Originally published July 21 2005
United States spends more on health care than any other country
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A study by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows the United States spends more on health care per capita than any other country in the world, and according to the study's author, we are paying much higher prices than other countries for comparable health care goods and services.
"It is commonly believed that waiting lists in other countries and malpractice litigation in the United States are major reasons why the United States spends so much more on health care than other countries.
We found that they only explain a small part of the difference," said Gerard Anderson, PhD, lead author of the study and a professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Health Policy and Management.
The study authors reviewed health care spending data on 30 countries from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the year 2003.
U.S. citizens spent $5,267 per capita on health care.
The country with the next highest per capita expenditure, Switzerland, spent $3,446 per capita.
Another perceived cause of higher health care costs in the United States is that malpractice suits increase the prices charged by doctors and cause them to practice defensive medicine, which occurs when doctors order extra tests or procedures to reduce their risk of being sued.
"We can't blame the United States' higher health care costs on limiting procedures in other countries or the elevated number of law suits filed in the United States," said Peter S. Hussey, PhD, co-author of the study and a recent graduate of the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Department of Health Policy and Management.
"As in previous years, it comes back to the fact that we are paying much higher prices for health care goods and services in the United States.
Paying more is okay if our outcomes were better than other countries.
It was the most-viewed study in the journal's end-of-year review.
"Health Spending in the United States and the Rest of the Industrialized World" was supported by a grant from the Commonwealth Fund.
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