U.S. Health Care System: Paying More, Getting Less
U.S. Health Care System: Paying More, Getting Less
It is no surprise to hear that the U.S. health care system is in shambles. Health care costs are increasing faster than wages and nearly 47 million Americans — 8 million of whom are children — are uninsured. Millions more are underinsured.
Yet, we continue to spend more on health care per person than any other country, including countries that provide health care coverage to its entire citizenry. According to a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2003 alone, health spending per person was at least 24 percent higher than that of Luxembourg (the second highest spending country) and over 90 percent higher than countries considered global competitors.
But our health care system spending is not buying us superior health:
– Americans on average die at a younger age compared to the average age of death of comparable nations. Japan has the highest life expectancy.
– The U.S. infant mortality rate is 6.9 deaths per 1,000 live births, while Japan and Sweden have rates below 3.5 deaths per 1,000 live births.
– The obesity rate among adults in the U.S. is 30.6 percent; the highest rate of developed countries. This rate is nearly 21 percent higher than the rate of the second highest country, Mexico.
Nor does it buy us better health care or more resources:
– About 70 percent of deaths and health costs in the U.S. are attributable to chronic disease, which are largely preventable. Yet, only half of recommended preventive services are provided to adults.
– The U.S. has fewer practicing physicians and nurses per 1,000 people than comparable countries.
Instead, our health care system is pushing millions of hardworking Americans into relentless financial constraints and sends thousands to early graves.
With new policy leaders, the impetus for real health reform is now: we can afford to provide every American affordable health care that emphasizes prevention, while controlling costs and maintaining individuals’ choice of doctors and plans.
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47 Responses to “U.S. Health Care System: Paying More, Getting Less”
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Let’s not forget that people are commodities to be consumed in the labor market and thrown out at earliest convenience.
January 4th, 2007 at 1:23 pmPelosi!
– The obesity rate among adults in the U.S. is 30.6 percent; the highest rate of developed countries. This rate is nearly 21 percent higher than the rate of the second highest country, Mexico.
Wow, almost a third. Take a look at the person sitting at the desk to your left . . . and now your right. If both of them look pretty svelte, chances are that you are the fatty.
We could probably reduce this number significantly if Playstations were only powered by running on a treadmill.
January 4th, 2007 at 1:28 pmJust play more sports, eat smaller portions and eat better food
January 4th, 2007 at 1:34 pmand this will alllllllll go away.
The problem is NOT that healthcare costs so much in this country; it’s that they charge so much.
Healthcare should be driven by altruism, not capitalism. I’ll leave this discussion now. Thank you.
January 4th, 2007 at 1:43 pm#4, we shouldn’t put profits before people in any market, it’s detrimental to everyone.
January 4th, 2007 at 1:49 pm“The obesity rate among adults in the U.S. is 30.6 percent”
Why hasn’t Dennis Hastert taken any action on this? Of course, he’d have to put down his doughnut for two minutes.
January 4th, 2007 at 1:55 pmJust play more sports, eat smaller portions and eat better food
and this will alllllllll go away.
Comment by Dave R
I agree partially. Most will go away. But when services and care are needed they should be available to anyone that needs it. Granted, the biggest step this country can make to improve the health of the nation is to improve how we take care of our own bodies.
January 4th, 2007 at 1:58 pmwe cannot put all the blame on the average american.
the food supply in the USA is so poisoned with chemicals, trans-fat, high frutcose corn syrup/sugar, antibiotics and hormones that unless you purposefully educated yourself, your health is doomed.
once again the savior is education and we all know how 12 years of republican rule has affected that in our country!
January 4th, 2007 at 2:11 pmI read an article in yesterdays news about a small town in GA where the residents lost a collective 10,000 pounds last year.
January 4th, 2007 at 2:24 pmVery doable. Make it a contest, give out prizes, get the lead out and exercise, watch what you eat and don’t eat the transfats, greasy shit and replace those with fresh veggies and fruit.
Now to just do it…
The key is EDUCATION not LITIGATION or REGULATION to cure an obese NATION. (sorry J.Jackson moment)
January 4th, 2007 at 2:31 pmThe article doesn’t mention the thousands who are forced into bankruptcy after they reach their insurance ceiling and then can’t get reasonable insurance. (8 million kids?) Very uncivilized.
January 4th, 2007 at 2:32 pmOddly enough America’s number recipient of “foreign aid”, Israel, has a national health-care system. In fact American’s argueably pay for it.
