What is the reason for high health-care in United States?

Question

We have Big-3 Auto makers executive visiting White House to discuss, rising healthcare, pension, unfoavourable exchange rates and high cost of steel. My employer just raised my premium to $3K per year.
Doctors don't make money the way they used to in 80s? Hospitals are shutting down everywhere except FL? Insurance companies like Aetna, Cigna stocks are not rising rapidly. What is the reason for this high healthcare cost? Are we all too sick, fat and unhealthy? Or is it illegal immigrants are exhausting all healthcare institutions and medicaid?

Answer 1

Because no one pays their own health care costs!

We expect everyone else (gov't, insurance companies, our employers) to pay for our medical care.

Because of this we demand the best available care and we don't care about the price. The market forces of competition are absent. There is no incentive for us to shop around for the best price for health care.

Another factor is too much gov't regulation. Not every medical issue requires a full M.D. Why can't I go see someone less trained and educated for minor issues?

Yet another factor is the legal system has greatly increased costs due to constant mal-practice suits and judgements beyond all reason. The medical establishment does tests not needed just to prove they covered all the bases. Malpractice insurance keeps getting more expensive, thereby driving up our costs.

Still another factor is that illegal immigrants get free health care, at the medical establishments expense, because they are not allowed to turn them away.

There are many reasons for the high health care costs. Any true reform will have to address them all.

Answer 2

Oh c'mon. There are probably many more reasons than our own unhealthy lifestyles and the effect of undocumented immigrants. I'll try to think of two more.

How about our aging population? People are living a lot longer than they used to, and it is often late in life, when we are no longer working and when we spend lots of money on health care. The baby boomers are reaching 60, aren't they? So just watch this trend accelerate from now on.

Malpractice insurance. Maybe lawyers have gotten too good at their jobs or people these days are more inclined to sue than other generations were. Either way, malpractice insurance is expensive and is a non-negligible component of our health care costs because doctors pass its high price on to us. They have to or they would go out of business. Of course, we could legislate this away through tort reform, but do you want to take that chance in case your doctor screws up someday? Maybe we could make doctors more careful? I've never heard anyone talk about this one. I guess we may already be at some natural minimum there, since we humans are bound to make mistakes, right?

Answer 3

1 - An aging population that will only get older and more populous.

2 - Ridiculous malpractice insurance.

3 - Modern medicine can add decades to our life. That takes money.

4 - Groundbreaking new technology and procedures. Heart stints and gastric bypass surgery, for example.

5 - Today, cost over $800 million to develop a new drug. In 1987 the average cost was about $230 million.
http://csdd.tufts.edu/NewsEvents/RecentNews.asp?newsid=6

6 - End of life care cost a fortune. People used to just die. (really)

7 - Families no longer take care of their parents and grandparents. They just drop them off at the nursing home.

8 - Congress and states have forced insurance companies to cover certain things, whether you want it or not. This is included in the price of premiums.

9 - MEDICARE is over 120,000 pages of regulations (Yes, you read that right) It takes an army of lawyers and accountants to figure them out. Hospitals/Doctors have to pay those salaries. Those cost are passed on to you.

10 - The U.S. simply needs to graduate more doctors and nurses.


If you want a solution, it takes only one law:
"We, Congress, hereby admitting that we possess no knowledge of health care and pass health care legislation for the sole purpose of buying votes, revoke every piece of health care legislation ever written, and due solemnly swear upon punishment of death to never pass any new legislation pertaining to health care."

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Answer 4

permit me ask you a query, if our well being care is so undesirable as you state, why do the persons from a around the international come right here for scientific care, and an astounding sort of from Canada? And if for one minute you're silly adequate to believe the well being care equipment in Canada is loose, then it somewhat is time you discovered to verify and study this crap. Canada no longer basically has a very intense tax base, yet in addition expenditures a 7% GST tax on evey purchase, no remember what, it is nonetheless 7%. Banjo: with regards to the Canadian well being care equipment you're so keen on, 2 years in the past, below medicare and on the age of seventy 9, I had to bypass below an emergency quadruple by potential of-bypass surgical treatment. From the time i replaced into clinically determined, to the surgical treatment replaced into one and one a million/2 days, and that i had my determination of docs. In Canada and below their well being equipment, at my age, it somewhat is unclear this surgical treatment would have been authorized, and in any adventure, it would have taken years for approval. those info got here at as quickly as from a Canadian physician visting the scientific institution whilst i replaced into in restoration. So buddy, if it somewhat is the style of equipment that suits you, high-quality, decide for it, yet get it in Canada as we don't desire that right here.

Answer 5

The pharmaceutical lobby is the main problem. It costs pennies to make the medicines but they force the buyer to pay many times their cost. They sell the same drugs for less in Canada and Mexico. We need a universal health care plan just as good as other civilized countries have.

Answer 6

greed!!!!!