Increasing Health Care Costs: What you need to know

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 skyrocket. While a few of the reasons behind this booming bill are understandable, United States Citizens caught in a cash crunch may be amazed to find out some of the lesser-known causes of high 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 ruthless one at that. Individual practitioners, researchers and participants may have wonderful aims and a true need to serve people, but the structure of the U.S. health care system assures profit is the first issue of importance.

Here are some facts that might help explain the soaring costs of U.S. health care:

Pharmaceutical research and development corporations spend roughly $20 billion every year on Research and development, and roughly the same sum on advertising and self-promotional merchandising activities.

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

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

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

For numerous Americans who are not able to afford the health care they need, increasing costs symbolise an ever-increasing barrier to medical services and merchandise. The fiscal burden 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 close to one fourth of the annual federal budget.

Comparatively, Canada invests around ten percent of its Gross domestic product on its public health care program. Unlike the U.S.A., 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 US Citizens. This proves that the quality of health care does not increase proportionally with the amount of money spent to achieve it.

While many Canadians supplement their universal 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 necessary 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 kind of health care benefit.

For employers, offering health care insurance for employees is also becoming increasingly expensive, with increases dramatically outpacing inflation rates. Some years, the difference is four or six fold. Even if premiums were to stay unchanging, offering health care insurance to employees 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.

Measures to reduce 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 training. Millions could be saved if health care insurance covered only generic versions of drugs that have been proven just as effective as their more expensive brand name counterparts.

End expensive treatment alternatives will only add a small 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 alternatives, correct nutrition and exercise.

Examine ways to control drug advertising to consumers. There is speculation 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 diagnostics to substantiate conditions they already know to be present.