Dr. Burt Folsom's Analysis of GDP Spendings on Healthcare
Because we are such an affluent country we are able to spend so much money on healthcare and as Dr. Folsom said, that meant we have more money to waste. Dr. Folsom laid down some statistics. The United States spends 18% GDP on health care while and Singapore spends about 4.2% GDP. To put this into perspective, the United States is spending less than a fourth of what they are spending on healthcare on national defense. Dr. Folsom says that if the United States were to spend the same percent of GDP on healthcare as Singapore, pension problems, underfunding for Medicare and Medicaid, infrastructure problems, and high college tuition could be solved. Singapore also has best healthcare outcomes, life expectancy, healthy life years, infant mortality rates (x3 higher in the us) and mother mortality (7X higher in the us).
In Singapore, the government is a safety next if an individual cannot make the payments for their healthcare. Here in the United States the government may end up paying for an individuals medical care too, but at a much higher price. Why is this? What is charged in the United States for the same procedure is much higher than that of Singapore. The United States is the only country in which there is this unique usage of a third party payer system and yet, many medical bills cannot be paid. It is not because Singapore has lower quality health care services but is because Singapore has a "true healthcare market place" when the United States does not. In other words, what the government is paying in Singapore to cover individuals' healthcare is relatively small because multiple companies are competing against each other to get consumers. This is what is keeping the prices low. Additionally in Singapore you are directly paying and choosing your medical procedures and their costs. Many times you don't know the prices in before the healthcare service in the US. In Singapore you can see how much a procedure is, mortality and success rates on those procedures. We have price competition for elective surgeries.
Could Cutting Back On Wasteful Spending Fix High Health Care Cost
Reducing price and encouraging savings and avoiding wasteful spendings could dramatically shift health care cost and spending. However, Dr. Folsom says there is no incentive to get this done. How could an incentive be created? I think that lack of awareness of options is the main reason for having no incentive to make this change. Things have been the way there are in the United States for a while now and it seems that we are starting to turn our healthcare system into one that resembles Canada's. It is going to take a collective and congruent effort for government officials, insurance, and the public to lower the spending on health care in the United States.
Work Cited
Folson, Burt. The Cure That Works -- How to Have the World's Best Healthcare-- at a quarter of the price. September, 2020. https://canvas.okstate.edu/courses/116660/modules/items/3426928