[ExI] More on US Health Care Costs

[Stathis Papaioannou]

This article is from Bloomberg:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aykIuUrgXbWc

May 21 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of health care in the U.S., the highest
in the world, jumped 47 percent from 2000 to 2006, a study said. That
didn’t buy Americans the longest lifespan.

Americans paid $6,719 a person for doctors, medicines and hospital
visits in 2006, up from $4,570 in 2000, according to a report released
today by the World Health Organization in Geneva. The yearly spending
is more than nine times the global average. With a life expectancy of
78 for a person born in 2007, the U.S. trails at least 27 other
countries among 193 in the report.

The cost of health care is at the center of a debate over overhauling
the U.S. insurance system. The U.S. pays too much for individual care
and doesn’t cover enough people, said President Barack Obama on the
campaign trail and more recently to an audience in Rio Ranch, New
Mexico, on May 14. He said he wants to extend coverage to 46 million
who don’t have insurance.

The U.S. has “the least efficient health care system in the world,”
said Kevin Schulman, director of the health management program at Duke
University in Durham, North Carolina. “These costs keep growing
despite the recession, and health care is going to shoot up as a
percentage of our GDP even more. It’s just spooky.”


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou