Rising Health Care Costs: What you need to know

North Americans pay more than 1.5 trillion dollars for medical care each year and costs related to all types of health care, such as prescription drugs, continue to rocket. While a few of the reasons behind this booming bill are comprehensible, North Americans caught in a cash crunch may be amazed to discover a few of the lesser-known reasons for high health care costs.

The words health care could invoke images of doctors, nurses and hospitals, but the reality is that the medical field is an industry and a ruthless one at that. Individual practitioners, researchers and participants may have fantastic intentions and a true need to aid people, but the structure of the U.S. health care system assures profit is the first issue of importance.

Here is some information that could assist in explaining the soaring costs of American health care:

Pharmaceutical research and development corporations expend approximately twenty billion dollars every year on R&D, and approximately the same sum on advertising and self-promotional merchandising activities.

Also, drug companies have as many sales people as there are doctors in america. One of the responsibilities of this sales force is to convince doctors to attend their company-sponsored seminars where medicines are showcased.

According to some economic experts, the purchase of new technology is responsible for more than fifty percent of new health care outlay over the last 3 years.

A great deal of the cash United States Citizens pay for health care finds its way into the rising profits on health care-related products and services such as the supply of medical insurance. Even higher costs have been envisaged for the future, particularly for prescription drugs.

For many US Citizens who are not able to afford the health care they need, spiraling prices represent an ever-increasing impedance to medical services and products. The fiscal effect is also found on the larger national scale with about 15 percent of gross domestic product going towards health care costs. That is equal to roughly one fourth of the yearly federal budget.

Comparatively, Canada invests around 10 percent of its Gross domestic product on its public health care program. Unlike the U.S., Canadas health care program is universally available to all citizens and permanent residents without cost. Other countries, such as Germany, in which there is a public/private delivery system model for health care, manage to serve their populate for even less whilst still having better longevity than US Citizens. This proves that the caliber of health care does not increase proportionally with the amount of money spent to attain it.

While many Canadians supplement their overall health care with extra insurance to the cost of medication and perks such as semi-private or private hospital rooms, health care insurance is much more of a necessity in the United States. Unfortunately, costs have been spiraling dramatically, making health care insurance inaccessible for many Americans. Currently, more than 40 million Americans do not receive any type of health care benefit.

For employers, offering health care insurance for workers is also becoming more expensive, with increases dramatically outpacing inflation rates. Some years, the difference is four or six fold. Even if premiums were to stay unchanging, providing health care insurance to their workforce still costs several thousand dollars per worker. For smaller companies, or for the ones who employ a large number of people, these costs can be prohibitive.

Steps to trim down health care costs are always under consideration, though many are not popular options. Suggestions that have been put forward by various sources have included:

Extra drug awareness and teaching. Millions could be saved if health care insurance covered only generic variations of drugs that have been proven just as effective as their more expensive brand name counterparts.

Terminate expensive treatment options will only add a small period of time to a patients life, particularly if it will not be quality time (i.e. patient is in a coma).

Promote preventative care such as smart lifestyle choices, proper nutrition and exercise.

Examine ways to control drug advertising to consumers. There is conjecture that advertising has led to prescriptions of non-necessary drugs.

Restrict malpractice liability so doctors and medical professionals do not feel pressured to cover themselves by ordering unnecessary tests to corroborate conditions they already know to be present.