You mean minimum wage hikes come out of *our* pockets?

[NC_Skins]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

That is exactly what healthcare is supposed to accomplish. But it also illustrates why healthcare has gotten so expensive. We as an industry can do more to limit cost growth, but it's going to keep getting more expensive because of things like this.

Want to extend cancer survival rates from 3 year to 5 years? Those extra two years of life come with an awful lot of drug treatments.

We don't face any more different problems than those of Canada or any other socialized health care country. Guess what? They pay a mere fraction of what we do. We spend more than 2-1/2 times what the average is.

Health Costs: How the U.S. Compares With Other Countries | PBS NewsHour


However, when you rank the systems, we don't come out on top. IN fact, when compared to the other socialized healthcare countries, we ranked dead last.

Forbes Welcome

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by NC_Skins

We don't face any more different problems than those of Canada or any other socialized health care country. Guess what? They pay a mere fraction of what we do. We spend more than 2-1/2 times what the average is.

Health Costs: How the U.S. Compares With Other Countries | PBS NewsHour


However, when you rank the systems, we don't come out on top. IN fact, when compared to the other socialized healthcare countries, we ranked dead last.

Forbes Welcome

All true. Many many reasons for our higher costs, the biggest being that we have higher salary structures here in the US than in most developed nations. Lots of others too, some of which stem from our goofy third party reimbursement system.

But... So what? Are you suggesting that if we went to a single payer system we would bring costs down to the same levels as Canada? Because if that's what you're saying then you're grossly oversimplifying. That could reduce the costs attributable to administrative roles in healthcare, that's about it.

We have higher rates of obesity here than in any other nation, so we end up with more heart problems and more diabetes than does Canada and Japan. That care will need to be provided, regardless of payer system. We're always going to be more expensive because of our diet and culture. As long as we remain a nation of fatties we will have higher healthcare costs.