Americans Use Less Health Care, Pay More
Posted: Tuesday, October 26, 2010
by Yamileth Medina
VitalOne Health
It is widely known that health care is far more expensive in the United States than in other developed nations. Several factors have been blamed for this predicament.
Many conservatives think that medical malpractice lawsuits have driven up costs by forcing doctors to perform so-called "defensive medicine"--unnecessary tests and procedures in order to cover them in the case of lawsuits. Others, mostly progressives, blame the fact that a significant percentage of Americans are uninsured, and therefore relying on more costly acute emergency treatment instead of primary care.
Jordan Rau of Kaiser Health News recently wrote an article for an NPR (National Public Radio) blog about this phenomenon. According to Rau, the consolidation of hospitals into several large chains is a major factor. In some markets, there is virtually no competition in the healthcare industry. Therefore, that monopoly allows them to raise prices as much as the market will bear.
The Washington Post uses information from a decade ago. Health care inflation has increased even further since 2000. That causes the price of health insurance plans to go up, since insurers must cover these treatments. That affects not only monthly premiums, but the higher co-payments and co-insurance percentages that policyholders must pay.
Does using less, more costly health care help Americans reach better health outcomes? The U.S. seems to have superior survival rates for cancer. Still, for the most part, health outcomes do not seem to be improved with the higher spending levels.
Yamileth Medina is an up and coming expert on Health Insurance and Healthcare Reform. She aims to help people realize that they can find quality health insurance plans right now. Yamileth lives in Miami, FL.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)I think that we should have stuck with buying medicines from the Canadians. It's much cheaper, but the last administration didn't think so.
Is the problem that Americans - doctors and hospitals etc - want to make more of a profit than elsewhere?
Many medicines are available in India at 10% cost that are being Charged In America. In America, few corporates have patent , so monoply on sale of the major medicine. Hence the problem.
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