| > For example, U.S. hospital prices are 60 percent higher than those in Europe. That's a rather weird statement.. I suppose it's true in some sense, but what I'm reading online from real people in the US is that they get bills that are easily 10-100x as much money for going to the hospital than I get. There's a few others I wonder about: > These programs spurred demand for health care services. That gave providers the ability to raise prices. At least requires some numbers, because I'm constantly hearing about Americans not going to the doctor because for the real fear it might bankrupt them. > The healthiest 50 percent only consume 3 percent of the nation's health care costs. This is also questionable. Again maybe technically true, but not suitable for conclusions. The ailments, pain and other bad stuff that Americans will walk around with instead of going to the doctor is incredible (again for the real fear it might bankrupt them). In the US I spoke to a real person who was trying DIY dentistry. There was an AskReddit thread about what general advice doctors say people shouldn't do, and the top advice was: don't perform operations on yourself. I'm pretty sure it's the price driving down demand. > The U.S. medical profession does a heroic job of saving lives. Wait, why does it suddenly stop comparing to the EU? > But it comes at a cost. Medicare spending for patients in the last year of life is six times greater than the average. Care for these patients costs one-fourth of the Medicare budget. In their last six months of life, these patients go to the doctor's office 29 times on average. In their last month of life, half go to the emergency room. One-third wind up in the intensive care unit. One fifth undergo surgery. And this is different in the EU because ... ? I don't like these statistics. I think they're using them to lie with. |