Native Texan III
03-08-2012, 12:19 PM
An interview with Victor Fuchs, who has spent decades studying the economics of health care.
"The numbers, the projections, make health economists shudder.
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Stanford
THE DEAN Victor Fuchs says change is unlikely from within the health care system.
The average per capita cost of health care in the United States is over $8,000 annually, double the amount spent in most European countries. The Congressional Budget Office projects that unless costs are brought under control in the next decade, the nation will be spending all of its tax revenues on health care, Social Security (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/social_security_us/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier), interest on the debt and defense — but mostly health care.
“If we solve our health care spending, practically all of our fiscal problems go away,” said Victor Fuchs, emeritus professor of economics and health research and policy at Stanford University (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/stanford_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org). And if we don’t? “Then almost anything else we do will not solve our fiscal problems.”
Dr. Fuchs, who has been called the dean of American health care economists, has spent five decades studying the health care problem. In his view, what is needed is the sort of major change that comes once in a decade, perhaps, or even just once in a generation.
But change, he believes, will not bubble up from within the health care system itself. "
Why do we pay so much for health care?
"We have higher administrative costs and a very complicated system for billing.
We have a 2-to-1 ratio of specialists to primary care physicians. In other countries the ratio is 50-50. Specialists spend more money and use more exotic interventions and also get paid more per hour of work.
We have more standby capacity. The United States has 4.2 times as many M.R.I. (http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/test/mri/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier) scanners as Canada. We have more malpractice claims.
We have less social support for the poor. Some of the additional spending comes about because we will take a poor sick person in the hospital, discharge them, and then they are back in the hospital for a month.
Drug prices are higher here. And physician incomes are higher.
Is there a large pent-up demand for a single-payer system?
No. Many Americans oppose a larger role for government. Many think their employer is paying for their health insurance (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/health_insurance_and_managed_care/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier), rather than it coming out of their wages. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/health/policy/an-interview-with-victor-fuchs-on-health-care-costs.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
"The numbers, the projections, make health economists shudder.
Enlarge This Image (javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2012/03/06/science/06COST.html','06COST_html','width=428,height=630,s crollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes'))
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/03/06/science/06COST/06COST-articleInline.jpg (javascript:pop_me_up2('http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2012/03/06/science/06COST.html','06COST_html','width=428,height=630,s crollbars=yes,toolbars=no,resizable=yes'))
Stanford
THE DEAN Victor Fuchs says change is unlikely from within the health care system.
The average per capita cost of health care in the United States is over $8,000 annually, double the amount spent in most European countries. The Congressional Budget Office projects that unless costs are brought under control in the next decade, the nation will be spending all of its tax revenues on health care, Social Security (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/social_security_us/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier), interest on the debt and defense — but mostly health care.
“If we solve our health care spending, practically all of our fiscal problems go away,” said Victor Fuchs, emeritus professor of economics and health research and policy at Stanford University (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/stanford_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org). And if we don’t? “Then almost anything else we do will not solve our fiscal problems.”
Dr. Fuchs, who has been called the dean of American health care economists, has spent five decades studying the health care problem. In his view, what is needed is the sort of major change that comes once in a decade, perhaps, or even just once in a generation.
But change, he believes, will not bubble up from within the health care system itself. "
Why do we pay so much for health care?
"We have higher administrative costs and a very complicated system for billing.
We have a 2-to-1 ratio of specialists to primary care physicians. In other countries the ratio is 50-50. Specialists spend more money and use more exotic interventions and also get paid more per hour of work.
We have more standby capacity. The United States has 4.2 times as many M.R.I. (http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/test/mri/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier) scanners as Canada. We have more malpractice claims.
We have less social support for the poor. Some of the additional spending comes about because we will take a poor sick person in the hospital, discharge them, and then they are back in the hospital for a month.
Drug prices are higher here. And physician incomes are higher.
Is there a large pent-up demand for a single-payer system?
No. Many Americans oppose a larger role for government. Many think their employer is paying for their health insurance (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/health_insurance_and_managed_care/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier), rather than it coming out of their wages. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/health/policy/an-interview-with-victor-fuchs-on-health-care-costs.html?partner=rss&emc=rss