Health Care Spending - Essay Example

Yet the citizens of these countries do have insurance that is provided by the government. Health Insurance Cost (2004) also states that "the average employee contribution to company-provided health insurance has increased more than 143 percent since 2000. Average out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-payments for medications, and co-insurance for physician and hospital visits rose 115 percent during the same period." The United States, with it wealth, education, technology, and power seems not to have a grasp on its health care spending as it spends twice as much pr capita and yet does not provide what other countries offer to their citizens.

Increased health spending is causing many U.S. citizens to have no health insurance as the costs affect care that is offered to patients, public health programs, services provided in the home, etc. Due to these reasons, there is a larger gap between those who are considered the "haves" and the "have-nots". The increased costs, which affects patient care and services, programs offered to the public, in-home care, larger gaps between those who have and those who do not, etc. Yet on the other hand, it is the "what comes first the chicken or the egg" syndrome.

Many believe that the reason the costs are so astounding is due to the outrageous prices charged by doctors, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and other health care service providers. Some people believe that the United States offers the world's best health care system. However, being the most expensive system does not Health Care Spending 3necessarily mean that it is the best. The U.S. Health Care System (2001) states that there, "42.6 million people in the U.S. currently without health insurance" Anderson (2004) suggests reasons why the spending in the U.S. is so high: These include greater use of medical services, greater administrative complexity in the U.S. health care system, increasing age of the U.S. population, threat of malpractice litigation, defensive medicine, the lack of waiting lists in the United States and higher incomes in the United States.

None of these factors explain a large portion of the difference between health spending in the United States and other industrialized countries. Perhaps most surprising to many health care experts and certainly to the lay public is the fact that the United States has fewer hospital days per capita, fewer physician visits per capita, fewer MRIs and CT scanners s than the average industrialized country. The person in the United States is simply not receiving more medical care than people in many industrialized countries.

The major reason why the United States spends so much on health care is that the U.S. residents pay two to three times more for hospital services, physician services and drugs than residents in other industrialized countries. These are the areas in which spending can be cut. It is suggested that corporations and industries refuse to pay more than what the Medicare program pays. Statistics show that the private sector pays an average of 10-20% more than Medicare. If industries refuse to pay the higher prices and negotiate lower medical and health care costs, this will reduce what individuals have to pay and will encourage Medicare to push for even lower prices.

The government can also provide health Health Care