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 related to all manner of health care, such as prescription drugs, continue to increase at an enormous rate. While some of the reasons behind this booming bill are comprehensible, United States Citizens caught in a cash crunch may be surprised to discover a few of the lesser-known causes of 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 marvelous aims and a genuine desire to aid people, but the structure of the American health care system guarantees profit is the first issue of importance.

Here are some facts that might help explain the high costs of US health care:

Pharmaceutic research and development corporations spend roughly twenty billion dollars each year on R&D, and approximately a similar amount on advertising and self-promotional merchandising activities.

Additionally, drug companies have as many sales people as there are doctors in the United States. One of the responsibilities of this sales force is to convince doctors to go to their company-sponsored seminars where drugs are showcased.

According to some economists, the purchase of up to date technology is responsible for more than 50 percent of new health care spending over the last three years.

A great deal of the hard cash Americans pay for health care finds its way into the increasing profits on health care-related merchandise and services such as the supply of medical insurance. Even higher costs have been forecast for the future, particularly for prescription drugs.

For numerous United States Citizens who are unable to afford the health care they require, increasing costs symbolize an ever-increasing block to medical services and merchandise. The financial effect 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 around a quarter of the annual federal budget.

Comparatively, Canada invests about 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, where there is a public/private delivery system model for health care, manage to serve their citizens for even less whilst still having better longevity than US Citizens. This proves that the quality of health care does not rise proportionately 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 benefits 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 unreachable 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 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 static, offering health care insurance to workers 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:

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.

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

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

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