In: Economics
Describe the relationship between how much the U.S spends on healthcare and life expectancy rates?
The US stands out as an outsider: it spends much more on health than any other country, yet the American population's life expectancy is not longer, but actually shorter than in other countries which spend far less. This growth has contributed to substantial disparity between the United States and other rich countries. In the US per capita health spending is more than three times higher than in many other rich countries, yet the populations of countries with much lower health expenditure than the US lead significantly longer lives.
Administrative costs in the health sector are higher in the US than in other nations; they also point out that price comparisons between countries depend on changes that are not ideally suited to comparing health-care costs, and this could make comparisons harder. Often, these analyzes point out that the rates of violence in the US are, and this is so, higher than in other rich countries). But while this may explain the difference in rates, the difference in patterns is unlikely to explain
Growth in health care spending slowed in the US and around the world. In recent years, per capita growth in health care spending in the US has slowed from 2.47 per cent in 2003–09 to 1.50 per cent in 2009–13. This decline has also happened in other countries, with spending growth in Denmark and the UK having also turned negative. The Americans spend the least on social services. Just 9 per cent of GDP is spent by the US on social services such as disability benefits or job programs. It is the only nation surveyed where spending on health care accounts for a larger share of GDP than the spending on social services. France and Sweden, on the other hand, invested 21% of GDP on social services.
High spending on health in the U.S. has far-reaching economic consequences, impacting employment and personal financial well-being while exacerbating budget deficits, the authors say. New healthcare structures such as accountable care organizations, which pay for patient outcomes based on providers, may encourage higher quality, lower-cost care. Such models, they claim, could also help bring about a move toward proportionally higher spending on social services, as health care providers are encouraged to think more deeply about what needs to be safe for their patients.