The United States spends more on health care than the next 10 biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France, China, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia. Americans overspend $750 billion each year on health care and hospital costs are a leading cause.
Steven Brill a journalist, writer and author for Time Magazine analyzed medical bills that people have received and says that we can see exactly how and why we are overspending and where the money is going. He notes that:
1. Americans are being grossly overcharged, so much so that even nonprofit hospitals are making greater profits than some prosperous for-profit businesses.
and
2. Presidents of hospitals and department heads can make upwards of $2-4 million in annual salary, obviously leading to higher patient costs.
Dr. Mercola of Mercola.com tells us that:
3. The entire medical system unfairly affects the poor and uninsured because they are charged the full inflated price. Patients with insurance have their costs reduced radically through pre-negotiated lowered rates and it is legal for hospitals to do this. Physicians would go to jail if they had charged patients separately like this.
He writes:
If the United States health care system was a country, it would be the 6th largest economy on the entire planet. The losers are the patients; approximately 60 percent of all personal bankruptcies in the United States are related to exorbitant medical bills.
Source: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/03/16/high-health-care-costs.aspx
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