Message #956

[kentay]

Health care cost per capita in the U.S. is about 100% higher than other advanced countries. And, I have seen no data that says the quality of care justifies this.

U.S. spending annual on physicians per capita is about five times higher than peer countries: $1,600 versus $310 in a sample of peer countries, a difference of $1,290 per capita or $390 billion nationally, 37% of the health care spending gap. These conclusions come from an analysis co-authored by Miriam Laugesen of the Columbia University School of Public Health and Sherry Gleid, an Assistant Secretary in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (source)**. The biggest driver of the gap is spending with specialist doctors, which is 3-6 times higher in the U.S. versus peers.  This difference is mainly due to much higher prices in the U.S., which are driven by both higher per-procedure rates paid by both public and private payers, and larger proportion of higher-paying private payers in the U.S. By comparison, public per visit rates for U.S. primary care doctors are at the high end of the range for peer countries and private rates are slightly above the range, and primary care doctor incomes are higher than peer countries, but less than half of the incomes of U.S. specialists. Primary care doctor utilization is comparatively low in the U.S., which keeps overall spending on primary care down. This is not good for overall health care costs