Eduardo Porter on an OECD report:
If it is not contained, government spending on health will rise to almost 12 percent of G.D.P. on average across the 34 O.E.C.D. nations, from 5.5 percent in the second half of the last decade. In the United States it will rise to 13.2 percent from 7.1 percent.
“But nothing, it seems, will stop public spending on health care from rising.”
I object; meaningful reform could do it.
Not just meaningful, but some really serious reform here and many other places is absolutely needed to bring down costs and save our future.
I am not sure a meaningful reform could do it.
I agree with Howard.
Amount of spending relative to GDP is neither good nor bad. What the market spends what the market wants.
However, policies or circumstances that contribute to changes in the figure can have positive or negative impacts outside of spending level.
Right. We want optimal spending as determined by individuals, spending changes don’t definitively say good or bad.
In the short run, but in the long-run we would hope for spending to go down as technology and capabilities improve.
Interesting, but our nation’s healthcare costs are rising so fast that it is really difficult to even take notice of another nation’s healthcare costs.
True, costs are difficult to compare.
Other countries like to tout their health system social justice (i.e. making people pay highly progressive taxes to fund health care). They sometimes brag about the ability of government to control costs. But, like the movie, Naked Gun 2 1/2 said, “Looks like the cows have come home to roost.”
An aging population, elevated expectations and an increasingly affluent society have all contributed to rising health costs in countries that once enjoyed low health expenditures.
Looks like Europe is catching up with the U.S. with regard to health care spending.