3 ms·

A lot. The US gov actually already spends more on healthcare per capita than most of the European countries with socialized medicine.

judge2020 3y ago
Are there studies that point to obesity being the main cause of this?
- qwytw 3y ago
  The main cause is of course significantly higher costs in the US. In some part possibly due to more administrative inefficiency, but mainly because of much higher cost of labour. I would guess the gap between doctor salaries is even bigger than in tech (probably besides Germany and of course Switzerland).
lostlogin 3y ago
The difference isn’t due to obesity though, though that might be part of it.
- throw__away7391 3y ago
  Not entirely, no. The US pays a lot more for healthcare, for identical treatment. About 80% of total revenue for medical technology comes from the US market. A lot of other countries either negotiate lower rates utilizing their state monopoly on the market or are just lower income and cannot afford the prices paid by the US. In both cases, the marginal cost is low enough that companies are willing to compromise or cost discriminate, but the end result is essentially the US footing the bill. If this were ever to change, if the US ever started negotiations like European countries do, I worry it would negatively impact medical progress. Still, the impact of obesity are quite significant. An obese person will have 6 times the healthcare costs of someone who is merely overweight. I am not sure the difference between an overweight and healthy weight person, but I imagine it is at least something. Currently 69% of Americans are overweight and 36% are obese. This is insane to me because even "healthy weight" guidelines are pretty generous IMO. My doctor has told me I'm "healthy weight" at times when I definitely needed to lose a few pounds. (After losing the weight I felt better, had more energy, mental clarity, etc.)

judge2020 3y ago

Are there studies that point to obesity being the main cause of this?

qwytw 3y ago
The main cause is of course significantly higher costs in the US. In some part possibly due to more administrative inefficiency, but mainly because of much higher cost of labour. I would guess the gap between doctor salaries is even bigger than in tech (probably besides Germany and of course Switzerland).

lostlogin 3y ago

The difference isn’t due to obesity though, though that might be part of it.

throw__away7391 3y ago
Not entirely, no. The US pays a lot more for healthcare, for identical treatment. About 80% of total revenue for medical technology comes from the US market. A lot of other countries either negotiate lower rates utilizing their state monopoly on the market or are just lower income and cannot afford the prices paid by the US. In both cases, the marginal cost is low enough that companies are willing to compromise or cost discriminate, but the end result is essentially the US footing the bill. If this were ever to change, if the US ever started negotiations like European countries do, I worry it would negatively impact medical progress. Still, the impact of obesity are quite significant. An obese person will have 6 times the healthcare costs of someone who is merely overweight. I am not sure the difference between an overweight and healthy weight person, but I imagine it is at least something. Currently 69% of Americans are overweight and 36% are obese. This is insane to me because even "healthy weight" guidelines are pretty generous IMO. My doctor has told me I'm "healthy weight" at times when I definitely needed to lose a few pounds. (After losing the weight I felt better, had more energy, mental clarity, etc.)