Increasing Health Care Costs: What you should know

Americans pay more than one and a half trillion dollars for medical care every year and costs associated with all manner of health care, such as prescription drugs, continue to rocket. While some of the reasons behind this booming bill are comprehensible, United States Citizens caught in a cash crunch might be surprised to learn a few of the lesser-known reasons for escalating health care costs.

The words health care can invoke images of doctors, nurses and hospitals, but the reality is that the medical field is a business and a remorseless one at that. Individual practitioners, researchers and participants may have wonderful aims and a true desire to serve people, but the structure of the US health care system guarantees profit is the first issue of importance.

Here is some information that might help explain the soaring costs of American health care:

Pharmaceutical research and development corporations expend about twenty billion dollars every year on R&D, and roughly the same amount 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 these sales teams is to convince doctors to attend their company-sponsored seminars where drugs are showcased.

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

A great deal of the money North Americans pay for health care finds its way into the rising profits on health care-related merchandise and services such as the supply of medical insurance. Even greater costs have been forseen for the future, particularly for prescription drugs.

For numerous US Citizens who are unable to afford the health care they require, rising costs symbolize an ever-increasing barrier to medical services and products. The fiscal burden is also felt on the larger national scale with about fifteen percent of gross domestic product going toward health care costs. That is equal to about a fourth of the annual federal budget.

Comparatively, Canada invests in the area of 10 percent of its GDP on its public health care program. Unlike the US, 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 populations for even less whilst still having greater longevity than United States Citizens. This proves that the caliber of health care does not rise proportionately with the amount of money spent to attain it.

While many Canadians supplement their universal health care with extra insurance to the cost of medication and benefits 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 unreachable for many Americans. Presently, more than 40 million Americans do not receive any type of health care benefit.

For employers, providing health care insurance for their workforce 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 remain unchanging, providing health care insurance to workers still costs several thousand dollars per worker. For smaller companies, or for the ones that employ a large number of people, these costs can be prohibitive.

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

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

End expensive treatment choices will only add a short amount 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, correct nutrition and exercise.

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

Limit malpractice liability so doctors and medical professionals do not feel forced to cover themselves by ordering unnecessary diagnostics to confirm conditions they already know to be present.