Kodiak, re: "In any event, as you know, I don't really have strong views about politics, anyway."
That's pretty funny.
Since you may have cured yourself of strong political views, however, maybe you'd like to reconsider one of your other previous hot-button issues, i.e., the quantification of the effects of medical malpractice awards on the costs of health care. (By the way, this reportedly summarizes a John Hopkins study.)
msnbc.msn.com
"Don't blame lawsuits for rising health costs
Study finds high price of services, drugs account for steep expenses
Fact file National health expenditures
U.S. health expenditures now total about 15 percent of gross domestic product, with medical care spending per person doubling in the last 10 years, according to government estimates.
Year Total (billions) Per capita U.S. population (millions)
1990 $696 $2,738 254.2
2000 $1,309 $4,670 280.4
2002 $1,553 $5,440 285.5
2003* $1,674 $5,808 288.2
2004* $1,794 $6,167 290.8
2005* $1,921 $6,546 293.5
2006* $2,064 $6,972 296.1
2007* $2,219 $7,431 298.6
2008* $2,388 $7,928 301.2
2009* $2,565 $8,446 303.7
2010* $2,751 $8,984 306.2
2011* $2,946 $9,543 308.7
2012* $3,146 $10,110 311.1
2013* $3,358 $10,709 313.6
*Projected
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services •
Updated: 10:53 a.m. ET July 12, 2005
WASHINGTON - Higher prices and not lawsuits or other factors have driven up health care costs in the United States, according to a study published Tuesday.
Malpractice awards in the United States amounted to only $16 per capita in 2001, compared with $12 in Britain and $10 in Australia, the team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found.
The same team found in 2002 that Americans pay more for prescription drugs, hospital stays and doctor visits than citizens of other industrialized countries.
Writing in the journal Health Affairs, they said the price tag for such services is the main reason.
“There is a popular misconception that we pay much more for health care in the United States compared to European and other industrialized countries because malpractice claims drive up costs and there are waiting lists in most other countries,” said Gerard Anderson, who led the study.
“But what we found is that we pay more for health care for the simple reason that prices for health services are significantly higher in the United States than they are elsewhere,” he added in a statement.
“We have less access to most health services and higher costs associated with malpractice insurance have only a marginal effect on overall health spending.”
Average awards lower in U.S.
Americans do file more lawsuits, Anderson’s team reported. ”The United States had 50 percent more malpractice claims filed per 1,000 population than the United Kingdom and Australia, and 350 percent more than Canada,” they wrote.
“Two-thirds of the U.S. claims were dropped, dismissed or found in favor of the defendant.”
The average payout was $265,000, lower than the average award in Britain or Canada, they found.
Congress is working on bills that would limit malpractice claims.
Doctors say skyrocketing insurance premiums are driving them out of business while insurers blame big awards and frivolous lawsuits.
The Senate has repeatedly taken up, but failed to pass, legislation that would limit damages, usually to $250,000 per claim. Similar legislation has passed the House.
In 2002 Anderson and colleagues reported that Americans spent $5,267 per capita for health care, $1,821 more than the next-highest spender, Switzerland.
14.6 percent of GDP
U.S. health spending accounted for 14.6 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 2002. Only two other countries, Switzerland and Germany, spent more than 10 percent of their GDP on health care in 2002.
“Commonwealth Fund-supported research has indicated that the U.S. does not get commensurate value for its health care dollar,” said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis, whose group funded the study.
“Compared with other countries, the U.S. lags on such quality indicators as access to care, including waiting times for physician appointments. In the U.S., inequities persist between higher and lower income patients on almost every measure we look at, while other countries are able to assure access to care without creating disparities among patients according to income.”
The study also found no evidence that U.S. citizens spend more for health care because they get more services.
It found that Americans have less access to some services, such as hospital beds, time with doctors, nurses, magnetic resonance imaging or MRI, and computed tomography (CT) scans than citizens of other developed nations."
I wouldn't want you to ride off into the sunset with a bucket of bad ideas. g. ED |
