U.S. Medicine the best? Maybe not....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new study challenges a widely held view in the United States that Americans have the best medical care in the world.

A review of health care in the United States and four other industrialized, English-speaking countries, published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs, found that the United States leads in some areas and trails in others.

Breast cancer survival rates were higher in the United States than in Australia, Canada, England and New Zealand, the report says, citing health data through 2000. American women also were screened for cervical cancer at a higher rate than women in the other countries.

Yet the United States was the only country that registered a rise in deaths from asthma. The rate of infection from hepatitis B also was highest in the United States.

"No country scores consistently the best or worst overall, and each country has at least one area of care where it could learn from international experience," the study said.

Uh-Oh