The study compared the US to other Western nations and also did an intra-US comparison based on comparing national performance to the top performing states for a given issue, e.g (Top 3 states) New York, Calif, and Wisc. average performance with cardiac care compared to national. So both the international and intra-national measures were compared to achieved outcomes somewhere, not on ideal outcomes. The study used quality criteria developed by: Institute of Medicine, U.S. Health and Human Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)--fed government agency, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and other experts. Study commission members came from academia, government, HMO/insurers, corporate employers, think-tanks, and medical provider groups.

From the press release, the study "paints a disturbing picture of a [US] health care system that does not achieve top marks in any single assessed health care category. In fact, the report shows that the U.S. health care system falls far short of what it could achieve, given the country's current level of investment in health care. The U.S. scored an average of 66 out of a possible 100 across 37 national indicators of health outcomes, quality, access, equity, and efficiency. The Scorecard findings show that if the U.S. improved performance in key areas, the nation could save an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 lives and $50 billion to $100 billion annually."

Some statistics from the study:
Compared to other Western nations the U.S. ranks (paraphrasing):
15th out of 19 countries in deaths potentially preventable
115 people per 100,000 Americans die from illnesses amenable to medical care before age 75, compared to 75 to 84 per 100,000 in top 3 countries.
Last on healthy life expectancy at birth or age 60
Last on infant mortality--7.0 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 2.7 in the top three countries.
U.S. insurance administrative costs are more than three times rates of the best performing countries and well above the next highest country rate.
One-third (35%) of adults under 65 (61 million) are either underinsured or have been uninsured during the year.
One-third of adults (34%) under age 65 has problems paying their medical bills or have medical debt they are paying off over time.

US state to national rate comparison:
National average adult disability rate is one-fourth worse than the best five U.S. states,
National rate of children missing 11 or more days of school because of illness or injury is 1/4 worse than top 5 states

The overall problem that they identify is the lack of an "integrated" health system in the US compared to elsewhere. I'd say a "united health system" is the Rx.

Here are the press release and Executive Summary/Overview links of the report. You can get the whole report via links there. It's published in the journal Health Affairs, too, and you can get a link to it there as well.

Press release
http://www.cmwf.org/newsroom/newsroom_show.htm?doc_id=403809

Summary
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=401577