All about the Money $$ Honey...

As a country we are spending twice as much on health care as most other developed countries. These expenses are only going to rise further with healthcare costs rising faster than income in most households. Technology has definitely paced forward taking costs with it. Though technology has made it easier and quicker to diagnose, and treat, it has also made it imperative that these lifesaving options be available to the population at large. Thus hospitals invest more and the cost rises.
The United States health care system is adept with inefficiencies. The system is complex with third parties involved besides the physician and the patient. These middlemen are a chain of individuals who dictate policies and work out brackets tailored to design healthcare expenditure based on a laborious system which is designed to provide healthcare to those who can pay the most. Its all about the money. These middlemen are insurance companies which dont necessarily fit the bill. As insurance companies get billed physicians and hospitals run batteries of lab tests not entirely based on the need since cost is not a concern. Eventually the burden is borne by all individuals.
In the current wave of economic hardships with job losses on the rise and employers not offering health insurance, it is becoming increasingly difficult for families to afford even basic health care. So where can we get rid of this extra cost? Maybe get rid of the middle men and along with it a lot of complexity. Bring in a single payer healthcare system which is state based, Universal Healthcare is definitely the way!

Its likely that they are both causing the dramatic increase in spending, but I feel that inefficiency in the health care system is more of a major contributor. Although our liberal use of technology can be costly, technology can also play an important role in preventative care. There definitely needs to be a happy medium for use of technology, but it shouldn't be completely discouraged. I believe that increased spending has more to do with inefficiencies within the system. Inefficiency and mismanagement affects the fundamentals of the health care system and are problems that have been lingering for decades.
I have heard many cases about doctors ordering unnecessary tests, labs, bringing on other doctors, etc. just to run up the patients bill. These are where some of the problems may lie. Hospitals are struggling to stay open and programs like medicare are falling short due to such inefficiencies. Work ethic should be observed and tighter regulations should be put on medical professionals, hospitals, and insurance companies. Spending seems to be increasing because the health care system is being run more like a business than anything else.

I think that the question of "why do you think spending has been continually on the rise?" is a loaded question. There is not one simple answer to this question. I'm interested to see what the pie chart for a individuals medical cost looks like? How many slices would you see? I know that technology may play a role in the rise of cost, but is this something that we want to hinder. We know that health care cost are going up and they will continue to go up like other facets of our free market economy. I think the real question we should be asking is why health care cost are growing faster than our inflation rate. To answer this question, we would need to have a deeper understanding of all the intricate cost which are incurred from each patient. There are many individuals involved in health delivery and an increase at any level will have a positive correlation to every other level. Unfortunately, much of the burden for these increased costs is coming back directly to the business and families. People are having to make cuts in ways they have not had to in years. To give you an idea of how this is affecting the above mentioned parties I encourage all of you to take a quick look at the link I have provided below. It is the website for the National Coalition on Health Care. When you get a chance explore around the site. Take a look at all the tabs under facts about health care. Most of the data provided is very current and gives a good idea of what our nation is looking at in terms of health care at many levels from individuals and business to state and federal programs. http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml

Dohhh!!! (As Homer Would Say...)

Americans have had multiple identities throughout their history: from patriots, innovators and hard-workers to being perceived as arrogant, obese, and the "world-police." But there is one word that sums up an American today unlike any other: CONSUMER. In a free-market driven by supply and demand, Americans pride themselves on the freedom of the individual and the advantage of the market place to dictate what will and won't work. Unfortunately, with the current economic crisis, many Americans have seen that the gluttonous behavior of biting off more than you can chew has caught up with them. From the average consumer that charges much more than he can afford on his credit card, to hedge fund managers from Harvard that saw their multi-default credit swaps and sub-prime mortgage derivatives go down the drain - Americans simply wanted more than they could handle. Unfortunately, this behavior not only contributes to the depreciation of the dollar, but can lead to the rise of the essentials of a consumer such as health care costs.

