Killing Us Indeed: Time's article on US Medical Bills

Let's get credit out there for the article I'm commenting on right away:

Time Magazine's Steven Brill wrote the following thought-provoking article:

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

Go ahead, take a look, I'll wait here.

No?  Well, essentially it's about the markup for health treatment: it is horrific and truly a problem.  Brill says, "When we debate health care policy, we seem to jump right to the issue of who should pay the bills, blowing past what should be the first question: Why exactly are the bills so high?"


I say "Exactly! And where are the answers?"

Brill lists examples of over 400% markups on services and generic Tylenol, among others.  As he puts it so aptly: It's the ultimate seller's market, where buyers have no choice but to be part of it.

Try this one snippet on for size:

According to one of a series of exhaustive studies done by the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm, we spend more on health care than the next 10 biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia. We may be shocked at the $60 billion price tag for cleaning up after Hurricane Sandy. We spent almost that much last week on health care. We spend more every year on artificial knees and hips than what Hollywood collects at the box office. We spend two or three times that much on durable medical devices like canes and wheelchairs, in part because a heavily lobbied Congress forces Medicare to pay 25% to 75% more for this equipment than it would cost at Walmart.

Awesome, right?

Thanks again for looking out for the constituents, Congress! But, looks like there is quite a presence in Washington:

 The health care industry seems to have the will and the means to keep it that way. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the pharmaceutical and health-care-product industries, combined with organizations representing doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, health services and HMOs, have spent $5.36 billion since 1998 on lobbying in Washington. That dwarfs the $1.53 billion spent by the defense and aerospace industries and the $1.3 billion spent by oil and gas interests over the same period. That’s right: the health-care-industrial complex spends more than three times what the military-industrial complex spends in Washington.

On a personal note, our episode last month with our daughter having acute breathing distress, and therefore a trip to the ER, follow up pediatric care, eventual pneumonia diagnosis, and Rxs is currently coming in at $4,500+ right now as the billed amount.  Thank God we DO have insurance and deductible support (oops that's gone after this bill!) - but we still will be finding ourselves with essentially a car payment leftover.

What is happening?  And why are we spending so much more than other countries and not necessarily getting better results?

Thought provoking indeed, but I have to get back to work so I can pay my healthcare premiums.