The cost of health care in the United States is best described as “out of control.” We spend more on health care per person than any other country in the world, and yet we actually have among the worst access to care, some of the deepest levels of health care discrimination and inequality, and poor health outcomes.

When health care costs rise faster than wages and inflation, it becomes more and more difficult…

• for people to afford premiums, deductibles, and copayments
• for employers to cover their workers while remaining competitive
• for governments to cover their own employess and pay for health care safety net plans for the elderly, for children, and the low-income.

Sky-rocketing costs are causing our health care system to fall apart at the seams. In the Greater Boston Area, the cost of a family plan at even large employers will exceed $22,000 in just a few years.

Source: Sager and Socolar, “Massachusetts Health Care Spending Soars…”

Most countries in the developed world provide universal health care, yet none spend as much per person as the United States.

Why Are Health Care Costs Out of Control?

The health care crisis in the United States is due to our commercial health care system. In the United States health care is treated as a commodity purchased by individuals, businesses, and even governments. Insurance companies, drug manufacturers, and providers are driven by a profit-motive. In countries with a Single Payer Health Care System, health care coverage is provided as a public good to everyone, like primary education.

Why Is Providing Health Care As a Public Good Cheaper?

• Insurance Overhead: private insurance companies waste much more on overhead costs than publicly administered plans. They have larger bureaucracies, take a cut of each health care dollar for profits and reserves, and spend heavily on advertising and marketing.
• Provider Overhead: Doctors and Hospitals spend much more money and time with paperwork and overhead when they have to bill hundreds of private insurance companies and individuals. Having a single public payer of health care, results in massive savings for providers.
• Price Gouging: Particularly with Prescription Drugs, single payer pools can set prices that prevent price gouging and profiteering by manufacturers and service providers.
• Prevention & Early Intervention: By making access to health care a right, costly illnesses can be prevented or treated more cheaply at an early stage.

What Can We Do To Control Costs?

• Support Single Payer Reform: Join the movement supporting the The Massachusetts Single Payer Bill at the state level, and Medicare for All nationally.
• Reduce Administrative Overhead: Support efforts to pass Uniform Billing and Care Share Legislation.
• Prevent Price Gouging: Support Prescription Drug Fair Pricing legislation and Reimportation.

FURTHER RESOURCES:

• Mass Health Spending Soars to $62.1 billion in 2006, Alan Sager and Debbie Socolar, Health Reform Project, Boston University School of Public Health.
• Health Care Spending in the United States and OECD Countries, January 2007, Kaiser Family Foundation.
• Health Care Costs: A Primer, Kaiser Family Foundation.
• Trends in Healthcare Costs and Spending, September 2007, Kaiser Family Foundation.
• Health Insurance Costs, The National Coalition on Health Care.
• Rising health costs put pressure on public finances, finds OECD, June 2006, OECD Directorate for Employment, Labor, and Social Affairs.