Flaylo
Handsome Devil
Richard Kirsch: It's the Prices, Stupid: Consumers Don't Drive High Health Care Costs
But the reason that health care costs so much in the United States is not that we consume too much health care; it's that we pay too much for what we consume. As Uwe Reinhardt and three other health economists summarized succinctly after comparing the prices we pay and the amount of health care we use in the United States with other developed countries, "It's the prices, stupid."For example, we make one-third fewer doctor visits a year than people in other countries but we pay an average of $59 for an office visit, compared with $31 in France. Our doctors make a lot more money than their colleagues in other countries. Adjusting pay across countries by purchasing power, U.S. doctors get paid about two times as much as in others. A Congressional Research Service analysis found that specialists in the United States are paid about $50,000 a year more than would be predicted, even considering the higher level of wealth in the United States.