PeakTrader.com

[administrator]

PeakTrader said...

Chuck says: "least affordable healthcare with mediocre results."

Government has driven-up the costs of health care, e.g. through excessive regulations, to the point it's now a luxury good.

How to cut U.S. healthcare costs over 50% and maintain the best quality in the world:

1. Limit medical lawsuits and awards, to lower malpractice insurance premiums (which are up to $200,000 a year) and unnecessary medical tests.

2. Lower standards to practice medicine (to increase labor)

3. Allow insurance companies to sell health-care policies across state lines (currently, average health care insurance ranges from a low of $1,254 in Wisconsin to a high of $8,537 in Massachusetts).

4. Allow innovation (example below);

Kaiser Microclinics At 50% of the Cost of a Full-Service Hospital

"Two doctors working out of a microclinic at a mall could meet 80% of a typical patient's needs. With a hi-def video conferencing add-on, members could even link to a nearby hospital for a quick consult with a specialist. Patients would still need to travel to a full-size facility for major trauma, surgery, or access to expensive diagnostic equipment, but those are situations that arise infrequently. The per-member cost at a microclinic is roughly half that of a full Kaiser hospital."

******

Chuck, if you subtract the black population, traffic deaths, and gunshot deaths, the U.S. has the highest life expectancy in the world.

Also, the U.S. measures the infant mortality rate much stricter than other countries.

******

US Medicine — Best In The World

http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2009/08/us-medicine-best-in-the-world.html

******

"Many developing countries lack the resources to keep track of infant deaths; therefore data for these areas are estimates only. Another methodological problem in measuring infant mortality is ascertaining the number of live births. Sometimes this problem is one of undercounts of births (i.e., births are not registered and thus not counted); sometimes the difficulty lies in inconsistently differentiating stillbirths and live births, especially across countries because this distinction is not as clear-cut as one might imagine."

******

"The U.S. has the best record for five-year survival rates for six different cancers. In some cases the differences are huge: 81.2% in the U.S. for prostate cancer vs. 41% in Denmark and 47.4% in Italy; 61.7% in the U.S. for colon cancer vs. 39.2% in Denmark; 12% in the U.S. for lung cancer vs. 5.6% in Denmark.

Also interesting is the fact that there is often a significant difference between white and black cancer survival rates in the U.S., e.g. prostate cancer - 82.7% for whites vs. 69.2% for blacks. But even in that case, the five-year survival rate for blacks (69.2%) is still higher than for all European countries except Switzerland."

******

These patients may pay full cost:

"A study by Deloitte LLP has found that more than 400,000 non-U.S. residents obtained medical care in the U.S. in 2008, and it forecasts an annual increase of 3%.

Some 3.5% of inpatient procedures at U.S. hospitals were performed on international patients, many of them escaping from Canada's supposedly superior health system."

******

Chuck says: "...when doctors strike from a hospital, death rates drop. One of the top causes of death in the US is prescribed medication."

When did U.S. doctors go on strike?

I found many instances of foreign doctors, e.g. in Europe, have gone on strike.

You may be confusing (poor quality) foreign doctors with (high quality) American doctors.

Afterall, why would high quality doctors work in a socialized system, e.g. in Europe?

---------

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28997633&postID=3303039597356961663

--------

PeakTrader said...

Larry says: "the US has the highest per capita health care expenditures per person in the world at $7960."

Government made health care a luxury good. So, what's the solution? More government?

******

Larry says: "how can all these other govt's including Singapore and Hong Kong cover all their citizens at 1/2 the cost?"

Through low quality health care, and they pay too much for the low quality.

It should be noted, foreigners pay the full price for U.S. health care, which adds to U.S. per capita health care costs.

******

Larry says: "To prove your point about govt, please list the top 3 health care systems in the world that do not involve the govt."

The U.S. has the best health care in the world, because of less government intervention, e.g. compared to Europe or Canada. Of course, dirt poor countries can't afford much health care or much of anything.

******

Larry says: "then it should be even easier to show countries that do it better, right?"

It should be obvious government does it much worse.

******

Government is involved in health care in every country, unless it's a dirt poor country.

The U.S. has better health care, because of relatively less government intervention.

Americans are paying way too much for high quality health care, because of government.

So, what's your solution?

******

Larry, government has imposed so many unnecessary costs, that many Americans already aren't getting the health care they need.

The government is killing us in its attempts to help us.

To use your analogy, in Europe, they effectively pay $200 a month for basic auto insurance. When they could pay $100 a month for better auto insurance.

In the U.S., we're paying $500 a month for much better auto insurance, when we could pay $200 for the same auto insurance.

--------

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28997633&postID=7751106335639132019

--------

PeakTrader said...

Magilson says: "Government did play a positive role early on."

Too many people are ignorant of opportunity costs. When government spends $2 to generate $1 of value, it destroys $1 of capital.

The private sector could've spent that $2 to generate $3 of value, including creating $0.50 of consumer surplus and $0.50 of capital.

-------

PeakTrader said...

Malpractice attorneys driving doctors away?:

Cost of malpractice insurance forcing doctors to leave high-risk specialties
March 13, 2008

"In New Hampshire, many physicians are leaving as malpractice insurance costs soar.

Specialty physicians have experienced a 50 percent increase in premiums from five years ago. The average premium is now close to $100,000 for obstetricians and neurosurgeons.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has estimated medical liability costs add $60 billion to $108 billion to the cost of health care each year.

Interestingly, the estimated annual cost of covering all of the uninsured patients in the United States is $100 billion."

******

Also, "defensive medicine" adds to medical liability costs.

"Malpractice has both direct and indirect costs, including "defensive medicine." According to the American Medical Association, defensive medicine increases health systems costs by between $84 and $151 billion each year."

--------

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=28997633&postID=2914407767951143638

-------