21 graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous

[Bill USA]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/26/21-graphs-that-show-americas-health-care-prices-are-ludicrous/

Every year, the International Federation of Health Plans — a global insurance trade association that includes more than 100 insurers in 25 countries — releases survey data showing the prices that insurers are actually paying for different drugs, devices, and medical services in different countries. And every year, the data is shocking.

The IFHP just released the data for 2012. And yes, once again, the numbers are shocking.

This is the fundamental fact of American health care: We pay much, much more than other countries do for the exact same things. For a detailed explanation of why, see this article. But this post isn’t about the why. It’s about the prices, and the graphs.

One note: Prices in the United States are expressed as a range. There’s a reason for that. In other countries, prices are set centrally and most everyone, no matter their region or insurance arrangement, pays pretty close to the same amount. In the United States, each insurer negotiates its own prices, and different insurers end up paying wildly different amounts. That’s what Steven Brill’s explosive article was about, and it’s why you see U.S. prices expressed as a range rather than a single number.





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[Thinkingabout]

1. A friend who is currently living Moscow and travels the world has an international health

Insurance has been advised if he should be in the US and has an emergency situation o seek treatment to handle the emergency. If he has other healthy h concerns he should select a country other than the US because of health care cost here. We pay more for drugs than other countries. We have dumbed down on this issue for years and had many trying to convince us in all the other countries has to wait for months to get care, it simply isn't true. The insurance companies buys our Congressional members and we get the shaft.

[area51]

2. +1 n/t

[davidpdx]

3. The Time Magazine article was informative

and really long. It would be interesting to see the statistics for South Korea's healthcare compared with the other countries. We have universal coverage and for the most part it is pretty good.