Why Is U.S. Health Care So Expensive? Some of the Reasons Turn Out to Be Myths
The meat of the article:<p>&gt; There were two areas where the United States really was quite different:<p>&gt; We pay substantially higher prices for medical services, including hospitalization, doctors’ visits and prescription drugs.<p>&gt; And our complex payment system causes us to spend far more on administrative costs.<p>&gt; The United States also has a higher rate of poverty and more obesity than any of the other countries, possible contributors to lower life expectancy that may not be explained by differences in health care delivery systems.<p>Which is amusing, because people who argue against single-payer tend to argue that a) single-payer would lead to an inefficient government bureaucracy handling billing and administration, rather than the status quo of &quot;efficient&quot; hospitals and insurance companies; and b) private health insurance that requires everyone (or their employers) to pay for their own healthcare encourages more healthy living and more efficient pricing due to a more direct awareness of the costs.