January 4th, 2007 at 2:37 pmNice!
You can lead a person to prevention, but you can’t make them prevent.
January 4th, 2007 at 2:39 pmDeep Thinker - that is DEEP
January 4th, 2007 at 2:50 pmMedicare is a single-payer health plan with an overhead of 3%. The insurance-based health system has an overhead of 15 to 30%. Enough said.
January 4th, 2007 at 2:56 pmI’m sending this to my US representative and US Senators to find out why this is (rhetorical) and what, if anything they plan to do about it.
January 4th, 2007 at 2:59 pm.
[…] Posted in Medical, Health, Government, Democrats, Congress at 12:14 pm by LeisureGuy From ThinkProgress: It is no surprise to hear that the U.S. health care system is in shambles. Health care costs are increasing faster than wages and nearly 47 million Americans — 8 million of whom are children — are uninsured. Millions more are underinsured. […]
January 4th, 2007 at 3:13 pmBluedog 49 has nailed one of the reasons we pay more and get less. For profit hospitals including non profits run by people who pull out big bucks, the AMA’s restrictions on the number of physicians and Big Pharma are 3 more. A market driven health care system by definition will cost more and its goals are profits not a healthy population. On the other hand this is a populous, diverse country and some comparisons to health in other countries probably isn’t fair. As to changing behavior, taxes on fructose, trans fats, sugar, corn syrup etc would likely result in less consumption and provide money to provide basic health care to the uninsured. Of course that will not happen because the producers of those products have the best congresspeople that money can buy.
January 4th, 2007 at 3:19 pm31% of the monies spent on “Healthcare” are attributable to administrative costs. When the for-profit motive is eliminated, there will be 31% more money to spend RIGHT NOW on direct healthcare services. That would cover ALL of the 47 million un-insured AND the 75 million more who are uninsured, as well as having monies to spend on covering the Medicare prescription doughnut holes.
It would mean eliminating the for-profit healthcare insurance industry. What to do with displaced workers? Retrain and re-educate for healthcare provider jobs, research jobs and biomedical technology, and electronic medical record technology jobs.
Think universal healthcare means no choice? Think again., Right now, except for people who can fully afford and choose to pay healthcare costs out of pocket (that’s the top 5% of people in the US), no one has a full choice in choosing a physician, hospital or any other healthcare facility or service. The payers and insurers choose. Universal healthcare will provide for more choices made by patients.
Bottom line is that our “healthcare system” is making record profits for shareholders and corporations while causing suffering, harm and death for Americans everywhere.
Communicable disease knows no boundaries - everyone is at risk, and with a decimated population that can not afford to seek early preventive treatment, everyone is at risk. It’s imperative that all American have affordable and accessible healthcare.
Visit Universal Health which discusses the New American Revolution.
January 4th, 2007 at 3:27 pmWayne,
I agree the healthcare system should not be a free-enterprise, for-profit system.
Like social services. People work in it to help others, not for the money.
January 4th, 2007 at 3:29 pmIt was only a total of 375,000 dollars for my premature daughter to be in the hospital for 6 weeks before she came home. What a deal!
January 4th, 2007 at 3:30 pmSome folks in the industry have told me overhead is as much as 40%, which includes the publicly funded health care systems. In AZ we don’t have Medicare, we have a substitute called the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. It’s in the name, “cost containment”.
January 4th, 2007 at 3:32 pmThis thread not working? Can’t get anything to post………..
January 4th, 2007 at 4:05 pmMy posts go through because I spent 375,000 dollars on health care in 2004. (alright, I picked up about 10 grand of it. Still, thats a chunk)
January 4th, 2007 at 4:44 pm#23 - Roger_Roger,
January 4th, 2007 at 4:44 pmI sense a circular argument coming on.
Welcome to Capitalism 101. More cost and less service = higher return on investment. Enjoy it!
January 4th, 2007 at 4:49 pmDaffynition:
January 4th, 2007 at 4:53 pmHospital -A home where the residents buy the building each day that they stay.
Paul Krugman’s op-ed piece in the NY Times on Monday nails it right on the head. And there is a story from last Sunday’s LA Times about the shady methods that insurers use to disqualify people.
January 4th, 2007 at 6:04 pmPAYING MORE AND GETTING LESS?
Well, I don’t know? Hmmmmmmmmmmm! It all depends!
It all depends on certain parts of the body.
A flat-chested woman becoming a full-bosomed woman is certainly getting MORE for the medical dollar.
Ditto, for one specific body part of a man.
