In which John discusses the complicated reasons why the United States spends so much more on health care than any other country in the world, and along the w…
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Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?
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+John Green discusses the complicated reasons why the United States spends
so much more on health care than any other country in the world, and along
the way reveals some surprising information, including that Americans spend
more of their tax dollars on public health care than people in Canada, the
UK, or Australia. Who’s at fault? Insurance companies? Drug companies?
Malpractice lawyers? Hospitals? Or is it more complicated than a simple
blame game? (Hint: It’s that one.)
Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?
I actually never disagreed with you non. I just thought it best to clarify
that Insurance companies have a great deal stacked in their favor to do a
much better job then they are. Honestly a lot of this money that’s gone
missing is going right in the shareholders pockets.
That’s true. The primary value insurance companies provide is that they can
pool patients and represent them at the negotiating table, but after the
negotiation is done, they are merely providing value by handing the money
we give them to the healthcare industry. Most of the time, insurance
companies are a transfer system like credit card companies. Aside from
paying money to shareholders and expensive employees, they spend lots of
money on things that are redundant like data mining, adverts.
As a small business owner, I’m not against free market economics, but we
have to be careful of falling into the trap that one solution works for
everything. Life is a lot more complicated than that. And I think the free
market could be the optimal solution for certain medical services like
dental fillings, cleanings, regular checkups, and elective procedures like
plastic surgery.
Please do but you would be wrong. Yes you do spend 8-9% of your GDP
providing just care. That does not include research both public and
private. It does not count private hospital care, nor cosmetic procedures.
It does not count non prescription drugs. And your outcomes are pathetic
Why u so awesome 0.o
Oh dear. It would appear we have different standards for evidence. The
following are from WHO , Data is considered comparative – i.e. your
concerns over “cosmetic” , “private” etc are non-issues. Care to cite your
source? Life expectence – US = 79 – UK = 80, Spending (incl private, note)
as %GDP US =17,9 UK=9.6 you are either deceived, or deceiving. Oh and
source for missing artificial joints nonsense? Or, plainly, ass-hattery
Great synopses.
So you all know that Green is showing how incompetent the US fed is about
health care dollars, right? At 23 seconds he shows the blue bars
representing Gov spending on health care per person which is MORE THAN THE
NETHERLANDS.
So Green shows that with all the money the fed already gets for health care
and with all the regulatory power it has over health care it STILL can’t
attain what the Netherlands does. It can’t even balance the books with
medicade and medicare which Obama said wastes and loses to fraud about $180
bil a year.
Green simply shows giving MORE money to the fed is meaningless since the US
fed already GETS the most amount per country. And with an exponentially
growing medicade and medicare system the fed clearly cannot manage a small
subset of health care let alone the whole thing.
Sure there’s something wrong with US health care, its been regulated and
controlled by the gov for over 60 years. Its most certainly NOT free market.
And the fact is US progressives are at least 60 years out of date with
their Canadian and EU counter parts. Sweden went through huge austerity
measures in the 90s, deregulating and cutting taxes. Canada FROZE their
spending for 10 years. No US progressive would do that. US progressives are
dinosaurs and the diet democrats… the republicans… are no better
equipped to manage anything.
Green simply proves the US fed cannot manage a health care system. These
are the same “leader” types who turned Detroit into a toilet, bankrupted
town after town in California, brought California itself to the brink of
bankruptcy, bankrupted Chicago and Illinois.
Excellent explanation. My friend just ended up in a hospital for a week.
Claims started rolling in and the first one was just for the bed (all other
things billed separately). Guess how much it was for? $15K? $30K? $45K? How
about $63K? Yup, $63K!!! Think you can rent a Lamborghini for a week
cheaper.
LOOK AT THE SOURCES PEOPLE! John starts with facts from a skewed study that
selects what studies to present in order to make an argument seem valid
(studies are funded by money, and money by motivation, so this is no
surprise). He then proceeds to build his argument based on a skewed version
of even that skewed source, knowing that 99.9% of you will never check.
A lot of people negotiate on their own.
You’re being intellectually dishonest.
Many people should try asking for prices from time to time. Most doctors
dont even know their own prices.
Seems to me the easiest fix is to get one minimal national healthcare
package (this will cover almost all common medical issues and can be
provided by all insurance companies, also people can get more coverage if
they want but this is the standard set) and negotiate the prices down like
John said. That way capitalism will provide the best products for the best
price.
Things become cheaper when everyone pays the same for it but not everyone
uses it.
For example: going to university costs me about 240 Euros for one semester.
During those six months I get a ticket for public transportation for the
ENTIRE Bundesland (there is no translation, it really is Bundesland). If I
paid for it regularly I’d be paying hundreds… per month. The way it works
is that not everybody needs it but pay regardless. You can’t back out and
say “I don’t need it and I don’t want others to travel for free with my
money!”
Healthcare in European countries functions the same way. Everyone pays for
it and is therefor entitled to cheap healthcare. How many actually need it
on a regular basis? Not that many, so the funds are sufficient to cover
most expenses. And most people are happy with it. I don’t know anyone that
has gone bankrupt because he/she broke a leg and had to be treated in the
hospital and woke up with 200.000 Euros debt.
