4 ms·

I suspect that FAR more people are paying for prescription pharma than are visiting hospitals. So, it's not totally irrational that pharma is perceived as a gre

by Cd00d 8y ago

I suspect that FAR more people are paying for prescription pharma than are visiting hospitals. So, it's not totally irrational that pharma is perceived as a greater "enemy" than hospitals even given possibly equivalent price inflation.

pg_bot 8y ago
Pharmaceuticals represent about 10% of healthcare spending for Americans. Inpatient and outpatient comes out to around 52% of annual healthcare costs.[0-1] While there are many issues in the pharmaceutical industry, as a whole I think they get an unnecessarily bad rap. Most of America's healthcare problems are self inflicted. There are a lot of things that need to be adjusted in order to let markets run effectively. [0]: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/Downloads/PieChartSourcesExpenditures.pdf https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Sta... [1]: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/Downloads/quickref.pdf https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Sta...
- aaavl2821 8y ago
  The US is actually middle-of-the-pack compared to other OECD countries in terms of rx drug spend as a percent of total healthcare costs. So while drugs are more expensive in the US, that's mostly just due to overall higher US healthcare costs, not because there's anything special about pharma in the US. I know other countries spend more than the US on primary / preventative care (though dont have a source offhand); would be interested to know whether hospital spend as % of national HC spend is higher in the US (ive seen data suggesting that cost of a hospital bed for one night in the US is significantly higher than other OECD countries, but don't recall by how much)
aaavl2821 8y ago
That makes sense that more people spending money on drugs means it is a bigger focus for the public. However i'd strongly question the assumption that hospitals have less price inflation than drugs -- i think that the fact that we give hospitals the benefit of the doubt while blaming drug companies and insurers is a big part of the problem. The fact that far more people pay for rx drugs than hospital visits, yet hospital visits account for 3x as much spend, seems to me to be another data point suggesting we should focus more on hospital costs and less on drug costs

by Cd00d 8y ago

pg_bot 8y ago

Pharmaceuticals represent about 10% of healthcare spending for Americans. Inpatient and outpatient comes out to around 52% of annual healthcare costs.[0-1] While there are many issues in the pharmaceutical industry, as a whole I think they get an unnecessarily bad rap. Most of America's healthcare problems are self inflicted. There are a lot of things that need to be adjusted in order to let markets run effectively. [0]: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/Downloads/PieChartSourcesExpenditures.pdf https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Sta... [1]: https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/Downloads/quickref.pdf https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Sta...

aaavl2821 8y ago
The US is actually middle-of-the-pack compared to other OECD countries in terms of rx drug spend as a percent of total healthcare costs. So while drugs are more expensive in the US, that's mostly just due to overall higher US healthcare costs, not because there's anything special about pharma in the US. I know other countries spend more than the US on primary / preventative care (though dont have a source offhand); would be interested to know whether hospital spend as % of national HC spend is higher in the US (ive seen data suggesting that cost of a hospital bed for one night in the US is significantly higher than other OECD countries, but don't recall by how much)

aaavl2821 8y ago

That makes sense that more people spending money on drugs means it is a bigger focus for the public. However i'd strongly question the assumption that hospitals have less price inflation than drugs -- i think that the fact that we give hospitals the benefit of the doubt while blaming drug companies and insurers is a big part of the problem. The fact that far more people pay for rx drugs than hospital visits, yet hospital visits account for 3x as much spend, seems to me to be another data point suggesting we should focus more on hospital costs and less on drug costs