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The United States spends a lot more on healthcare than many of our peer countries.

Some people believe that most of us are getting more health services; others believe we’re mostly paying a lot more per person for the same services. Some see both. Yet others worry that those paying for healthcare are paying more to cover those that don’t have insurance.

As we explored some potential causes of US healthcare spending, we came across a very interesting graph. Thanks to readers Chris G, Chris M, and Jack W for the inspiration:

Graph by Paul Fishbeck

The data show that while the US does spend a little more for healthcare, it is very close to peer nations up until the mid-fifties.  How well do you think this is well understood in your community?

Now comes the really interesting part: after the mid-fifties, US healthcare spending per person breaks away from its peers. Why might the difference be so great in the United States? What is different about how we provide healthcare for our elderly?

Which differences between the spending between the US and other countries (your own, if you live overseas) might make you proud, and which concerned?

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41 Comments

  • Daniel Kane, March 11, 2015 @ 4:01 pm Reply

    As to the claim that we are getting more for our money, it doesn’t tell everything but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listofcountriesbylife_expectancy says that the US has lower life expectancy than any of these other countries. Then again, this might also be due to greater wealth disparity in the US.

  • Erik Fogg, March 11, 2015 @ 4:08 pm Reply

    Totally–one of the things I often think about is how much of our money/lifespan ratio is impacted by our higher obesity rate and generally less-healthy lifestyles than many peer countries. If we were as thin as France, how much less might we spend and how much longer might we live? I have no idea.

    (I say this to hint at why some people think our spending might actually frequently get us more care–in part because we often need more care.)

    • Adam Eisenhut, March 17, 2015 @ 3:49 am Reply

      I actually remember reading something recently that there is evidence to suggest that the obese actually incur fewer healthcare costs than healthier people. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.9748884.html?_r=0

      The summary is that while smokers and the obese tend to sicken and die they also tend to die relatively quickly and without much lingering – incurring far fewer costs in the process than the healthy will across their longer lifespans.

      But to your larger point – I don’t even have a guess as to why our healthcare costs skyrocket. I would be very interested if someone has the answer!

  • Amir Sharif-Emami, March 12, 2015 @ 5:52 pm Reply

    Seems like fear/acceptance of death may play some role.

  • Eric Gemme, March 31, 2015 @ 2:52 pm Reply

    Is there any data to shed some light on what the categories of spend in there are? My assumptions based on having no facts would be that it is triggered by some age-specific requirement… like when you qualify for certain healthcare or certain benefits. I don’t think it could be something like obesity causing the difference as I would expect that to be a more linear increase across all age groups.

    I would guess that the difference is either in medication / prescription drugs and/or nursing home costs. I don’t believe either of those are as prevalent in other countries, and are very age dependent items.

    If we could understand the categories within the spending… medication, Dr / hospital visits, nursing home spend… etc. I think that would help me draw more educated conclusions. Also, one clarification on the graph… is this private spend on healthcare, government spending on healthcare, or both?

  • Gaurav Gupta, April 27, 2015 @ 9:35 pm Reply

    Something to consider is the amount of spending on prevention versus cure. You would expect that the effect of poor preventative care would show up later in life. I don’t really know the data here but would be interesting to see what the dollars are spent on – ie physician visits, screening, surgery etc.

    It would also be interesting to see mean vs median data – does the US spend more in the extreme cases or on the "average" person.

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