Many Americans on the other hand don’t want others to have what they
believe earned themselves by working hard all their life, especially old
people (who, surprise, almost always vote Republican). It’s social greed at
its most extreme. Many have no interest in supporting those they perceive
as “social parasites”, leeching off other people. The fact that you can
work hard all your life, pay taxes and so on and still not get any form of
affordable healthcare is largely ignored.
I think you left out “government workers” as you bash only “congress
people”.
This guy is a fucktard who is wrong on this topic, but I’m not surprised.
Believe him at your own risk, he makes an argument that sounds valid until
you realize he’s full of crap.
The NY Times is not “nonpartisan” for starters. WTF.
Myths about the high cost of health care, how bad the problem is what’s
causing it.
John Green fails to answer the most simple question of all:
If the USA’s healthcare system is so, so, so miserable, then why do vast
amounts of people from all over the world come here to use it? Why is
that, Mr. Green?
You should see Greece! At least you don’t have ‘fakelaki’ to deal with
(google the term). Also Upworthy thinks this is the best vide to describe
healthcare problems in the US! Way to go!!!
Japan has a Population of 126,000,000. It has one of the lowest $ costs per
capita, for healthcare.. with one of the highest level of care score, and
life expectancy, according to the WHO 2008 OECD comparison report, rating
even higher than many of the nations surveyed for the 2001 WHO comparison
between the ‘Top 7 + US’ Health Services.. and the Commonwealth Fund’s (An
AMERICAN ORGANISATION FOUNDED AND RUN by people who would be considered
part of the so called 1%)..2007 Comparison report of Australia, New
Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the U.S (in both reports,
WHO2001, and Commonwealth Fund 2007, the US was ranked LAST).
Even if that cost was tripled… (for those arguing that the USA has a pop.
of 320,000,000..triple, or close enough, to that of Japan’s) it would
still be about 1,500 USD less than what the average costs per US
citizen cost the US.Gvt. now… for double the level of care outcomes, and
+3 yrs added to life expectancy, with 2.0 decrease in infant mortality.
Simply the put.. the argument that Universal Health Care cannot work in a
nation of hundreds of millions, only nations in the tens of millions, or
less, is just plain, outright, absolutely, wrong. Proven by at least 6
reputable studies in the last 12 yrs , at least one of them from one of the
most prestigious AMERICAN institutions.
And why does it cost more? Because prices are fixed! And who fixes them?
(Drumroll please)
CONGRESS!
Tada!
John, my cousin (who works in healthcare) disputes your finding with
regards to both the impact of “Disease prevalence does not affect health
care costs that much” (he states that a small proportion of chronically ill
patients are responsible for the majority of health care costs such as for
Type 2 diabetes which is often a result of obesity) and that while Medicare
is able to negotiate the best costs, they are not sustainable at a
scaled-up level.
In the interest of doing due diligence, I was wondering if you had specific
sources to back your own findings with regards to these. I’m going to look
at the three links you provided but am not sure if any specifically deal
with these.
I was also curious about your findings since, while I cannot recall the
exact episodes, I seem to remember the really sharp podcast “Planet Money”
actually stating that some of the very findings you say are not responsible
being responsible.
Basically, I’m torn: I have multiple sources telling me conflicting
things. That’s one of the biggest issues I have with so many issues … I
can’t keep up on doing research on everything. At some point, I have to
trust the data I’m given. But, sometimes, I end up with conflicting sources
that look diametrically opposed despite the fact that I’ve come to trust
all those sources in the past.
I would love it if you could point me to some additional sources beyond
those you already cited (if those don’t already cover this).
Thank you for your excellent blogs and I truly appreciate your work!
Good question. Watch to the end for the answer.
As a citizen of the UK (with a girlfriend who needs healthcare a lot),
here’re my 2 pence (see what I did there?):
The National Health Service (NHS) here is great. Never have I had an issue
with waiting time, quality of care or malpractice. My girlfriend has had
some long wait times in London where the population is really dense, but
she can avoid that by doing walk-in appointments at any other surgery
outside of the city (she got an appointment the same day by going to
Wiltshire, c.60min away instead)
Socialised healthcare is the cornerstone of developed democracy. The poorer
members of our community can get healthcare, while the wealthier citizens
can still chose to go private (BUPA is the largest private provider here
and it does just fine). It’s baffling and, ironically, sickening to here
the right wing go nuts over socialised healthcare. Mature a little, join
the rest of the developed world and try it out. It’s good stuff 🙂
Oh, and the UK budget is likely to be balanced in a few years. Go figure.
Well said.
Nobody should feel forced to sign-up for the ACA. Why?
Because it infringes on US citizens privacy regarding bank accounts and
health databases. Yes, the reason the websites did not work is because the
US Gov tried to roll-out (Unsecure Websites).
Changing to secure sites at the last minute over taxed the networking
infrastructure.
Securing the sites on protest helps prevent the sites from attack. However,
the database is NOT protected because your Gov wants to know all about you.
Your private info is valuable as employers will pay for it.
Pelosi forced Democrats to push the ACA without reading or even
highlighting the privacy issues. None of the serious privacy and other
serious ACA issues were discussed.
In any case, this should NOT have been passed as a tax because it is a
MANDATE not a tax. There are serious privacy and unfair financial practices
and Gov appointed individuals making allot of money as part of the
ACA roll-out.
How is it that before – it took a court order to get your private info –
and now your medical data is simply available to everyone because of a new
TAX???