The High Cost of Care-Bitter Pill
By Steven Brill
Summary
Steven Brill feels that American health care is eating away at our economy and our treasury and discusses the costs associated with the provision of health care services in the U.S.. The article explores the medical world through the medical expenses incurred by a 64-year-old Janice S., Sean Recchi, A 42-year-old from Lancaster, Ohio and several other egregiously billed patients. The article poses the question: why exactly are the medical bills so high; in particular hospital bills?
The U.S. spends more on health care than the next 10 biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia. 10 of the 20 occupations
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As it relates to the textbook, this describes some of the scope of the hospitals; which refers to the range of activities which the firm performs internally, the breadth of its product and service offerings, the extent of its geographic market and its mix of businesses. But unlike with the electric company, no regulator caps hospital profits. To the extent that author Steven Brill found any consistency among hospital charge-master practices, this is one of them: hospitals routinely seem to charge 2V2 times what expensive implantable devices cost them, which produces that 150% profit margin.
Besides, studies delving into the economics of the medical marketplace consistently find that a moderately higher or lower price doesn't change consumer purchasing decisions much, if at all, because in health care there is little of the price sensitivity found in conventional marketplaces, even on the rare occasion that patients know the cost in advance. Most hospital administrators defend such chargemaster rates at all, they maintain that they are just starting points for a negotiation. But patients don't typically know they are in a negotiation when they enter the hospital, nor do hospitals let them know that.
Millions of insurance plans have annual payout limits, though the more typical plans purchased by employers usually set those limits at $500,000 or $750,000 -- which can also quickly be consumed by a catastrophic illness.
Furthermore, the United States spends nearly double the average $3,923 for the 15 countries ("Health Care Cost," 2011).” Accordingly the U.S. throws away more money than any other country on healthcare which consequently could jeopardize the medical attention that is being provided.
From family members, to health care professionals, to insurance companies, to researchers, to the government, a lot of people hold stakes in the well-being of the medical world. However, there needs to be transparency across all levels, things such as the chargemaster need to be abolished as they do not reflect accurate cost statements. Creating an unfair divide across hospital, and patient costs. Each individual involved in the medical billing process needs to understand how it works and why, so that at the end of the day each person is given the best option for their means. Furthermore, health care policies need to be made to counteract the large profit margins that companies are making off of their products in the hospital. The margins are much too high and there is an unequal balance between the cost the patient incurs and the profit that companies reign
The United States’ health care system is spiraling out of control as the years pass. Health care costs are increasing, causing more Americans to fall into debt.1 In 2012, the cost per hospital day in the United States was over $12,000 as compared to other countries such as Australia and France, whose cost per hospital day were $1472 and $853 respectively.1 “If the United States health care system was a country, it would be the sixth largest economy on the entire planet.”1 In the comparison of health care and gas, a family of four spends roughly $21,000 on health care while only spending $3000 on gas per year.1 While the cost of health care is rising in the United States, the health of Americans is not increasing. In 2016, the life
Administrative costs are among the biggest contributors in the rising cost of healthcare. 25% of U.S. healthcare spending will go to unnecessary administration tasks rather than patient care according to several medical doctors. The United States encourages a market-driven healthcare system where providers can generate profits. In a market-driven healthcare system, funding for hospitals further highlights the significant impact of administrative costs. Funding received through direct
The United States spends more on health care than any other country in the entire world. The current level of national expenditures is astounding. According to us.governmentspending.com, the anticipated total of healthcare spending in the United States is $7,400.00 per person each year (Kaiser, 2009). Over the years the total of healthcare spending has continued to increase at a rapid rate. In 2009 healthcare costs accounted for 16% of the U.S. GDP ("Health care expenditures:," 2009 ). This paper will discuss different aspects of healthcare costs in the United States and what makes it better or what makes it worse.
FACT: The United States spends more money per person on health care than any other nation in the world.
