Victor Fuchs tells us how to save a trillion on health care……by doing what other countries have done.
Americans spend more than 17 percent of GDP on health care; other high income industrial democracies spend only about 11 percent. The 6 percent difference in our $17 trillion economy amounts to $1 trillion..
The excess in the United States is primarily attributable to a more expensive mix of procedures and services, higher prices paid to drug companies and physicians, and inefficiencies in the financing of health care. There are undoubtedly cultural differences between the United States and other countries, but it is also true that Swedes differ from Italians, Germans from French, and the English from all of the above.
Read the article.
Medicynical Note: Essentially we need to change from a revenue generating system to a health care system. It’s that easy.
In the U.S. at every level the emphasis is on increasing revenue rather than improving health care, even with the advent of health reform. We overuse, over prescribe and over charge without any brake on expenditures. To gain control and assure access and quality we have to figure out the riddle—most other countries have figured it out. I’m not optimistic we that we can do it because of our religious-like dogged devotion to failed approaches.
Medicynic 