Part Two: Healthcare is a Trillion Dollar Industry & We’re Paying For It
- L.N.
- May 8, 2022
- 2 min read
So where did we leave off?
Oh right, last month, the U.S. House passed a bill to price cap insulin for select Medicare groups. Now, we sit and wait for the legislation to either pass or fail in the Senate. Policymaking is a long game, and it's all about what makes sense for those in charge.
When understanding the policymaking process, many refer back to the Garbage Can Model: Find the public problem, come up with solutions, and then address the politics or decision-makers.
Health policy is generally rooted in a few fundamental issue areas, but I will focus on the one that hits all of our pockets-- affordability.
Usually, when we think about changing the healthcare landscape through policy, it is almost always about costs. How can we make healthcare affordable? How can we reduce spending? Why are our medical bills leaving us bankrupt?
If you take one thing from this post, just know that the U.S. healthcare industry is a trillion-dollar business— and we are all paying for it.
(U.S. healthcare spending per person)
To get an idea of exactly what we’re dealing with, I’ve supplemented your reading with pretty pictures and big numbers.
Globally, the healthcare industry rakes in over $8 trillion in spending, and the U.S. (one country) accounts for nearly half of worldwide spending.
But why do we spend soooo much on healthcare?
Honestly, we just price our services higher. When compared to other countries, the U.S. will charge a higher amount for the same basic services or prescriptions utilized worldwide. Many chalk it up to high utilization, our highly skilled workforce, or advanced technology. I say... it's all about greed.
The U.S. spends about 20% of its GDP on healthcare alone. And yet, compared to other developed countries, we have poorer population health outcomes when it comes to mortality and health equity.
So where does policy come in?
Controlling costs is clearly the solution. Here is a list of some "painless" cost control strategies the U.S. can and should use:
Controlling fees
Reduce administrative waste
National health reporting standards
Eliminate no-benefit medical interventions
Choosing the equally effective, cheaper options
Price cap pharmaceuticals
Increase preventative services, and more!
The difficulty behind cost controls is that healthcare expenses are healthcare incomes. Hey, if I worked in healthcare, I would definitely hate to see my wages decrease too! But that's the issue. Health policy is everywhere. It impacts our incomes, education, housing, etc.
And that leads me to my next topic...
This post was incredibly insightful. As you rightly said people in power only do what would benefit them at the time. They literally only care about their own pockets and luxury. And to think that a "super power" like the US is sorely lacking in this field is just mad smh!
When reading this, I was like hmmm, I wonder if it's so expensive because of the income of healthcare professionals, and then boom, you mentioned it at the end. I think that money allocation is a huge problem. Essentially, it's all about demand and importance. For instance, those in the entertainment industry make a lot because entertainment is a huge priority for people, whether they would want to admit it or not. Education is important, yet teachers don't get paid as much as basketball players. Health is extremely important, but no one wants to pay for it because honestly, quality healthcare should be a right that we all have as humans. The only thing is, many individuals go through years…
How can one country account for half of the global spending for healthcare? That’s crazy and you would think policymakers would have solved it by now. Great post!