re: Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?

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I seriously don't have a single person in my immediate family or any of my friends that are fat slobs like you describe.

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The avg height/weight in America for men is like 70" and 195 lbs with a 39" waist. For women it's like 68 inches and 166 lbs with a 37" waist.

So yeah, Americans are fat and out of shape. They don't exercise and don't eat right. They don't see a PCP regularly, don't get annual blood work or screenings, use specialists or urgent cares as PCPs and end up with comorbidities they don't monitor. It isn't necessarily the company I keep either but it is average american.

It's a vicious cycle where you alot of people don't have access to a good PCP to help them stay healthy. The good PCPs are overworked because there are so few of them that are good. PCPs are easy to find and the big hospital based groups are making that so. There is very little intention for them to keep you healthy but rather for them to filter you to their specialists and outpatient clinics.

Much like the education problem the country faces, the people have to want better to get better. They can't just become healthy or smart overnight but the only way to fix the problem is for the individual to take the first step.

A big part is because we accept a business model that no sane person would accept under any other circumstances.

Where else could a service provider not list prices for goods/services ANYWHERE? They tell you what you need, dont tell you what it costs there vs somewhere else, so you cant shop around, and then you get a bill. Sick people dont ask questions they know this.

The government gets a bad rap(rightfully so)
The insurance gets a bad rap (rightfully so)
The medical industry gets a pass in large. People just assume they are all Florence Nightingale.

Because nurse practitioners can practice independently and order all kinds of meaningless tests.

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Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?

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Consumers pay insurance.
Insurance pays doctors.
Doctors raise prices.
Insurance raises prices.
Consumers pay more to insurance.
Doctors and insurance continue cycle.
Healthy consumers start to consider dropping insurance to combat this system.
Obama passes law that makes this system mandatory.
Insurance and doctors cream pants.

Doctors can charge whatever they want being free entities. The rates affect what insurance will pay. Most doctors accept that. Some don't. Will depend on the regional insurance for sure. Try telling a doctor who doesn't accept your insurance what rate he has to charge.

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Capitalism.

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This couldn't be further from the truth. Most recent example is the mandate to buy insurance. That's the opposite of capitalism.

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Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?

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1. Americans are fat
2. Americans sit on their arse too much
3. Americans smoke too much
4. Americans like to go to the ER inside of a PCP
5. Americans are fat
6. American drug companies pass the cost of research onto Americans disproportionally because the socialist medicine systems refuse to pay "market price."
7. The American healthcare system has been outdated for the last 25 years, but everytime the government tries to fix it they make it worse.
8. The American healthcare system does not have the same legal protections against lawsuits that the european systems do.

In summary the main reason that healthcare costs so much is because we spend too much money treating conditions that could be prevented by simply putting down the fork, exercising, and not smoking or drinking excessively.

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Consumers pay insurance.
Insurance pays doctors.
Doctors raise prices.
Insurance raises prices.

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Also Doctors/hospitals/drug companies charge whatever they want because they no they get paid by insurance or consumers. They raise price insurance passes that to us.

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If this is just the last page, I'm frightened to read through the whole thread.

Been to an emergency room lately?

All of those welfare babies that are sick have NO health insurance to speak of, so they go to the ER to see a doctor. PLUS the cost of medication is ridiculous. If you want to make big money, go into pharmaceutical sales.....do you see the same connection I see?

BTW, I am a 38 year insulin dependent diabetic....think there isn't a cure for that? If they cured the disease, Eli Lilly, Medtronic, Becton-Dickinson, etc would lose money....and that's what it's all about.

Interesting dramatic spike during the Clinton Administration