Spiraling Health Care Costs: What you need to know

United States Citizens pay more than 1.5 trillion dollars for medical care each year and costs associated with all manner of health care, such as prescription drugs, continue to increase at an enormous rate. While a few of the reasons behind this booming bill are understandable, Americans caught in a cash crunch might be surprised to discover a few of the lesser-known reasons for escalating health care costs.

The phrase health care can invoke images of doctors, nurses and hospitals, but the reality is that the medical field is an industry 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 highest issue of importance.

Here is some information that might assist in explaining the escalating costs of US health care:

Pharmaceutic research and development companies expend approximately $20 billion every year on R&D, and roughly a similar amount on advertising and self-promotional merchandising activities.

Additionally, drug companies have as many sales persons as there are doctors in america. One of the duties 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 new technology is responsible for more than fifty percent of new health care spending over the previous 3 years.

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

For many US Citizens who are unable to afford the health care they require, increasing costs typify an ever-increasing block to medical services and merchandise. The fiscal burden is also felt on the larger national scale with about fifteen percent of gross domestic product going towards health care costs. That is equal to approximately one fourth of the yearly federal budget.

Relatively, Canada invests about ten percent of its GDP 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, where 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 North Americans. This proves that the caliber of health care does not increase proportionately with the amount of money spent to achieve it.

While many Canadians supplement their overall health care with added insurance to the cost of medication and benefits 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. Currently, more than forty million Americans do not receive any variety of health care benefit.

For employers, providing health care insurance for workers 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 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 bring 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 education. 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.

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

Encourage preventative care such as smart lifestyle alternatives, correct 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 unneeded diagnostics to corroborate conditions they already know to be present.