Staggering Costs of U.S. Health Care

On a recent broadcast, CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and reporter Tony Harris looked at how U.S. annual medical costs compare to other countries, and what was discovered in developing the report signals a fundamental need to re-evaluate and redirect our emphasis on overall care.

To start with, the report looked at a comparison of countries with comparable standards of health care and their associated cost per person per year. These are the latest figures for the following countries:

• France: $3,449 USD
  
• Great Britain: $2,760 USD
  
• Canada: $3,678 USD
  
• U.S.: $6,714 USD

In determining the justification of having such a huge discrepancy in medical costs, these questions arise: Are U.S. citizens getting our money's worth, and are we any healthier because of this larger price tag?

Some tend to justify our exorbitant costs by saying that we have superior, advanced medical technology that is not available in other countries, and that many Europeans and Canadians come to the U.S. for treatment just to have access to this technology.

But the report cited two widely-used (however sometimes inconsistent) indicators to judge the overall state of a nation's health, infant mortality and life expectancy, and that these both may suggest we're not fully benefiting from the extra thousands of dollars spent toward medical costs. The report showed the U.S. is globally ranked 44th in infant mortality and U.S. life expectancy rate is ranked 50th.

If we're comparatively spending a lot more but not reaching more optimal levels of survival rates, where is this extra expense being allocated to? Health experts quote these factors:

• Administrative costs are relatively higher and contribute to unnecessary expenditures due to managing so many complex insurance plans
• Americans tend to go to more specialists more often
• In Europe and Canada there is an increased emphasis on preventive care; the U.S., on the other hand, tends to be more reactive to already established diseases that are largely preventable, causing more expensive testing and treatments to take place and situations to occur that require the administration of a specialist

You may have noticed the CNN report compares the U.S. medical costs to other countries that utilize a system of universal health care. Although this type of government health care system does have its benefits, especially considering overall lower costs and availability, I believe on a broader scale a more effective solution to a more workable system lies within each individual. Rather, we can choose to redirect our focus by instead emphasizing the enormous benefits of exercising personal responsibility and becoming more familiar with and putting into practice the means of healthy living — appropriate food choices, increased exercise, and mindful practices — to avoid many preventable diseases, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer, from ever taking hold. The Cleveland Clinic seems to be leading the necessary change in this arena.

With our current times of living in the Age of Information and our ever-growing and -evolving body of knowledge (especially with easy access to the World Wide Web and literally millions of books in libraries and bookstores), it is now easier than ever to learn from health experts those lifestyle systems that enable the majority of us to take better care of ourselves.

This text by Linda Sue Anderson of HolisticFuture.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.