U.S. Mortality Rate Compared to Europe as Dr. Oz Blames Health Care

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said Tuesday that U.S. health care has dropped in quality but increased in expense compared to other developed countries, notably in Europe.

Why It Matters

Oz, the celebrity heart surgeon and former talk show host, was confirmed in April by the U.S. Senate to oversee health care access for nearly half the U.S. population—helming a $1.4 trillion budget that exceeds the Department of Defense and administers Medicare for seniors, people with disabilities, and survivors, as well as Medicaid, which serves low-income Americans.

What To Know

Oz spoke Tuesday with Fox Business' Mornings with Maria host Maria Bartiromo about how his new role will impact the federal health care budget, which he said offers a "generational opportunity" to revamp the "fundamental disconnect" of offered care for the most vulnerable while decreasing "tens of billions" of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse.

"The most expensive care we give is bad care because you pay to do it poorly, then you pay to fix the problem, then you pay downstream costs that go along with someone not getting the right care at the right time," Oz told Bartiromo. "This is true across the board. If we can improve the value of what we offer to Americans, we're going to get a lot of savings naturally.

"We spend twice as much as any other developed country per person on health care—twice as much. And yet, the quality of the care we're getting continues to decline. When I was in medical school, I saw a life expectancy of Americans pretty much equal to Europeans; now, we're five years behind. The number three cause of death in America is a medical error, and yet we're paying a lot of money to experience results that don't match that kind of investment."

The pair conversed at the 28th annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, California.

Mortality rates, both overall and in specific areas, have diminished in the U.S. in recent years when compared to European nations.

The U.S. experienced a sharper decline and a slower rebound in life expectancy than peer countries, on average, between 2019 and 22 due to increased mortality and premature death rates in the U.S. from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker updated in January 2025.

While life expectancy generally returned to pre-pandemic levels by 2023, mortality rates remain lower in the U.S. than in comparable nations.

In 2023, life expectancy at birth in the U.S increased to 78.4 years—up 0.9 years from 77.5 years in 2022 but still lower than pre-pandemic estimates of 78.8 years in 2019, and 4.1 years below the comparable country average of 82.5, per the tracker.

Even as life expectancy varies across the U.S., every single state falls below average when compared to individual, comparable countries.

Research on mortality rates dating back to 2010, including a peer-reviewed study in the National Academy of Sciences, found that among industrialized countries the U.S. ranked at or near the bottom on life expectancy at birth.

In 2006, the average American man and woman could expect to live 75 and 80 years, respectively, while the average Western European man and woman could expect to live 77 and 83 years, respectively, according to World Health Organization data published in 2010.

The U.S. at the time spent two to three times more than other industrialized countries on medical care.

Spending has remained consistent, according to the Peterson Foundation, noting that in 2023, the U.S. spent $4.9 trillion on healthcare—approximately $14,570 per person and representing about 17.6 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The U.S. infant mortality rate (IMR) ranked 51st in the world in 2013, when there were nearly seven infant deaths during the first year of life per 1,000 live births—roughly twice the rate in Scandinavian countries, according to a 2016 study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research.

IMR numbers have also remained consistent as it pertains to the U.S. It is higher than many other developed countries in Europe and Asia, and in 2022 the U.S. rate was 5.6 deaths per 1,000 live births—higher than countries like Japan, Finland and Sweden, according to the 2023 annual report published by America's Health Rankings.

What People Are Saying

President Donald Trump, after choosing Dr. Mehmet Oz to oversee U.S. insurance industries in November 2024: "Dr. Oz will be a leader in incentivizing Disease Prevention, so we get the best results in the World for every dollar we spend on Healthcare in our Great Country. He will also cut waste and fraud within our Country's most expensive Government Agency, which is a third of our Nation's Healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire National Budget."

What Happens Next

The Trump administration has sought to reduce federal spending in a variety of sectotrs and agencies. The president has insisted Medicare and Social Security won't be touched, though Medicaid changes may be deliberated in Congress.

GOP proposals to impose work requirements or restrict eligibility could shrink enrollment by millions. Oz has not explicitly supported those changes but also has not ruled them out.