U.S.-based Save the Children surveyed 33 industrialized nations to compare their survival rates for newborn babies. The Associated Press reported the United States ranked near the bottom, tying with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly five per 1,000 babies.

The U.S. ranking was driven partly by racial and income health-care disparities. The AP reported researchers said lack of national health insurance and short maternity leaves also likely contributed to the poor showing, with other possible factors being teenage pregnancies and obesity rates.

Save the Children's survey came just one week after the publication of a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that found middle-aged, white Americans are much sicker than their counterparts in England, even though the United States spends twice as much on health care and the British constantly gripe about the quality of their National Health Service.

What was significant about the U.S.-U.K. study was that it was a peer-to-peer review - middle-aged whites by income level, which took race out of the equation.

Across the board, a higher rate of Americans tested positive for diabetes and heart disease. Americans also self-reported more diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, lung disease and cancer.

The explanation is basic and solvable. The United States does a poor job when it comes to basic primary and preventive health care. As a result, it's ended up with a medical system that spends tons of money on high-tech machines and expensive medications to treat complicated cases but leaves 44 million people without basic coverage.

For a nation that spends a higher percentage of its gross domestic product on health-care than any country in the world, the Untied States isn't getting a good return on its investment.

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