High health-care costs: It’s all in the pricing

[Owlet]

"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."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/high-health-care-costs-its-all-in-the-pricing/2012/02/28/gIQAtbhimR_story.html

[MarkCharles]

1. Ezra Klein is fast becoming one of my...

favorite writers on economic issues.

Thanks for posting this.

[Surya Gayatri]

2. Excellent, excellent article--explains the

US's inextricable health dilemma.
Basically, health care organized purely on the profit motive will always be inefficeint and unfair.

Thanks so much for posting this, Owlet. I have forwarded it on to my brother (an MD) who keeps railing against the "European Model" of "socialized medicine".
SG

[canoeist52]

3. I cant believe Insurance Co,'s are only making 2.2% profit.

"The players sitting across the table from them — the health insurers — are not so profitable. In 2009, their profit margins were a mere 2.2 percent. "
Is this mere 2.2 % profit margin AFTER paying the bloated salaries of Health Insurance companies'? Somehow I don't believe the two are adversaries.

[shcrane71]

5. If I'm correct, I believe bloated salaries are subtracted from sales (along with all other costs)

leaving the small profits.

[eridani]

4. My husband got a root canal in the Netherlands for $25 American in 1996

The governmnent also paid for his education through dental school, and controlled the prices of his inputs, however.

[Fuddnik]

6. Ron Suskind's "Confidence Men" covered this pretty well.

A study out of Dartmouth, called Atlas.

Obama understood it, and Orszag pushed it. But, in the Healthcare debate, the providers won the war. That's why the Insurance Companies got on board. It would have reigned in costs. And unnecessary procedures.

I'm no fan of insurance companies, but the providers have the best of both worlds. High prices, high profits, and the insurance companies take most of the heat.

[dkf]

7. One word...DUH.