Problem Statement: - US health care costs currently exceed 17% of GDP and continue to rise. Other countries spend less of their GDP on health care but have the same increasing trend. Explanations are not hard to find. The aging of populations and the development of new treatments are behind some of the increase. Perverse incentives also contribute: Third-party payors (insurance companies and governments) reimburse for procedures performed rather than outcomes achieved, and patients bear little responsibility for the cost of the health care services they demand. But few acknowledge a more fundamental source of escalating costs: the system by which those costs are measured. To put it bluntly, there is an almost complete lack of understanding of how much it costs to deliver patient care, much less how those costs compare with the outcomes achieved. Instead of focusing on the costs of treating individual patients with specific medical conditions over their full cycle of care, providers aggregate and analyze costs at the
The U.S. spends far more on health care than any other country in the world. Yet we get fewer benefits, less than ideal health outcomes. A
Health care spending in the United States is the highest then in any other country. According to Kane (2012), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) there are less physicians per person than in other OECD countries. For example there was 2.4 practicing physicians in the U.S. per 1,000 people. The average for OECD was 3.1, the U.S. fell well below. In 2012 $8,233 was spent on health care per year per person, this was “two and a half times more than most of the developed nations in the world”(Kane, 2012). This paper will discuss the level of current national health care spending, whether this spending is too much or not enough, if the nation should add or cut funds, and how the public’s
Imagine being the single parent of two children avoiding going to the doctor, despite your constant cough and horrendous headache, due of the fear of going into life ruining debt. This is a problem numerous people in the United States face as spending on health care increased to $3.2 trillion in 2015 which is about $9,980 per individual, (Vital Signs: Rise in National Health Expenditures Slows) which is considerably high in comparison to the United Kingdom’s $148.34 billion or $2,292 per person (Department of Health 's Settlement at the Spending Review 2015). The United States spends comparably more than most other first world countries when it comes to health care and this is a problem for its citizens who have come into an issue of being unable to afford the care they need to live. Countless Americans are aware of the fact that the cost of health is high, but not as many are informed as to why it costs so much or how to make it more affordable. Instead, they look at health care as an incurable illness and choose to offer up the explanation that the better quality of American hospitals and services or the sizable population of people to care for are to blame for the high cost, neither of which we have the power to change. However, the reasons for health care costs being astronomical in the United States are the improper use of medical services, extra administrative costs, and the high costs of the services and equipment themselves, which are causes that can be remedied.
In 2009 the United States spent 17% of its GDP on health care which is almost 50% more than the next highest spender which is Germany at 11%. Many first world countries such as Canada, South Korea,
For the tenth straight year financial experiments have been recorded as the number one concern of healthcare managers, according to a yearly survey from the American College of Healthcare Administrators. Approaching in second was healthcare improvement implementation, trailed by government orders, and patient protection and excellence, both of which graded third. This just reproduces the massive pressures that hospitals are under right now, says (Deborah J. Bowen), president/CEO of ACHE. Everyone is plummeting functioning prices and thinking in a different way about how they are going about moving from fee for service to these value based payments where quality and finances are accounted for. It's not commercial as normal by any elasticity
The economics of health care has changed across the path of history in the United States. In the past year’s health care cost in America have escalated “more than $8,000 per capita or 17% of the gross domestic products (GDP) (Nickitas, 2016). America is paying noticeably more money per capita and percentage of GDP to attain better outcomes. When comes health care economics money is the driving force. Over the past year’s health care funding has changed and began to come predominantly through private providers, hospitals, physician and health insurance companies. Some elements that provided to the evolution of health care progress for example moderate unnecessary health care costs through a variety of procedures, economic incentives for physicians
High U.S. health care spending due to greater use of medical technology, health care prices. U.S. spends more on health care than other high-income countries but has worse outcomes. The United States is the highest spender on health care. In the U.S., there were also fewer hospital beds and fewer discharges per capita than in the median OECD country. Americans appear to be greater consumers of medical technology, including diagnostic imaging and pharmaceuticals. Health care spending in the U.S. far exceeds that in other countries, despite a global slowdown in spending growth in recent years. At 17.1 percent of GDP, the U.S. devotes at least 50 percent more of its economy to health care than do other countries. Even public spending on health care, on a per capita basis, is higher in the U.S. than in most other countries with universal public coverage.
The costs of health care are higher in the United States than in other countries and put a strain on the overall economy. In the United States, health care is technologically advanced but expensive. Health care costs were about $2.6 trillion dollars in 2010. For decades, the amount of money spent on health care has increased more than the overall economy has grown. Health care is paid for by government programs, private health insurance plans, and the person 's own funds.