John
January 4th, 2007 at 6:11 pmThe other thing about the insurance-based system: the current system includes thousands of workers whose job is to deny care. A single-payer system doesn’t have that because it’s not looking for anyone to rule out.
January 4th, 2007 at 6:29 pmUniversalhealth,
I totally agree.
Administrative costs eat up so many dollars. Standardizedforms should be universal. Web sites should be universal.
Many counties have totally different Web sites. Why? It is absoultely crazy. The formats are different, and it costs a lot of money to hire web designers. I guess that’s the right term. I have no background in computers.
Each and every hospital has their own Web site and it’s a wasteful expense. These dollars should go to the medical side of the equation–not the Web site side of the equation.
John
January 4th, 2007 at 8:46 pmHonesty would help in the health market too. Nurses and doctors are given coats, lunches, vacations etc to promote pricey but not better items. Doctors do not always tell the truth because in who’s interest is it to get people well>? Certainly it is NOT in the doctor’s best interest to cure you so alot of them lie, do alot of tests expecting normal results and flat out have no clue what is wrong and furthermore what to do….. this after you are raped by all the testing. Doctors think some illnesses do not have DNA…. give me a break… why do we try convict and execute criminals on DNA if we don;t also use it for technological good…….
January 4th, 2007 at 9:15 pmEvil people are in charge of the health market.
Honesty would be a good dose of medicine.
Honesty in 10 mg, 20 mg, or 200 mg. tablets can’t be bought at any price.
John
January 4th, 2007 at 10:09 pm“maintaining individuals’ choice of doctors” is fine, but maintaining individuals’ plans [ presumably private insurance companies]” is not. You need a decent universal health care system like the rest of the advanced democracies. You go anywhere, choose your doctor and they bill through the government administrators. If people want ‘extras’ or special benefits they can take out private insurance. Also with the pharmaceuticals scam. You should not have to pay through the nose just because you live in the US. State Govts and hospitals should be able to bulk buy at cheap rates, including generic drugs. Enough already! Other countries do it every day. What you have is just a scam!
January 4th, 2007 at 11:02 pmSounds like a (neo-fascistic) capitalists wet dream allright.
January 5th, 2007 at 4:33 am[…] A comment on a blogpost about America’s health care: – The obesity rate among adults in the U.S. is 30.6 percent; the highest rate of developed countries. This rate is nearly 21 percent higher than the rate of the second highest country, Mexico. […]
January 5th, 2007 at 1:39 pmIn the past 30 years, the costs of healthcare have soared in the United States. Due to rapidly escalating healthcare costs, Americans in ever increasing numbers have begun to search for alternatives that could reduce their personal out-of-pocket medical expenses. In the last few years, hundreds of thousands of Americans have chosen to become Medical Tourists.
Cost of medical and surgical procedures in Mexico is very low compared to what is paid in the United States. In most cases, the savings from their medical treatment can give people extra money for vacation. Indeed, a patient and his/her family can take a luxury vacation in a Mexican resort and pay for the trip with the savings they receive on getting their procedures in Mexico. Medical Tourism in the city of Guadalajara can certainly be a win-win proposition. While taking care of health needs at big discounts, shopping sprees, sight-seeing, cultural pursuits, and trips to nearby beaches and spas can all be arranged around a medical appointment schedule.
For more information contact http://www.surgicalcareinternational.com
January 5th, 2007 at 8:48 pm[…] Think Progress offers a look at the shitty results of our massive spending on healthcare. Among the lowlights: health spending per person was at least 24 percent higher than that of Luxembourg (the second highest spending country) and over 90 percent higher than countries considered global competitors. […]
January 6th, 2007 at 11:19 amits not that health care costs too much,IT IS TOO MUCH IS IMMORALLY STOLEN BY FRAUDULENT SYSTEMS OF DELIVERY.Including useless tests that even patients know is designed to make up charges.
January 7th, 2007 at 9:46 amU.S. Health Care System: Paying More, Getting Less
January 7th, 2007 at 2:31 pmWHY? I’ve tried to answer that question here,
in a way not covered in your essay. Hope this helps.
Medical Enslavement - (The India-ization of America - Part 2)
posted at
One major problem is Medical Insurance. The Medical Providers use Insurance as a ‘Collection Agency’ to painlessly (?) extract corporate, government and individual monies … with little ‘Check and Balance’ that direct payment by individuals would have restricted.
While this msg. provides no direct answer … you should first examine the horrendous role that Insurance(s) play in this mess !
