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The United States spends more on health care than any other high-income country but still has the lowest life expectancy at birth and the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group. (Howard, 1/31)

People in the U.S. may be more likely to be living with multiple health complications than people in other high income countries. About 30 percent of adults surveyed in the U.S. had two or more chronic conditions, like asthma, cancer, depression, diabetes, heart disease or hypertension, according to the Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey 2022. Ten other countries were included in this survey, with results that ranged from 17 percent in France to 20 percent in Germany, to about 26 percent in Australia. (Hou, 1/31)

The report adds to a litany of indicting data from the US, where half of adults are worried about medical costs that sometimes force them to delay or forgo care, according to a recent study, and life expectancy of 77 years ranks 39th among all nations. One glaring problem is that Americans visit the doctor just four times a year, trailing most other wealthy countries, perhaps because of cost and a lack of practicing physicians, the authors said. The American health system “can seem designed to discourage people from using services,” they wrote in the report, US Health Care from a Global Perspective, 2022: Accelerating Spending, Worsening Outcomes. “High out-of-pocket costs lead nearly half of working-age adults to skip or delay getting needed care.” (Fay Cortez, 1/31)

Major drug companies such as AbbVie, Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb have raised prices so far this month, according to data provided by 46brooklyn Research, a nonprofit that researches drug pricing. The amount consumers pay depends on their insurance coverage and complex rebates often hidden from public view. (Alltucker, 1/30)

In a victory for the pharmaceutical industry, a federal appeals court ruled drug companies have the right to limit discounts to hospitals that rely on numerous contract pharmacies as they participate in a U.S. government drug discount program. (Silverman, 1/30)

A new survey found that Americans living paycheck to paycheck increased over the last year, with nearly two-thirds of Americans reporting that they do so. About 64 percent of consumers said they were living paycheck to paycheck at the end of 2022, according to a report from Pymnts and LendingClub. The report found that the number is about 9.3 million more than the previous year and includes about 8 million people making more than $100,000 per year. (Sforza, 1/30)

The engine of the U.S. economy—consumer spending—is starting to sputter. Retail purchases have fallen in three of the past four months. Spending on services, including rent, haircuts and the bulk of bills, was flat in December, after adjusting for inflation, the worst monthly reading in nearly a year. Sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell last year to their lowest level since 2014 as mortgage rates rose. The auto industry posted its worst sales year in more than a decade. It’s a stark turnaround from the second half of 2020, when Americans lifted the economy out of a pandemic downturn, helping the U.S. avoid what many economists worried would be a prolonged slump. (Torry and Pinsker, 1/30)