Want to go bankrupt from medical bills? You should move to the United States, where that fate is WAY more possible than in other wealthy countries:
#WeNeedToFixThis
Every once in a while, I like to highlight outstanding writing in my blog. I guess that makes up for the writing otherwise expose you to – namely, my own. As I expect most of you know, there’s been a horrible situation in Flint, Michigan recently, with government negligence leading to lead poisoning in the…
Keeping with my recent theme on US healthcare prices, from the people at Vox media, here’s an illustration of how expensive it is to get an MRI in the United States versus other countries: And the cost of a day in the hospital: Sigh…
My article with Peter Bach of Memorial Sloan Kettering continues to generate debate. The two of us argues that copay assistance programs from pharmaceutical companies help specific patients in the short run, but make it easier for drug companies to demand high prices for their products. Here is one take on the topic, spurred on…
If she had been eligible for Medicare, the hospital would have charged the government $10,000 for the services it provided to her, with Medicare picking up most of the tab. But lacking insurance, she was billed directly from the hospital, and not for a mere $10,000. The total charge: $120,000! That 1200% markup is extreme….
“Healthcare.gov 3.0 — Behavioral Economics and Insurance Exchanges” – The New England Journal of Medicine
The United States far outspends peer countries on healthcare. When American politicians complain about these high healthcare costs, they often vilify pharmaceutical and insurance companies for profiting at the expense of the general public. As I wrote earlier, such vilification is misguided, pushing too much of the blame on individual actors rather than on the…