Cecilie1200
Diamond Member
- Nov 15, 2008
- 55,062
- 16,609
Didnt you mean to say the opposite here? Medicaid/Medicare have low reimbursements, often below cost. Hospitals and doctors can only make it up by charging private insured patients more.That still makes US hospitals the most expensive in the world.
The US has the most expensive healthcare system in the world. It is 2 times more expensive on a per capita basis than that of Sweeden or U.K developed country.So yea, Bernie is actually right.
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You might want to investigate the difference between "expensive" and "spending". See, expensive is how much each procedure costs. Spending, on the other hand, is how much is spent in total on anything healthcare-related. This includes all the non-essential spending on things like Lasik, hearing aids, cosmetic surgery, frequent diagnostics by hypochondriacs, orthodontia, vitamins . . .
Part of the reason that the US spends so much on health care every year is because we can. We are a wealthy nation, with people who are more than willing to use their discretionary funds to improve their quality of life. That's not a bad thing.
And so you simply assume it's because what? People arbitrarily decided to jack up the prices for the fun of it? Gotta love simplistic "logic". I guess it saves time over the messy, complicated reality.
Forbes magazine, for example, provides a number of reasons why medical prices in the US are high. Heading the list is government healthcare: Medicare and Medicaid, which sets its compensation rates higher than other countries, which in turn raises the prices charged to private insurers, since doctors certainly can't charge patients differently for the same procedure based on payment method.
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Nope. I should be more specific, though, I guess. Forbes states that Medicare and Medicaid compensate more for specialist care versus primary care than do other countries.
I also forgot to include the link. My bad. I'm a bit distracted.
Why Are U.S. Health Care Costs So High?