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High US health care spending explained by its high material standard of living

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Re: High US health care spending explained by its high material standard of living

#4
Strange, this neglects that portion of health care spend that is accounted for by profits, by marketing expenses and administrative/billing bloat that ensues.

It also neglects that for its massively higher spend 10% of Americans aren't covered and therefore don't receive preventative care yielding massively higher final costs, and it doesn't take into account the WHO ranks the US system as 31st in the world dramatically under all the socialized players.

[Edit] as I suspected [1] indicates a full 20% of spend is wasted mostly on profits and administrative costs. That should be taken off the top.

IMO this is a case of "figures don't lie, liars figure" but without the malicious intent.

[1] https://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Resources/Files/Downloads/mlr-repo...

Re: High US health care spending explained by its high material standard of living

#5
post #2

(withdrawn)

The data in the article shows there is no country with the same standard of living.

The article doesn't disagree that you could get similar health outcomes for less money. The claim of the article is that as people become richer, they spend more money on marginally beneficial health care.

(Or sometimes just consumer goods masquerading as health care, e.g. Oxycontin and similar drugs, used by our leisure class use to mask their ennui. https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/our-miserable-21... )

Re: High US health care spending explained by its high material standard of living

#6

Strange, this neglects that portion of health care spend that is accounted for by profits, by marketing expenses and administrative/billing bloat that ensues. It also neglects that for its massively higher spend 10% of Americans aren't covered and therefore don't receive preventative care yielding massively higher final costs, and it doesn't take into account the WHO ranks the US system as 31st in the world dramatica…

What do you mean "neglects"? Did the author somehow remove that from his numbers?

The WHO ranks the US low because 62.5% of their score is a measure of inequality. Only 37.5% of their score is related to actual health care measures (health outcomes and patient satisfaction). The US scores #1 on patient satisfaction.

http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/whr00_en.pdf

Re: High US health care spending explained by its high material standard of living

#7
Is it possible that healthcare in the US is a "superior good" (definition in article) because the lower quartiles can't afford proper care and as they become wealthier they progress from zero care, to basic plans that don't cover nearly what they should, to plans equivalent to the care people receive elsewhere in the world as a right of citizenship?

Re: High US health care spending explained by its high material standard of living

#8

Strange, this neglects that portion of health care spend that is accounted for by profits, by marketing expenses and administrative/billing bloat that ensues. It also neglects that for its massively higher spend 10% of Americans aren't covered and therefore don't receive preventative care yielding massively higher final costs, and it doesn't take into account the WHO ranks the US system as 31st in the world dramatica…

What do you mean "neglects"? Did the author somehow remove that from his numbers? The WHO ranks the US low because 62.5% of their score is a measure of inequality. Only 37.5% of their score is related to actual health care measures (health outcomes and patient satisfaction). The US scores #1 on patient satisfaction. http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/whr00_en.pdf

Neglects as in they don't consider that spend to be "waste" in the computation of whether Americans are paying more than a comparable country. IMO that should be subtracted off the top as none of that exists in a socialized system. They appear to be attributing those costs to the "higher standard of living".

Re: High US health care spending explained by its high material standard of living

#9
So his claim that the us has a higher standard of living is based on it having a higher AIC. But does this take into account that countries with higher taxation and hence public expenditure could reduce the need for households to spend money on public goods/services?
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