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Are there Factors that Makes the Cost of the US Healthcare More Expensive?
611 sats \ 6 comments \ @spiderman 12 Dec Politics_And_Law
I know it is a hot political topic, especially when comparing the US with democratic socialist countries offering free healthcare.
But here I am talking purely about the cost, not the price (as the price can be zero if the government mandates it, and pays it out of taxes).
So even taking who pays for it (the patient, or the government) out of the equation, is the cost of healthcare itself more expensive in the US compared to much of western Europe/Canada? That means, if as an uninsured foreigner, I walk into a private hospital to get a procedure done, paying with cash, will I pay significantly more in the US than Western Europe?
What factors are driving this cost differential? Is it higher quality, higher pay for doctors (which would imply better qualified medical professionals?), higher regulatory/market entry cost in the US or what?
Anyone who can shed some light, preferably with data and specific reasoning on the cost here (again, not the price the buyer pays) would be highly appreciated.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 12 Dec
This is an absurdly complex sector of the economy. The answer to your question is “yes”. There are innumerable factors driving up costs.
My suggestion is to scroll through the EconTalk archives and listen to some episodes about this. Russ Roberts brings on excellent guests who dive into a bunch of different elements of the American medical industry.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 12 Dec
Regs probably the biggest, regs themselves are a product of their environment.
The US being where investment goes, and the market where approval trickles down from to the rest of the world, that's where most Lawfare happens
Lawfare manifests as Regs, as Regs are costs imposed on competition
US's scale also draws in corruption, regs increase costs, costs are used to justify more subsidies to where the system has become a setup to print money directly into the medical industrial complex...
Combined we have the illusion of a free-market system, running socialism under the hood. This yields the worst of both, corporatism.
The zeitgeist under the new regime is "favored nation" pricing on drugs so that the US stops subsidizing drugs for the rest of the world by overpaying, and cutting the insurance companies out of the subsidy flow to open the market to choice.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @brave 12 Dec
Blame the middlemen parade which are the insurers, lawyers, pharma reps. It's like a conga line that jacks up the tab before you even sit down
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 12 Dec
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 12 Dec
I am not expert on healthcare cost , to reduce the cost is to have the cheaper medicine supplier and most of those medicine supply provided and produced by the China and India . So when people talked about healthcare US and only look in the U.S. market sentiments , that’s when things getting expensive for the user .
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SHA256man 12 Dec
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