'admin' pid='39225' datel Wrote:Americans spend more than 17 percent of GDP on health care; other high income industrial democracies spend only about 11 percent. The 6 percent difference in our $17 trillion economy amounts to $1 trillion.
The excess in the United States is primarily attributable to a more expensive mix of procedures and services, higher prices paid to drug companies and physicians, and inefficiencies in the financing of health care. There are undoubtedly cultural differences between the United States and other countries, but it is also true that Swedes differ from Italians, Germans from French, and the English from all of the above.
What these countries have in common that distinguishes their health care systems from the American is universal insurance for basic care, a larger share of government in financing health care (typically about 75 percent of the total versus 50 percent in the United States), and more aggressive control of expenditures.
I was at a retirement planning seminar last night and after the speaker asked if anyone was signed up for the ACA he started to say "I bet you're glad you didn't". That's when two hands went up in the audience. The couple said they had, the process was simple and they saved a lot of money even while their new plan had a lower deductible and better coverage. Not the result the presenter evidently was fishing for.
It seems young people signups have been coming along and while the original goal for the end of March likely won't quite be reached the program will be close. That is amazing given the bad start and all of the demonization directed towards Obamacare.
On a tangential note, you left off the cost of paperwork as a reason why American health care costs are so high. I know at least one strong Republican that sits on a board with me who is now starting to lament a single payer system wasn't adopted. He's been having had to deal with the wide array of issues necessary to implement our insurance plan.
What did Churchill say? You can count on Americans to get it right after they've exhausted all other possibilities?