Health Spending Rises to Record 15% of Economy

[missile_bender]

New York Times

ealth spending accounts for nearly 15 percent of the nation's economy, the largest share on record, the Bush administration said on Thursday.

The Department of Health and Human Services said that health care spending shot up 9.3 percent in 2002, the largest increase in 11 years, to a total of $1.55 trillion. That represents an average of $5,440 for each person in the United States.

Hospital care and prescription drugs accounted for much of the overall increase, which outstripped the growth in the economy for the fourth year in a row, the report said.

--more

I love this quote: ""Mark V. Pauly, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said he saw no evidence that the increase in health spending had been 'cosmically harmful to society.' Indeed, he said, 'for middle-class people with health insurance,' the value of the health care they receive is often worth the additional cost.

"But Mr. Pauly said the increase in health costs and spending tended to hurt the uninsured."

You know he's on an insurance company payroll to say this smeg. I've been to the doctor, I've been to hospitals. The service you get is catch-as-catch-can. And HMOs like Kaiser Permanente suck royally. I love paying $25 and schlep down to to my doctor so he can refer me to a specialist I already knew I needed to see. I guess Pauly doesn't go to the doctor. He sure as hell doesn't belong to Kaiser.

Unembedded.com

[RUexperienced]

1. If we want more people to receive better medical care,

how can you do it without more money being spent?

[mbperrin]

2. We can do it without spending more. We can probably

spend less. We already spend more per person than any other country in the world.

By covering everyone and by covering everything, including preventive care, we can avoid scenarios like this true story:

My elderly neighbor (in his 80s) receives less than a thousand dollars a month from Social Security, and because he worked 46 years for a large oil company with no pension plan, that's all he gets. His only child was killed in Vietnam and was childless. His wife died ten years ago, so he's on his own.

His medication for blood pressure and cholesterol reduction and thyroid and a couple of others add up to $750+ per month, leaving nothing for food, utilities,etc., so he skimps on his medicine (without food, the medicine won't work very well, anyway.)

Sooner or later, his blood pressure shoots up high enough to be dangerous enough to send him to the county hospital emergency room, where his bill for a week or so in intensive care is about $50,000 or so, to be paid for by county taxpayers. This happens about 8 or 9 times a year, and so by not paying $9000 a year for his medicine, the taxpayers pay nearly $500,000 per year for emergency care instead. Just this one case would save $470,000+ per year and provide a higher quality of life for him, too.

The reason bills are so high are all the middlemen- insurers, HMOs, gatekeepers and a whole lot more, all of whom have to suck a living out of the payments themselves.

Add the savings from preventative care with the savings from unnecessary overhead and the savings for preventing the spread of communicable disease by providing universal care and you can save many billions of dollars!

The point is, we pay enough to get it, but we just don't get it!

[Yavin4]

4. Another Example - WalMart

They're one of the largest employers in America, but they don't offer health insurance to all of their employees. So, when their employees get pregnant, get into car accidents, get cancer, get diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks, etc. We the taxpayers have to pay for it.

[brokensymmetry]

5. Well said! n/t

.

[missile_bender]

3. Well, for one thing you cut out outrageous drug prices, huge salaries

to HMO administrators, insurance companys, doctors. Every other industrialized nation in the world is handling this problem but us.

[tkmorris]

7. The United States spends

More, PER PERSON, on health care than any other nation in the world. In fact Switzerland, which is second, spent only $3857 per person according to the latest figures.

So naturally we have the best health care in the world and those who complain just don't know that right?

Wrong. In fact the United States ranks 42nd in the world in terms of life expectancy. 42nd. Behind such nations as Japan, Sweden, France, Italy, the aforementioned Switzerland, Australia, and Spain. In fact we are behind Canada, that country to the north with the failed National Health Care system. Their residents can expect to live 2 1/4 years longer than their American counterparts on average.

A fluke right? No. If you measure any other health statistic the US doesn't come in first either. Not even close. Our infant mortality rate is higher than most of the countries mentioned previously, again including most famously Canada. And France.

An expectant mother has a better chance of surviving the birthing experience in Kuwait than she does here. She'd fare better in Israel as well, or Singapore.

In the United States 92% of the children aged 1 year are immunized against Measles. Not bad, until you consider that 96% of the Canadian children are immunized against Measles and 98% of Romanians.

We could go on like this forever, examining category after category in which the US health care system fails but what would be the point? It is clear enough that it does and the problem isn't one of money spent. It's that the health care which is available is not distributed equitably to all citizens. Furthermore it is clear that basic health needs, which other nations meet remarkably well while spending less than half per capita what we do, are going wanting here to an alarmingly large percentage of the population.

It is an abomination to continue to make health care availability be based upon meeting the monetary demands of an increasingly greedy corporate sector. Basic health care should be a fundamental human right, not a privilege of the wealthy.

[fizzana]

9. Are you aware that our health care system is so screwed up that

there are more people working in health care pushing papers than there are actually taking care of patients.

I'm not sure of the actual numbers but the percentage of healthcare costs being spent on adminstration is x times higher than in any other country in the world.

In short, healthcare in the U.S. is run about as inefficiently as it could be. This is why we spend so much on it, not because it is necessarily better.

[cryofan]

6. don't you just love it that way they paint this in such a postive light

Like it's a good thing that medical care prices are shooting through the roof.

[Yavin4]

8. As Healthcare Costs Skyrocket, So Too Will Govt. Spending

Government, federal, state, and local, will have to deal with these skyrocketing healthcare costs during a time when politicians are being elected based on their pledge to cut taxes. These two opposing dynamics, rapidly increasing healthcare costs and the popularity of tax cuts, will push governments to borrow themselves into default. (See California).

If Bush and the Republicans keep their offices, we will start to see the federal and state governments default on their debt, and when this happens, all hell will break loose. It will make the Great Depression look like a Sunday picnic.

[The Zanti Regent]

10. Remember--THE SCREW YORK TIMES OPPOSES SINGLE PAYER

They keep BSing about the system being broken and they blame people for abandoning HMOs as the reason.

Once again, Bullshitter Bob Herbert bemoans all those Florida children being denied Medical care, yet he does not have the backbone to support single payer.

SINGLE PAYER IS THE ONLY SOLUTION!

[Beaker]

11. Bet on that percentage to grow-

as the baby Boomers turn into the Old Geezers.

I'm sure glad that my wife and I decided not to have any children to leave this world to- otherwise I'd have even more trouble sleeping at night..

[JCMach1]

12. Drug prices are a huge part of this... I have a sinus infection

right now and paid less than $30 (U.S.) for a prescription of Zithromax (anti-biotic) in the Emirates. In the States, Zithromax is $75-100.

With my insurance, I paid 21 Dirhams (AED) for all my medications-- including over-the-counter drugs. That was around 5$ (US).

Healthcare is broken and headed to even more lows. Our government will go bankrupt if we don't take care of it.

[cthrumatrix]

13. thank you repugs for medicare reform with zero cost controls