Gotta Read: What makes U.S. health care so overpriced? It’s not what you think [View all]

[sinkingfeeling]

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/what-makes-u-s-health-care-so-overpriced-its-not-2D11582695

U.S. medical care is getting ever pricier, but it’s not because so many old people are running up charges, experts reported Tuesday. Most of the money’s being spent on people under 65 with chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

The perception is that a bigger proportion of the population is getting old and sick, and using more and more services. But Moses and colleagues say their review didn’t show that.

“In 2011, chronic illnesses account for 84 percent of costs overall among the entire population, not only of the elderly. Chronic illness among individuals younger than 65 years accounts for 67 percent of spending,” they found.

“Price of professional services, drugs and devices, and administrative costs, not demand for services or aging of the population, produced 91 percent of cost increases since 2000.”

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This is my counter-argument to those who are yelling about men paying for maternity and infant care. I don't have diabetes nor heart disease. Yet I've been paying for those who do for more than a decade. (I really do understand that this how insurance works, but it's my comeback to those idiots who think each and every policy should be customized and priced.)