health -cranky sociologists

Not Getting What One Pays For – 

US Healthcare System Compared

By SocProf.

A few weeks back, the Economist’s Daily Chart feature had this highly informative chart:

Compared to other rich countries, the United States has a whole bunch of health and health care outcomes that are out of whack with the rest of high-income countries especially considering the higher % of the GDP dedicated to health spending.

A non-communicable disease, or NCD, is a medical condition or disease, which by definition is non-infectious and non-transmissible among people. NCDs may be chronic diseases of long duration and slow progression, or they may result in more rapid death such as some types of sudden stroke. They include autoimmune diseases, heart disease, stroke, many cancers, asthma, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and more

Yesterday, the Washington Post had a series of graphs on the same topic, zeroing on higher prices for procedures and medications. Here are a few.

Cost differential for a regular doctor visit:

Hip replacement:

Cost per hospital day:

And last but not least:

So, higher costs across the board, but poorer outcomes in the end.

As always, the essential sociological question: who benefits? (It’s not a hard one)