Rising Health Care Costs: What you should know

United States Citizens pay more than 1.5 trillion dollars for medical care every year and costs associated with all manner of health care, such as prescription medicines, continue to skyrocket. While a few of the reasons behind this booming bill are comprehensible, US Citizens caught in a cash crunch might be amazed to hear a few of the lesser-known causes of escalating health care costs.

The words health care could 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 intentions and a genuine need to aid people, but the structure of the U.S. health care system ensures profit is the first issue of importance.

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

Pharmaceutical research and development companies spend about $20 billion every year on Research and development, and approximately the same amount on advertising and self-promotional marketing activities.

Additionally, drug companies have as many sales persons as there are doctors in the U S. One of the duties of these sales teams is to convince doctors to go to pharmaceutical company-sponsored seminars where medicines are showcased.

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

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

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

Comparatively, Canada invests in the area of 10 percent of its GDP on its public health care program. Unlike the USA, 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 while still having better longevity than North Americans. This proves that the quality of health care does not increase proportionately with the amount of money spent to achieve it.

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

For employers, offering 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 static, offering 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 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 variants of drugs that have been found to be just as effective as their more expensive brand name counterparts.

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

Analyze 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 unneeded diagnostics to corroborate conditions they already know to be present.