U.S. health care reform? Status quo profits handsomely the way things are

[Guest guest]

Originally published March 18 2007

http://www.newstarget.com/021709.html

U.S. health care reform? Status quo profits handsomely the way things are

by David Gutierrez

 

(NewsTarget) A new study reveals how much doctors, drug companies, hospitals

and insurance companies are profiting from the fact that the health-care

system in the United States is the most expensive in the industrialized

world. The study, conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute, calculated

that the United States spends almost twice as much on health care each year

as the average of other industrialized countries, to produce equal or even

inferior care.

 

Jump directly to: conventional view | alternative view | bottom line

 

 

What you need to know - Conventional View

.. According to the study, the United States spends $477 billion more on

health care yearly than 13 other highly industrialized nations, even after

adjusting for factors such as wealth and different population health

profiles. This comes out to 3.6 percent of the country's Gross Domestic

Product.

 

.. U.S. doctors make substantially more than their foreign counterparts,

averaging $274,000 a year for specialists and $173,000 for general

practitioners. This comes out to 6.6 and 4.2 times the income of their

average patient, compared with 4 and 3.2 times in the other countries

studied.

 

.. This overspending on doctors - $58 billion a year even after deducting

insurance costs - comes because U.S. doctors see more patients and prescribe

more procedures than those in other countries.

 

.. Contrary to popular impression, doctors are not forced to see more

patients and prescribe more procedures in order to pay off their school

loans. U.S. doctors actually make more money relative to their debt at

graduation than other professionals with advanced degrees.

 

.. Patients in the United States pay higher prices for hospitals - four times

more per day - and higher prices for drugs - 60 to 70 percent more - than

those in other industrialized countries. Together, this overspending amounts

to $281 billion annually.

 

.. Quote: " What we have here is pretty good circumstantial evidence of

Pearlstein's First Law of Health Economics, which holds that if you pay

doctors on the basis of how many procedures they do, and you leave it to

doctors and their insured patients to decide how much health care they get,

consumption of health services will rise to whatever level is necessary for

doctors to earn as much as the lawyers who sue them. " - Steven Pearlstein,

business columnist for The Washington Post(/em>

 

 

What you need to know - Alternative View

Statements and opinions by Mike Adams, author of Natural Health Solutions

and the Conspiracy to Keep You From Knowing About Them

 

.. The health care industry has devolved into a profit-generating racket that

seeks to turn human beings into revenue generation machines. The overuse of

antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, surgical procedures, lab tests and cancer

treatments is primarily based on the fact that these generate profits, not

that they are medically justified or even effective for patients.

 

.. Much of conventional medicine, as practiced today, is a grand hoax. For

most degenerative diseases, health care does not make patients healthier,

nor does it prevent disease in any meaningful way. Americans are being

ripped off while being told we have " the best health care system in the

world. " We don't.

 

 

Bottom line

.. U.S. patients pay vastly more for health services than people in other

countries.

 

 

 

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