. But do we?

What about the issue of life expectancy?

Of course, most of us expect to live a long time, although the universe sometimes may dictate otherwise. But if we think we are No. 1 or 2 we are not. The CIA World Factbook reports that we are No. 42 behind countries such as Japan, Australia, Italy, Canada, France, Ireland, Germany, United Kingdom, South Korea and Finland, along with 30 other nations. The OECD ranks us at 35 out of its membership. CBS news reported that the life expectancy for people living in the United States was lowest among 17 of the wealthiest nations. The WHO ranked us 35th as well.

Infant mortality?

The World Factbook shows us behind 55 other countries. CBS news reported that we rank No. 30 in first-day deaths. The World Bank ranks us 46th.

The National Research Council and Institute of Medicine reported in 2013 that the United States scored at or near the bottom on nine indicators of health: chronic lung disease, drug-related deaths, general disability, heart disease, injuries and homicide, low birth weight, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, obesity and diabetes.

These reports and conclusions from a wide variety of organizations that study global health along with health in the United States must indicate that some people are not telling the truth. So, if I hear one more Republican or any other politician of any political stripe say, We have the best health care in the world, it will be very difficult for me to take them seriously.

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Is U.S. health care really best?