According to consumer advocate Ralph Nader:
"The United States spends $8,233 per person, per year according to a 2012 figure from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The average expenditure of the thirty three other developed nations OECD tracked is just $3,268 per person."
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Favorite Answer
Where medicine is viewed predominantly as a money making venture by many who hold control, it makes sense to eschew preventative care measures and let the general public get really sick on a trans fat and high fructose corn syrup laden diet. That way, they'll likely develop chronic heart, vascular, and metabolic diseases that will keep them on the hook for expensive dr managed tests, drugs, surgeries, treatments, hospital stays, etc. Oh, and we shouldn't leave out all the carcinogens we are surrounded by on an ongoing basis! It's a fact that 70-80% of cancers are caused by something in the environment that shouldn't be there. Nifty inventions whose by products pollute the earth make the richest people even richer though! Why should they have to pay for our chemotherapy?! Those poor jerks are just trying to exercise their right to make a buck!
But wait a minute! Shouldn't their rights end where mine and yours begin?!
Please understand that preventative care for all will save money and increase the quality of life of most people in the long run. The reason why healthcare is so expensive in the US is that we have been paying from the back end as opposed to the front for too long. It's time for a change.
Diane A
No, of course not. Much of medicine is practiced the way it is because of patient entitlements and demands, the threat of a lawsuit for whatever reason, often frivolous, lack of time to really spend time with a patient, patient expectations, the pressure to move patients fast, billables inequality (some procedures and tests pay more), the ability to actually do more testing, and all kinds of reasons that really have nothing to do with quality.
Simpson G.
No. A good portion of the cost can be attributed, in part, to defensive medicine, lawsuits, and FDA requirements that make approval cost 8+ figures.
monique
Cost is very interesting. My concern has been that the cost of health care for those without insurance is not transparent. I went to the ER when I didn't have health insurance once, and they couldn't even tell me how much it cost to walk in the doors of the ER.