The Cost of Health Care is High in Western Countries
The Cost of Health Care is High in Western Countries
All advanced industrial nations socialize most health care costs because their citizens perceive relatively equal care access as a demonstration of a decent society. The paper aims to provide an annotation supporting the topic that healthcare costs in Western countries are overly high. This topic is crucial because health care costs are policy issues in many developed nations. After all, governments need to relate costs and revenues, while wealthier citizens are unwilling to pay for others.
Annotated Bibliography
Bindman, A. B. (2020). Rising prices and health care “Empires.” JAMA, 323(9), 815–816. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.1370
Bindman (2020) discusses the how the United States’ annual health care expenditures reflect the nation’s rate of the nations economic growth. The author cites statistics from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reflecting a 4.6% growth in annual growth relative to health care expenditure, which has been 4.5% over the past seven years. The author cites that the country spent $3.3 trillion in health care in 2018 alone, which accounts for about 18% of the nation’s economy. The emerging problem is that the expenditure is out of control, with major concerns on the sources of this growth and what the future of health care in the United States will be.
The article cites three key aspects that account for the high cost of health care in the United States. These elements include the prices for services and products, the intensity of service use, and the size/age/gender mix of the nation’s population. The number of uninsured citizens continues to increase annually and coincidentally, these people use less health care resources. Such a phenomenon causes health care process to increase. Bindman (2020) cites that the cost of health care in the United States is multifold compared to the European and other high-income nations for many therapeutic and diagnostic procedures. For instance, the author compares the cost of magnetic resonance imaging scans in which they state that it is five times more expensive in the United States than Switzerland and Netherlands. The author concludes that even though the public focuses on the lack of competition in high-tech and banking sectors, it is increasingly evident that competition is an emerging concern in health care. The article supports the topic because the authors effectively provide insights into the state of health care costs in the United States and attempts to compare with other industrialized nations.
Papanicolas, I., Marino, A., Lorenzoni, L., & Jha, A. (2020). Comparison of health care spending by age in 8 high-income countries. JAMA Network Open, 3(8), e2014688. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.14688
Papanicolas et al. (2020) conducted a study that employed a cross-sectional design to identify the different sources of publicly available data to compare health care costs in various developed nations worldwide. The study aimed at determining what causes the variations in total health care expenses among seven different nations. The authors grouped the data into age cohorts for the high-income countries: the United States (US), Australia, Germany, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. The justification for selecting these nations is that their health care financing schemes have a striking resemblance, with the most important being the US Medicare model and that of the chosen countries. In this way, the researchers could determine the extent to which the different financing schemes for different age categories in the US differ from those of other developed countries. Essentially, the comparison would provide evidence showing the extent to which the cost of health care in these developed nations is “over the roof.”
In their conclusion, Papanicolas et al. (2020) suggest that the cost of health care in the US is overly expensive. Most significantly, persons older than 64 years in the US spend far more than those in the other six countries despite having similar health care structures. The authors suggest that the US Medicare model that advocates for insurance among all citizens does not significantly alleviate the costs of health care in the US compared to other developed nations; other researchers have explored the effectiveness of this policy and reported similar findings. The research article offers evidence of other studies that demonstrate how health status, prices billed for care, and the number of services Medicare covers, influence high healthcare spending in the US. The authors identify some limiting factors, including variations in approaches used to gather data, accounting tools, and the variability in benefit packages for the different counties. Lastly, the researchers presented purely descriptive data, meaning that it could not explain what factors contribute to high health care costs.
Based on the study findings, one can conclude that Papanicolas et al. (2020) were effective in demonstrating that western nations have outrageous health care costs and expenditure, especially the US. Even though the study did not find a causal association between the health care model and the cost of health care, they provided potential limitations to the study. Further, the authors elaborated on the study’s design and provided the results and an informative discussion. To further elaborate on whether the authors were influential, other than using the cross-sectional study design with many advantages, the researchers also used publicly available data that is a cost-effective way of conducting research. Additionally, the publicly available information implies that it can be accessed if one needs to verify the reported findings. Overall, using these comparisons demonstrates how high health care costs are in the US and how they compare to other developed nations.
Emanuel, E. J., Gudbranson, E., Van Parys, J., Gørtz, M., Helgeland, J., & Skinner, J. (2021). Comparing health outcomes of privileged US citizens with those of average residents of other developed countries. JAMA Internal Medicine, 181(3), 339–344. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.7484
In their recent study, Emanuel et al. (2021) aimed at assessing whether the health outcomes of privileged US citizens residing in the 1% and 5% richest counties were better than those of average individuals in other developed nations. The researchers found this study important considering that the average health outcomes in the US are not desirable compared to those of other developed nations. At the same time, there is evidence lacking to compare health outcomes in high-income US citizens and average residents of other developed nations. The researchers conducted the study between 2013 and 2015, identifying 32 participants in the 1% and 157 in the 5%. The key variables measured included breast and colon cancer, maternal and infant mortality, acute myocardial infarction, and childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia. The western countries compared in this case included Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, and Canada.
