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> The strongest counterpoint to this is that despite America's high healthcare consumption, that health outcomes are significantly worse than Europe. In particu

> The strongest counterpoint to this is that despite America's high healthcare consumption, that health outcomes are significantly worse than Europe. In particular in terms of life expectancy. Just look at the life expectancy of France and Germany to disprove your theories. The big difference between the American healthcare system and the one in these countries is that people don’t have to worry about the bills, which means healthcare providers have a much bigger incentive to learn what cost benefit analysis means.

wskinner 6y ago
> The big difference between the American healthcare system and the one in these countries is that people don’t have to worry about the bills, which means healthcare providers have a much bigger incentive to learn what cost benefit analysis means. Can you go into a bit more detail about how exactly this incentive linkage works?
dcolkitt 6y ago
I'd really encourage you to read through the first link because it goes into very careful detail. But the point is there's nothing unusual about America's high spending given its very high income levels. In particular look at this chart from the source.[1] Let's use France as a comparison point since you mentioned it. Household disposable income in the US is about 36% higher than France. That's about equivalent to the wealth gap between France and Slovenia. The US spends about 70% more per hospital stay than France, and very similarly that's almost the exact same spending gap between France and Slovenia. The point being it's easy to ask "why does the US spend more than Western Europe?" But, analogously you should also ask "why does Western Europe spend more than Southern and Eastern Europe"? And the most clear answer is because wealthier countries tend to spend a higher percent of their income on healthcare. [1] https://i0.wp.com/randomcriticalanalysis.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/rcafdm_america_average_discharge_cost_comparison_with_elasticity_2010.png?resize=720%2C496&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/randomcriticalanalysis.com/wp-content/uplo...
- thatfrenchguy 6y ago
  > Household disposable income in the US is about 36% higher than France I've seen the prices of procedures and drugs in France and in the United States (that is, before insurance, because no-one really worries about the price of healthcare in France given you get reimbursed more the more expensive your procedures are, which is how things are supposed to be), and it's definitely not 36% more expensive. Everything is at least 10 times more expensive.
whiddershins 6y ago
Hey there. The comment you are replying to specifically addresses this. I find reading comment threads containing comments that don’t seem to account for the literal assertions made in the previous comment tend to be difficult to follow and quickly degrade.

wskinner 6y ago

> The big difference between the American healthcare system and the one in these countries is that people don’t have to worry about the bills, which means healthcare providers have a much bigger incentive to learn what cost benefit analysis means. Can you go into a bit more detail about how exactly this incentive linkage works?

dcolkitt 6y ago

I'd really encourage you to read through the first link because it goes into very careful detail. But the point is there's nothing unusual about America's high spending given its very high income levels. In particular look at this chart from the source.[1] Let's use France as a comparison point since you mentioned it. Household disposable income in the US is about 36% higher than France. That's about equivalent to the wealth gap between France and Slovenia. The US spends about 70% more per hospital stay than France, and very similarly that's almost the exact same spending gap between France and Slovenia. The point being it's easy to ask "why does the US spend more than Western Europe?" But, analogously you should also ask "why does Western Europe spend more than Southern and Eastern Europe"? And the most clear answer is because wealthier countries tend to spend a higher percent of their income on healthcare. [1] https://i0.wp.com/randomcriticalanalysis.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/rcafdm_america_average_discharge_cost_comparison_with_elasticity_2010.png?resize=720%2C496&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/randomcriticalanalysis.com/wp-content/uplo...

thatfrenchguy 6y ago
> Household disposable income in the US is about 36% higher than France I've seen the prices of procedures and drugs in France and in the United States (that is, before insurance, because no-one really worries about the price of healthcare in France given you get reimbursed more the more expensive your procedures are, which is how things are supposed to be), and it's definitely not 36% more expensive. Everything is at least 10 times more expensive.

whiddershins 6y ago

Hey there. The comment you are replying to specifically addresses this. I find reading comment threads containing comments that don’t seem to account for the literal assertions made in the previous comment tend to be difficult to follow and quickly degrade.