The Cost of Care

[Lasher]

The United States spends more on medical care per person than any other country, yet life expectancy is shorter than in most other developed nations and many developing ones. Lack of health insurance is a factor in life span and contributes to an estimated 45,000 deaths a year. Why the high cost?

The US has a fee-for-service system - paying medical providers piecemeal for appointments, surgery, and the like. That can lead to unneeded treatment that doesn't reliably improve a patient's health. Says Gerald Anderson, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who studies health insurance worldwide, "More care does not necessarily mean better care."

National Geographic Magazine, January 2010, p. 27 (not included in online version)

A graph of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries shows the annual US per capita expenditure of $7,290 and a life expectancy at birth at 78 years. Averages for OECD contries are $2,986 and 79.2 years.

[Edweird]

1. Insurance companies are directly responsible for this. So, they give us MORE of what caused it.

Along with cuts to Medicare. And the 'true believers' insist that it is a 'small step in the right direction'. From where I sit it looks like corporatism bordering on fascism to me. This is extremely far right policy and a step towards elimination of the only single payer program we have. I can't see how people think that is the 'right direction'.

[Greyhound]

2. You got it.

Eventually they'll get it too, it will be far too late by then, but "we all got it comin', kid."

[area51]

3. +1 (n/t)