Emanuel et al. (2021) concluded that privileged white US citizens had better health outcomes than every other average citizen but fared relatively worse than average citizens of the developed nations compared. These findings are important to the topic because they illustrate that even though the rich can afford the high costs of health care in the United States, their health outcomes do not match those of average citizens in other developed nations.
Gee, E., & Spiro, T. (2019). Excess Administrative Costs Burden the U.S. Health Care System. Center for American Progress, June 2013, 1–21. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/reports/2019/04/08/468302/excess-administrative-costs-burden-u-s-health-care-system/
The issue report gives an overview of administrative spending in the healthcare system of the United States. The United States spends twice as much on healthcare per capita as other high-income countries, according to the report. This administrative complexity is frequently cited as one of the reasons why the US spends the most money per person of any developed country. Reduced waste is a logical first step toward potential savings as healthcare costs rise. According to a National Academy of Medicine report from 2010, the United States spends roughly twice as much on BIR costs as is necessary. According to the Center for American Progress, the administrative surplus currently stands at $248 billion per year. Administrative costs in the United States’ healthcare system are classified into three types. BIR costs are administrative costs included in insurance premiums and provider reimbursements. Medical record keeping, hospital management, and initiatives to monitor and improve care quality are also part of the healthcare system. Traditional Medicare and Medicaid administrative costs range from 2% to 5%, whereas private insurance costs around 17%. The authors claim that the United States spends more than twice as much as other countries on healthcare administration. A structural shift in healthcare financing and pricing would significantly reduce unnecessary administrative costs. Future healthcare reform should prioritize payment system simplification.
Dalglish, P. (2016). The US Healthcare System: Finding a Model of Quality and Cost-Effectiveness (Doctoral dissertation). Accessed on 15th October from https://baylor-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/2104/9689/parker_dalglish_honorsthesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
The cost of healthcare has always been high compared to other regions across the globe. The high cost of healthcare has been attributed to various factors. Dalglish (2016) sought to review the high costs of healthcare in western countries, with the main focus being on the United States. The United States is arguably the state with the highest cost of healthcare. This is evidenced in this literature through reviewing the expenditure of healthcare among the United States citizens over the years. An upward trend in the cost of healthcare is established in the study. Dalglish (2016) notes that the rising medical expenses are a global issue, especially the western countries, but nowhere are they more pronounced than in the United States. Even though Americans with adequate health insurance may receive the greatest medical care in the world, the typical American’s health, as evaluated by life expectancy and infant mortality, is worse than the average of other leading industrialized nations. Incompetency, corruption, and the cost of malpractice claims are frequently cited for high U.S. costs, although the primary cause is overinvestment in technology and staff. As new technology and treatments become accessible, an increasing number of individuals with medical insurance depends on the healthcare system. As a result, insurance companies get a greater number of claims for payment, the expenses of which are transferred to healthcare customers. The baby-boom generation is approaching the end of its peak time of healthcare use. Over eighty million Americans will reach the age of 50 in the next ten years. The expense of providing health care for these people will be enormous. This increase will have a significant influence on both health care and health insurance. Several health insurers, private-sector companies, and users can anticipate insurance prices to rise. This covers both standard insurance and managed care plans, sometimes known as HMOs.
Dalglish (2016) compares the healthcare system of western countries and concludes that it seems that the governments will have to play a more active role in overhauling the current healthcare system. The problem of funding is critical and must be addressed, particularly in light of the ever-surging budget deficit and national debt. The author has effectively addressed the increased cost of healthcare in the United States by stating some of the key reasons for the increased cost of healthcare which equally apply in all western countries. One of the reasons established is that the medical providers are compensated based on quantity rather than quality (Dalglish, 2016). The medical providers are thus inclined towards getting more from the clients rather than offering quality services. This increases the length of stay for the patients. The increased cases of chronic infections among the western countries population are also another contributor to the high cost of healthcare in western countries. Dalglish (2016) notes that there is an increasingly unhealthy lifestyle among the population. To address the issue of the increased cost of healthcare in western countries, especially the United States, the root causes must be looked at. The governments must regulate the health sector to ensure that citizens get quality services that lower readmission rates and hospital stay.
