Monday, May 14, 2012

Objective analysis of the primary reasons health care is expensive in the US. Worth a read if you are interested in something called "facts"...

Healthcare spending is an important political and economic topic today. Economist Tim Taylor has an excellent blog posting analyzing current research as to why the US has higher spending per person on healthcare compared to other major developed countries.

He discusses ALL the major reasons why there might be differences in spending outcomes, but narrows down the most expensive culprits in the conclusion below (I underlined them).  I encourage you to read the WHOLE analysis and become (more) educated on this issue.  These problems ARE solvable with a little political will and common sense on both sides of the political aisle!
"The question of why the U.S. spends more than 50% more per person on health care than the next highest countries (Switzerland and Netherlands), and more than double per person what many other countries spend, may never have a simple answer. Still, the main ingredients of an answer are becoming more clear. The U.S. spends vastly more on hospitalization and acute care, with a substantial share of that going to high-tech procedures like surgery and imaging. The U.S. does a poor job of managing chronic conditions, which then lead to episodes of costly hospitalization. The U.S. also seems to spend vastly more on administration and paperwork, with much of that related to credentialing, documenting, and billing--which is again a particular important issue in hospitals. Any honest effort to come to grips with high and rising U.S. health care costs will have to tackle these factors head-on"
Source: The Conversable Economist

Source: HERE

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