Huffington Post has an interesting editorial up discussing the topic of health care costs in the U.S.
One grand irony, Cuba whose economy has been bankrupt for the last decade - food shortages, drug shortages, chronic unemployment, etc. — and which annually spends a miserly $185 per person on health care, has better infant and adult mortality rates than the US, and has a life expectancy nearly equal to ours.
Why has our vaunted free enterprise system - which has produced such great benefits in delivery of most goods and services — failed so completely with regard to this most fundamental need?
Simple, buyers don’t shop for health care. Sick people don’t negotiate with doctors or hospitals or drug companies. They don’t care what it costs; insurance or the government will pay. This vulnerability has been exploited and hijacked by greedy doctors, drug companies, insurers, personal injury lawyers, HMOs, and hospitals. About 50% of health care funds never even get to doctors or hospitals — which themselves run bloated operations.
I think that the potential that part of the reason health care costs so much in the U.S. is because the U.S. is simply more expensive than many of the world’s nations was overlooked, but it is a very interesting editorial nonetheless.
1 response so far ↓
1 rick d. // 30 Apr 2006 at 8:56 pm
I AM AN UNINSURED WHO JUST HAD A RECENT SURGERY, I WAS IN THE HOSPITAL ONE DAY TOTAL BILL ALMOST $60,000.00. I MANAGED TO PAY THE SURGEON AND ANESTHESIOLOGIST CASH WITH A DISCOUNT. tHE HOSPITAL I FOUND HAD INFLATED MY BILL 4 TIMES THE NORMAL RATE AFTER HAVING MY BILL AUDITED BY A BILLING ANALYST. tHE HOSPITAL BILL ALONE WAS NEARLY $40K. iNFLATED COSTS SUCH AS SCREWS USED IN A SPINAL IMPLANT KIT THAT COST THE HOSPITAL APPROX. $24.50, I WAS THEN CHARGED $1000.00 each for the screws. $8000.00 for 8 screws This kind of overcharging of the uninsured force the patient into bankruptcy with no recourse most of the time. And this being done by a Christian Catholic non profit health care facility whose mission statement is all about serving the poor in a compassionate manner. Iwent into the hospital for one day and came out facing bankruptcy, ruined credit, loss of my home and a very long financial recovery ahead all due to overcharging, and failure to admit to the truth by the hospital.