Health Care in the United States
As reported on
Wikipedia and elsewhere,
the United States
spends more on health care per capita and
more on health care as percentage of its GDP
than other nations,
but life expectancy at birth in the USA is below
most developed nation and even some developing nations.
And in spite of high health care costs, the U.S.
falls behind in quality
and
compares badly to the rest of the world.
Since so many countries are doing a better job at health care,
the problem cannot be lack of knowledge about what to do.
More likely it is problem of too many vested interests
not willing to change for the betterment of all.
I think too much emphasis has been placed on changing
laws about who gets medical care and who pays and
not nearly enough attention is paid to fixing the
health care system itself.
Here are some (mostly recent) links related to that subject:
•
Atul Gawande in the New Yorker
examines how restaurant chains have managed to combine quality control,
cost control, and innovation much better than health care providers.
•
Peter Orszag discusses
How Much Health-Care Spending Is Wasted
and some steps to fix that.
•
As a follow up to one of Orszag's points,
Davis Liu in The Health Care Blog
reports on the claim by venture capitalist Vinod Khosla that
Technology Will Replace 80 Percent of Docs.
•
And finally here is a new startup,
Finding Health Care Prices
to help consumers compare prices for medical procedures and items.
It has been shown that medical costs across the country vary greatly
and that often
costlier medical care isn't better
and (a bit older)
cost isn't proof of high quality.
Addendum.
After writing the above I saw
this frightening essay from the
Wall Street Journal
September 21, 2012.
•
How to Stop Hospitals From Killing Us