In a study that tells every person in America who has health care (or is struggling to get it) something they've been knowing, researchers found that we have the poorest and priciest health care compared to five other rich countries. Surprisingly, Canada, a country that everyone holds on a health care pedestal, was the second worst. When we are up against five countries — Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Britain — that offer universal health care, there's no way we could even come close to having the best system.

The group has consistently found that the United States, the only one of the six nations that does not provide universal health care, scores more poorly than the others on many measures of health care.

Congress, President George W. Bush, many employers and insurers have all agreed in recent months to overhaul the U.S. health care system — an uncoordinated conglomeration of employer-funded care, private health insurance and government programs.

The current system leaves about 45 million people with no insurance at all, according to U.S. government estimates from 2005, and many studies have shown most of these people do not receive preventive services that not only keep them healthier, but reduce long-term costs.

Davis said the fund’s researchers looked at hard data for the report.

“It is pretty indisputable that we spend twice what other countries spend on average,” she said.

Per capita health spending in the United States in 2004 was $6,102, twice that of Germany, which spent $3,005. Canada spent $3,165, New Zealand $2,083 and Australia $2,876, while Britain spent $2,546 per person.

With blacks dying at higher rates than whites from so many diseases because of a lack of preventative care, it's obvious that health care is an issue that affects our community. But with big business benefiting from our current, completely flawed system, things probably won't be changing soon.