US Health Care Costs Going Up and Up and Up

A new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that health care is not only more expensive in the United States than any other industrialized nation on the planet, but costs are rising more quickly here too.

American spent the largest portion of its national income (GDP) on health care at 16 percent. The next high country was France at only 11 percent. The trend over the last decade shows that this gap is steadily getting worse. Health care costs grew as a percentage of our economy by 2.6% over the past decade, leading all studied nations. The next highest growth rate was Belgium at 2.1% while the lowest was Norway at 0.1%.

These numbers wouldn’t be so worrying if Americans were getting the best health care treatment in the world. Unfortunately, the American health care system has fallen behind many of these thriftier countries on indicators such as infant mortality and life expectancy.

So Americans pay more, prices are growing faster here than anywhere else, and for all of the money we’re spending we’re getting mediocre care. This is why the reforms passed into law by President Obama, and being considered in states like Vermont, are crucially important. Americans are getting a bad deal on our health care and these reforms are necessary steps towards improving our system.

- Kaiser Family Foundation / The Hill