14 ms·

For those who will click directly into the comments: The US GOVERNMENT (not the US as a whole) spent more on health care ($1.8 trillion) to provide non-univers

For those who will click directly into the comments: The US GOVERNMENT (not the US as a whole) spent more on health care ($1.8 trillion) to provide non-universal healthcare than 6 European countries with a combined population similar to the US did ($1.2 trillion) to provide universal healthcare. The article's premise being, it costs the government significantly more per person, and 50% more in total to run a non-universal healthcare system serving a subset of the population, than it does a universal healthcare system which covers everyone. As a whole, the US spent $4.5 trillion (private+public).

pseudolus 3y ago
I believe the numbers you're quoting are "trillion" and not "billion".
- napoleoncomplex 3y ago
  Thank you, fixed!
- neuronic 3y ago
  This is correct, US total healthcare spending equals 16.6% of GDP with less bang for the buck than many other nations. "The United States perfoms better than the OECD average on 29% of indicators" https://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/health-at-a-glance-United-States-EN.pdf https://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/health-at-a-glance-United-... Most European nations hover around 8-12% of GDP.
magicalhippo 3y ago
The US has a significant higher percentage of obese people[1] than the EU countries they combined. Obesity is known to be a significant risk factor for a large number of health issues[2]. Eyeballing an average of 25% obesity among the EU countries with the US having 36%, means the US has 44% more obese people per capita. While that doesn't explain all of it, it surely is a significant contributing factor. [1]: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/obesity-rates-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/obesity-r... [2]: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/effects/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/effects/index.html
- addicted 3y ago
  The U.S. also has a lower life expectancy than these countries. So it’s probably shaving off a few years of the most medically expensive parts of a person’s life.
  - magicalhippo 3y ago
    Fair point. So I guess it's highly non-trivial to do a direct comparison without going into the details.
  - skeeter2020 3y ago
    Not if those lives are ending due to extreme medical conditions. From a costing perspective there's not a big difference if you spend the last 5 years of your life in critical care at age 72 vs. 85
- ivan_gammel 3y ago
  Obesity is a failure of preventive healthcare - more like a consequence than a cause of inefficiency, lower coverage and higher spending. And prevention doesn’t start at doctor‘s office.
  - skeeter2020 3y ago
    it's also a symptom of extreme poverty. Very few people in the US starve to death but they certainly don't get healthy diets, the capacity to exercise and the education & access needed to control obesity.
- bigfudge 3y ago
  Reducing obesity is part of our public health goals in Europe though, so the fact we have lower obesity in universal health system countries is likely not entirely an accident.
- matwood 3y ago
  I think obesity probably explains a lot of the cost difference which is why people are so excited about drugs like Ozempic. It may make financial sense for the government to cover the cost for everyone since it could end up lowering overall healthcare costs by a significant amount.
masklinn 3y ago
The US already spent significantly more per capita than every other nation (iirc Switzerland was a distant second, 25% lower or so) back in 2007. It has not gotten better since.
- ceejayoz 3y ago
  Yep. https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm We spend more via taxes than any other country spends total... and then we tack private spending on top of that. We've picked the least efficient, worst aspects of both types.
throwaw12 3y ago
pure capitalism is not an answer to the USA, especially with the system which allows lobbying of any type. lobby + pure capitalism is creating a system where anyone who has more money can push ideas to make even more money and use an excuse that this is a free market balanced by supply/demand, because pushing many millions to lobby their ideas is not trivial or almost impossible sometimes.
baybal2 3y ago
[dead]

pseudolus 3y ago

I believe the numbers you're quoting are "trillion" and not "billion".

napoleoncomplex 3y ago
Thank you, fixed!
neuronic 3y ago
This is correct, US total healthcare spending equals 16.6% of GDP with less bang for the buck than many other nations. "The United States perfoms better than the OECD average on 29% of indicators" https://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/health-at-a-glance-United-States-EN.pdf https://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/health-at-a-glance-United-... Most European nations hover around 8-12% of GDP.

magicalhippo 3y ago

The US has a significant higher percentage of obese people[1] than the EU countries they combined. Obesity is known to be a significant risk factor for a large number of health issues[2]. Eyeballing an average of 25% obesity among the EU countries with the US having 36%, means the US has 44% more obese people per capita. While that doesn't explain all of it, it surely is a significant contributing factor. [1]: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/obesity-rates-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/obesity-r... [2]: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/effects/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/effects/index.html

addicted 3y ago
The U.S. also has a lower life expectancy than these countries. So it’s probably shaving off a few years of the most medically expensive parts of a person’s life.
- magicalhippo 3y ago
  Fair point. So I guess it's highly non-trivial to do a direct comparison without going into the details.
- skeeter2020 3y ago
  Not if those lives are ending due to extreme medical conditions. From a costing perspective there's not a big difference if you spend the last 5 years of your life in critical care at age 72 vs. 85
ivan_gammel 3y ago
Obesity is a failure of preventive healthcare - more like a consequence than a cause of inefficiency, lower coverage and higher spending. And prevention doesn’t start at doctor‘s office.
- skeeter2020 3y ago
  it's also a symptom of extreme poverty. Very few people in the US starve to death but they certainly don't get healthy diets, the capacity to exercise and the education & access needed to control obesity.
bigfudge 3y ago
Reducing obesity is part of our public health goals in Europe though, so the fact we have lower obesity in universal health system countries is likely not entirely an accident.
matwood 3y ago
I think obesity probably explains a lot of the cost difference which is why people are so excited about drugs like Ozempic. It may make financial sense for the government to cover the cost for everyone since it could end up lowering overall healthcare costs by a significant amount.

masklinn 3y ago

The US already spent significantly more per capita than every other nation (iirc Switzerland was a distant second, 25% lower or so) back in 2007. It has not gotten better since.

ceejayoz 3y ago
Yep. https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm We spend more via taxes than any other country spends total... and then we tack private spending on top of that. We've picked the least efficient, worst aspects of both types.

throwaw12 3y ago

pure capitalism is not an answer to the USA, especially with the system which allows lobbying of any type. lobby + pure capitalism is creating a system where anyone who has more money can push ideas to make even more money and use an excuse that this is a free market balanced by supply/demand, because pushing many millions to lobby their ideas is not trivial or almost impossible sometimes.

baybal2 3y ago

[dead]