Kevin Drum, who blogs for Mother Jones, the venerable muckraking magazine in San Francisco, has an interesting column about the just released charts from the International Federation of Health Plans - the Canadian Blue Cross are members - that compare health costs across member countries. So, what does the date show us?
That the U.S. has the highest health costs across the boards, for every procedure. The Mother Jones column singles out the cost of hip replacements to demonstrate how the rapid availability of the procedure in the U.S. seems to be motivated by how much money there is to be made. The average hip replacement in the U.S. costs $34, 454. "Keep this in mind the next time someone starts going on about how you never have to wait in line for a hip replacement in America. It's not because our healthcare system is super efficient, it's because doctors are super eager to perform them," writes Drum.
In fact Canada is in the bottom percentile in nearly every chart - and never places higher than the middle for health care costs. The other countries in the bottom (with the lowest costs) all have some form of socialized medicine while the countries at the top (with the most costs) all have private health delivery.
You can view the charts here, so remember this the next time someone makes an argument for private surgical clinics or CT scans in Canada.
That the U.S. has the highest health costs across the boards, for every procedure. The Mother Jones column singles out the cost of hip replacements to demonstrate how the rapid availability of the procedure in the U.S. seems to be motivated by how much money there is to be made. The average hip replacement in the U.S. costs $34, 454. "Keep this in mind the next time someone starts going on about how you never have to wait in line for a hip replacement in America. It's not because our healthcare system is super efficient, it's because doctors are super eager to perform them," writes Drum.
In fact Canada is in the bottom percentile in nearly every chart - and never places higher than the middle for health care costs. The other countries in the bottom (with the lowest costs) all have some form of socialized medicine while the countries at the top (with the most costs) all have private health delivery.
You can view the charts here, so remember this the next time someone makes an argument for private surgical clinics or CT scans in Canada.
