The "Why" Behind Expensive Health Care

I wanted to do a series about how much health care costs (i.e. literally answering the “what” for all of these services), but the more I researched, the more I found answers to a different question, the “why.” As in “Why does U.S. health care cost so much?”

The variations in how much health care costs in various nations are mostly explained by G.D.P. per capita. And everything else is being attributed to:

1. Simply higher prices for the same thing
2. Higher admin/overheard costs
3. More widespread use of high tech equipment
4. More defensive medicine and tests to fend off malpractice suits

I wonder if any of Obama’s universal health care plans are addressing any of these specific issues or if universalizing will simply being evening the playing field for lower income families who can’t even get the baseline of care being offered in the U.S. I will be interested to learn more.

To my original question of how much health care costs… does anyone have ideas for good resources on where to find better itemization of what things cost?

In the meantime, I'm doing a pretty good job of noting Rx costs on my recipts (that little line that tells you how much your insurance saved you....)

Read more in-depth in this great Economix article from Nov. 14 NYTimes