In the April issue of Health Affairs, a group of authors explored the cost-containment strategies and four “high income countries“, and try to see what they were doing that we are currently not doing in the United States. The first picture below, shows all five countries and reveals that, over the last 10 years, only two of them have done significantly better than the United States at controlling the rise of healthcare expenses. Keep in mind, however, that the United Kingdom has historically spent way less than these other countries, and over the past 10 years has been under pressure to increase health care spending.
All these countries, though, have a long track record of trying to keep health care costs under control. And given that they spend half or less, per capita, than what we do in United States, they must be doing something that we are doing. The authors have a nice table summarizing these approaches:
You should check out the article if you want to see more details. Because one way or another, the United States is going to have to begin adopting more of these strategies, if we hope to control the rise of healthcare costs and avoid bankrupting ourselves with unaffordable medical care.
(Click here to view comments)
