auditor0007
Gold Member
It's insurance. If we didn't have other people pay for our needs, rates would have to be reasonable to get paid. Add the cost of schooling to that too. If people didnt have to pay so much for their schooling, so that they have to take out loans, they wouldn't have to charge so much to pay off their debts.
Educational costs to become a doctor in the US are much higher than in other countries. Also, malpractice insurance increases costs dramatically. Last of all, administrative costs are triple that of other countries. If we address the issues that drive up the costs, it would be a start. There are other issues though. For instance, we do have the most advanced technology when it comes to medicine and treatment of patients. The problem is that much of this technology is very new and is not being used anywhere near to capacity. This creates a big problem as it still must be paid for. If you have a brand new piece of equipment that costs $1 million dollars and it is only put to use for 50 patients per year, the cost becomes extremely high. We want these new technologies and things that can help improve our lives, but when they can't be put to scale, we have to ask whether it is worth it or not. In most any other business, a company would not invest $1 million on a piece of equipment that only would give them a return of $100,000. But we do this in healthcare all the time.