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kpete

(71,901 posts)
Thu May 3, 2012, 10:49 AM May 2012

REPORT: US Spends More, Gets Less, On Health Care Than Other Industrialized Nations

REPORT: US Spends More, Gets Less, On Health Care Than Other Industrialized Nations
By Guest Blogger on May 3, 2012 at 10:45 am

A new report out today from the Commonwealth Fund examined health care spending among 13 developed nations, including the United States. According to the report’s findings, the United States spent far more on health care than any other developed nation – “nearly $8,000 per person in 2009.” But the researchers found that the higher level of spending did not correspond to a higher quality of care:

High U.S. spending on health care does not seem to be explained by either greater supply or higher utilization of health care services. There were 2.4 physicians per 100,000 population in the U.S. in 2009, fewer than in all the countries in the study except Japan. The U.S. also had the fewest doctor consultations (3.9 per capita) of any country except Sweden. Relative to the other countries in the study, the U.S also had few hospital beds, short lengths of stay for acute care, and few hospital discharges per 1,000 population. On the other hand, U.S. hospital stays were far more expensive than those in other countries—more than $18,000 per discharge. By comparison, the cost per discharge in Canada was about $13,000, while in Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Germany it was less than $10,000.

“It is a common assumption that Americans get more health care services than people in other countries, but in fact we do not go to the doctor or the hospital as often,” said Squires. “The higher prices we pay for health care and perhaps our greater use of expensive technology are the more likely explanations for high health spending in the U.S. Unfortunately, we do not seem to get better quality for this higher spending.”


.....................

This chart details how much the United States spends on health care per capita compared to other developed nations:




MORE:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/05/03/475941/report-us-spends-more-gets-less-on-health-care-than-other-industrialized-nations/
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Scuba

(53,475 posts)
1. Well, sure, but the wealthy corporate investors in London and Hong Kong...
Thu May 3, 2012, 10:50 AM
May 2012

... really need to keep making profits on American suffering.

Bandit

(21,475 posts)
2. But do the doctors drive Lexus' and live in mansions in those other countries?
Thu May 3, 2012, 10:54 AM
May 2012

That is the main question... I bet our doctors spend a hell of lot more money than any other doctors in the world...USA...USA...USA

hunter

(38,264 posts)
11. Ask a younger primary care physician about their student loans...
Thu May 3, 2012, 12:40 PM
May 2012


A lot of 'em don't even drive new cars.

The money isn't going to doctors, nurses, and other front-line health care professionals anymore, it's going to crooked corporations.

The people who provide the actual health care are paid less and less and expected to do more and more, just like any other USA worker.

Everyone suffers, both patients and health care professionals while a parasitic criminal "executive" class sucks million$ from the system.

The system is so broken that even wealthy people with good insurance often receive shitty inappropriate medical care.

MatthewStLouis

(904 posts)
4. Which of these other nations have a huge health insurance racket to support?
Thu May 3, 2012, 11:01 AM
May 2012

Also, I'd bet drug companies pulling all the strings here helps keep costs high as well.

 

hifiguy

(33,688 posts)
5. Bingo!
Thu May 3, 2012, 11:16 AM
May 2012

The eight-figure salaries pulled down by the top parasites, er, "executives," in the Insurance Mafia have to come from someplace. And their oh-so-necessary corporate jets don't come out of a box of Cracker Jack, either.

 

byeya

(2,842 posts)
7. There was also a recent report that estimated as much as 10%
Thu May 3, 2012, 11:24 AM
May 2012

of the insurance billing is computer driven fraud and abuse.
Health care, not health insurance, is what the argument should be about and insurance
companies need to be written out of the equation.

hfojvt

(37,573 posts)
8. interesting
Thu May 3, 2012, 11:49 AM
May 2012

it looks like costs took off in 1987. I wonder why that is. I also wonder what they mean by health care spending?