January 7th, 2007 at 5:18 pm[…] 7th, 2007 · No Comments This article (and all those who commented on it) from Think Progress points out the economic andpolitical problems with our current health care system but it omits perhaps the most important one: the U.S, health care system is also an ethical failure. There are three questions that we need to answer if we’re going to reform health care in this country: The economic question: How do we pay for health care? The political question: How can we create a consensus that will marshal the nation’s resources to solve the health care problem? And the ethical question: “How do we make health care available and affordable for all Americans?†[…]
January 7th, 2007 at 5:51 pmi think more than just a few people above are missing the point entirely. Universal healthcare is not the answer. i don’t work to pay the way for others - and thats essentially what those who are “employed” and are “non-government” employees will have to do if the bill goes to the government - its socialized healthcare. That means you will have about 50% paying the way for the other 50%. No thanks!! My taxes are high enough already.
Secondly, how anyone can blame one party in DC is beyond me - narrow mindedness i guess! The fact of the matter, for those who care to dig into the facts, is that the US Democratic system has become one party for all intents and purposes.
Finally, place more blame at the feet of Congress, the high powered drug industry lobbyists and the massive indebtness of this country for the crisis with US healthcare. And please don’t forget the FED and the hugh liquidity infusion(i.e dollar devaluation) that only feeds inflation in everythng including healthcare.
January 7th, 2007 at 8:55 pmAs a physician, I can say that my business would be cut in half almost immediately if people simply took better care of themselves and real tort reform was passed, such as a “loser pays” system, etc. The amount of additional imaging and lab work added to protect ourselves from lawsuits is massive. I don’t want to see our health care system collapse. I would prefer less business, but a healthier system and healthier patients. Also, for those who would have a government system, talk to a veteran or two about the VA!
January 8th, 2007 at 3:54 pm[…] Update 2. 1/5/2007 This gives about as good a synopsis of what ails our health care system as any I’ve seen. I have older posts here that say much of the same things but this from Think Progress gives you a good overview of what is wrong and needs to be fixed. […]
January 18th, 2007 at 9:42 pmCan somebody explain:
1. Where in the heck in the Constitution (that piece of paper that lays out federal government powers and duties) it says that it’s the government’s job to provide Americans with health care? It is your own job to provide it..not your employer and sure as heck not the government.
February 7th, 2007 at 10:29 pm2. Why are profits so evil? Could jealousy over somebody else’s wealth be a problem. I look around this site and see articles about the gap between rich and poor, the greedy pigs at Exxon, etc. The old idiom is true that if you divided all the wealth in the world evenly among the people, it would be a matter of time before it’s back in the same hands as now…the rich will continue their habits of hard work, inginuity, and investing (and don’t give me that bull about only rich people can save and invest. It starts with a couple dollars at a time) and the poor will continue to buy more than they can afford, spend their money on bling, ring tones, and spinners. For the record, Exxon’s latest record profit carried only a 10% profit margin…Google carries slightly about a 30% margin…why are we not angry at the greedy Google boys? Exxon broke records because they sold more gas than ever…not because they are charging 300% above cost on it…10% profit margin times record breaking gas sales equals record profits…but I guess profits of any kind are evil…those nasty rich people. Probably all white males.
3. When is the federal governement the answer to ANYTHING? Bush has made plenty of mistakes, but will you people quit looking to the governement as your only hope…Health care, insurance, and retirment are YOUR responsibility, not the governments…but oh, it’s just so much easier to push it on them so we don’t have to actually work hard and discipline ourselves isn’t it?
47 million Americans w/o health care, 8 million of whom are children; millions more under insured; only industrialized nation in the world without a national health care plan; about 1/3 of all health care costs have nothing to do with health care–are spent on paperwork, chasing money, advertisement by the insurance, HMO, and pharmacueticals, CEO pay and shareholder profits, etc; almost half of all bankruptcies are due to inability to pay health care bills; Americans pay almost twice as much (above the 6000 dollar range) compared to nations with a national health care plan (in the 3000 dollar range) per year.
The only real solution is a single-payer plan. We should all work and support Rep. John Conyers’ H.R. 676 which is a resolution for a national health care plan. See his website for details. In the meantime, if you live in Ohio, support The Health Care for All Ohioans Act (see http://www.spanohio,org) and by pushing state initiatives we may be able to build momentum for H. R. 676.
Healthcare not warfare! Health care is a right not a priviledge.
February 22nd, 2007 at 6:47 am