Why is it so much longer? Hint: It is NOT from people quitting smoking, dieting and exercising, and not doing stupid dangerous things. It is because of a huge, unrelenting, almost all-American, century long, Space-age type acceleration in our science and technology related to medicine. It costs an incredible amount.
But the other reason it costs an incredible amount is that every single penny practically, spent on health care, has to be run through greedy insurance companies and all of their cubicled workers. Millions and millions of people are supported by this expense, though, it adds NOTHING to the medical products or services bought. Bring back a real market, and really informed consumers, and freedom to purchase whatever, wherever, and prices will tumble.
Then, health insurance will become what it used to be in a saner time: A means of amortizing a rare and unexpected expense for an individual.
Also, a reason it is so expensive to get medical care is because people have INFANTILE EXPECTATIONS about the chances of survival of very sick and very old people. Instead of just saying goodbye, as it was done in the old days, they let the doctors do all kinds of crazy aggressive things like liver transplantations, ECMO, chemotherapy, ridiculous operations on metastatic disease, etc. Very high tech, but usually not worth it.
Next, people sue doctors and hospitals for supposed errors if they believe not everything possible was done. Well, 'everything possible' is incredibly expensive, when it comes to medicine.
Last but not least, medical care is expensive is because only a fraction of people buy health insurance. Others are indigent, and just show up at the hospital injured or sick and then stiff the hospital for the bill. Millions and millions of people fit into this category. You can lump Medicare people in with them, because they pay about 5 cents for every dollar worth of medical care they consume.
So here is the bear through the barleycorn: Where does the hospital make up the difference so as to pay for all the freeloaders and medicare recipients?
They charge the paying (saps) customers, who had the integrity to obtain health insurance, many, many times more than their real bill, and they shunt the money over to pay for the bills of the deadbeats.
It's actually a great deal for the poor and irresponsible.
Bad deal though, for people who tend to pay their bills.
The politicians and insurance and health care and medicolegal lobbyists and suits of all kinds concocted the system.
Get back to the old days of doctor, patient, cash on the barrel, and you will have responsible, economical care again.
” Incredible. Life expectancy in the US is now 80, it used to be 45 in 1900.”
I’ll bet life expectancy has improved primarily because of drugs and procedures that are now relatively cheap, so this statement of yours does not explain our high medical costs.
Your blaming of insurance companies doesn’t ring true either. My insurance company knocks off enormous chunks of the doctor’s “sticker” prices. Not that I think insurance companies are the good guys.
I’d say the enormous costs are caused by two things: so-called new drugs and equipment that are priced high because “the manufacturers need to get back their research money” or because the drugs and equipment are often applied to a patient for the rest of his life. His or her life or in some cases comfortable life is put on a very expensive life support.
The author of that Time article aimed our curiosity in the right direction: don’t ask who’s going to pay the bills, ask why the bills are so high.
The least you could do is give us insight into where the high pricing comes from, and also show us that you understand that we are spending more on our medical care than is healthy for our society, and that you might even have ideas for reducing it.
Also, please explain why (assuming it’s true) that most other countries have the same life expectancy as ours but spend far less on medical care.
I agree with some of your ideas.
But you say insurance should be “a means of amortizing a rare and unexpected expense for an individual”. But as people age the medical reasons for the expenses aren’t rare or unexpected, and those medical expenses often continue for the rest of their lives.
A drug that thousands of people must take for the rest of their lives simply can’t be priced at thousands of dollars per year.
The information I need is exactly what that Time author said: to understand where the money goes. For instance, if a doctor get $4000 to do a breast biopsy that take 20 minutes, what is it about that procedure that costs $4000.
If a person is in the emergency room for a few hours and get a $10,000 bill, where did the money go? That’s what we ordinary people would like to know: specifically where does the money go.
Psalm 90:10
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.