For one, in many years I, and/or my employer, paid $5,000 - $7,000 a year for my health insurance, but I, personally, got very little health care for that money. Most years. I did get a four day hospital stay in 2005, and knee surgery in 2006.

So that is one level of spending.

Then I wonder if the total includes cosmetic surgery, botox, and chiropractors. That may skew our spending, If our society is more unequal than Europe's and if our society is, shall we say, more superficial than Europe's. We have a larger upper class spending bllions of dollars on "health care" which is primarily not about health but about making the patient look good. And society has gotten more unequal since 1987. I would be interested to know how much that matters in the total health care picture. It's billions, I know, but a billion or two may just be a small drop in a very large bucket. And maybe Europe has just as many people spending money on liposuction as America does. Then there are things like Prozac too. Are those part of the total and do we spend more per capita than Europe does on pscyhological health care?

We also perhaps have more marketing than Europe. We Americans are bombarded with ads for Claratin, Nexium, lamasil, viagra, nasonex, etc., etc., etc. How much of our healthcare spending is rubes being euchred to go out and by patent medicines, or running to pills for instant relief?

marmar

(76,985 posts)
10. I think it's more than just vanity surgery.....
Thu May 3, 2012, 11:54 AM
May 2012





Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France
Posted by Ezra Klein at 12:08 PM ET, 03/03/2012


There is a simple reason health care in the United States costs more than it does anywhere else: The prices are higher.

That may sound obvious. But it is, in fact, key to understanding one of the most pressing problems facing our economy. In 2009, Americans spent $7,960 per person on health care. Our neighbors in Canada spent $4,808. The Germans spent $4,218. The French, $3,978. If we had the per-person costs of any of those countries, America’s deficits would vanish. Workers would have much more money in their pockets. Our economy would grow more quickly, as our exports would be more competitive.

There are many possible explanations for why Americans pay so much more. It could be that we’re sicker. Or that we go to the doctor more frequently. But health researchers have largely discarded these theories. As Gerard Anderson, Uwe Reinhardt, Peter Hussey and Varduhi Petrosyan put it in the title of their influential 2003 study on international health-care costs, “it’s the prices, stupid.” ........................more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/why-an-mri-costs-1080-in-america-and-280-in-france/2011/08/25/gIQAVHztoR_blog.html



mathematic

(1,430 posts)
9. I don't find these aggregate cost statistics informing
Thu May 3, 2012, 11:52 AM
May 2012

Health care is kinda unique in the market. People will spend large portions of their wealth or their future wealth (by borrowing) to get healthy. Since there aren't price controls, health care providers will come up with schemes to get the maximum price from every customer. For example, charging some utterly unpayable sum and then "working out a payment plan". In this kind of environment, the average cost of health care will scale up with the average income of health care customers. The US has the richest of the rich and well-off. The average cost statistics are just reflecting that.

It's like that old joke. If Bill Gates walks into a bar, on average everybody there is a billionaire. Average health care costs are like that with the additional factor that the poorest half of bar patrons are kicked out of the bar (representing the people that are too poor to afford any health care).

I like the health care workers per capita, health care resources (like hospital beds), health care visits per capita statistics. These can indicate potential or actual sources of shortages or waste.

Overall, I'm not convinced that health care systems can be compared from country to country. Esoteric regulations, vastly different population demographics, and cultural conditions contribute so many variables that meaningful comparisons just don't seem possible. I think we should focus on improving accessibility, availability, quality of outcome, cost by treatment, etc compared to our own health care system's performance in prior years.

patrice

(47,992 posts)
13. Even for those with coverage it's ALL trial-&-error medicine here. TOO BAD for you if you
Thu May 3, 2012, 01:37 PM
May 2012

don't have enough time to discover, pretty much ON YOUR OWN insistence, what all of the errors are for your condition.

 

Cali_Democrat

(30,439 posts)
17. This can't be true
Thu May 3, 2012, 01:56 PM
May 2012

Republicans told us that the US has the best healthcare system in the world...USA! USA! USA!

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