This from The Journal of the American Medical Association: The cost of health care is “the largest sector of the US economy and 29% of net federal outlays.” Here are some more of their points:
- For people with employer-based insurance, health insurance premiums represent 25% of the median family household income before having to pay thousands of dollars more to use their health insurance.
- The US spends almost twice the average on health care and administration than the 37 other countries who belong to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
- The US spends approximately 10 times more on administrative expenses than any other OECD country. Two-thirds of these costs are related to transactions or billing costs and insurance-related costs.
- In the US, a primary care physician spends $20.49 to receive payment for a service that generates approximately $100 in revenue.
- In medical practices, the time spent trying to get prior authorization from insurance companies is equivalent to the annual working time of 100,000 registered nurses.
The authors want the Trump administration to fix the problem.
Bonus factoid: 29% of doctors in the US weren’t born here.
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