Without a doubt, much of this behavior has lead to an increase in national health spending per capita over recent years. However, the problem goes deeper than just America's economic climate and system; the health care system itself is an environment that brews a steady increase in costs. Spending an enormous amount of GDP to financing health care, lacking a universal health care system, and deferring accumulating emergency health care costs of people who don't have insurance to those who do have all been key reasons that health care costs continue to rise. With the current economic crisis forcing people to be more concerned with food and mortgage bills, issues such as health care will naturally take a back seat. However, Americans must be able to reach into their roots as "patriots" and "innovators" to try to embrace solutions such as electronic health care documentations and have the courage to force their public leaders to eliminate additional costs that accumulate from special interest lobbying groups within the health care system that eat up all that GDP. Homer Simpson would say it best: let's not loose all that... "Dohhhh!"

It is all about the MONEY!

I believe that the increase in the national health spending in due to several factors. Technology does pay a role into the increases. But many would argue and agree that the development of medical technology is useful and a wise investment of our money. However the increases due to technology I believe are not as great or significant as the increases due to inefficiencies. The healthcare system in the United States is a system that seems more focused on the policy and money issue than the real issue at hand, people’s health. Healthcare insurances have become like a bidding war to see who can get the most customers and in turn get the most money. Money and status in society play a big role in the access to services.
There needs to be a healthcare reform because as it is there are many families that do not have health insurance. Healthcare has become almost like a luxury for the rich people. I think that with the economic situation that we find ourselves in, we will see less and less people with health care insurance. The idea that a healthcare reform is needed is not new, but coming up with a system that will work with the mentality of Americans will be a challenge. It will be very difficult to change the views of the Americans. I think to begin with we need to think about healthcare as helping other people and not a political battle for money.

It's All About the Money

Healthcare costs in the United States are continuously on the rise for many different reasons.  Of course the obvious is the increase in medical technologies available to doctors and healthcare providers.  There are so many tests available that often doctors rely too much on tests and less on their clinical abilities and intuitions to diagnose and treat their patients.  Understandably so, it is possible that this has also led to inefficiencies in delivering medical care to those in need.  Therefore, more tests are being used to diagnose conditions that used to be done by clinical providers and this is causing greater expenses for the patients and institutions.  There are also other reasons as to why healthcare per capita spending is increasing: an increase in lawsuits, malpractice insurance and emergency room coverage of costs that are causing patients to incur more than they bargained for in terms of necessary care.

I must agree with many of the previous posts in saying that the United States healthcare system has most definitely turned into more of a business than it ever had been.  However, this is going to cause a huge problem for other businesses and families in being able to afford healthcare and coverage for even the most necessary of treatments.  Businesses are not going to be able to offer their employees the same benefits, which in turn causes larger out-of-pocket expenses for the patient.  In tangent to this, families might start to turn away from seeking out care for problems they otherwise would have because of this out-of-pocket expense.  They are going to start viewing their medical health as an optional expense, which it never should be.

Overall, I think the view of the healthcare system and the never-ending increase in technologies is forcing the United States system onto a very dangerous path.  As consumers/patients, we cannot afford the care that we often times need.  However, as a business, the healthcare system cannot afford to continue operation if they do not increase their prices.  So, if healthcare reform is not the answer, then what is?

Yes to all of the above!

It seems that, based on our experience, we can all attest to the above reasons playing some part in the rising costs. Technology is expensive! This is a fresh topic for me, having needed to get an MRI a month ago. Think about the cost of MRI machines... according to comparemricost.com, the average MRI machine costs above $1 million dollars. I'm sure some of that cost got paid off by me. Inefficiencies?... perhaps. And prices?... definitely!  But might I add malpractice insurance? It seems that suing is a fad these days! Although I don't have exact figures, I do know MDs pay a lot for insurance, which ends up reflected in health care costs. The more health care costs rise, the less available it'll be for families to obtain it, especially with money being scarce these days. In fact, with our economic crisis, a lot more of us will be thinking twice about going to the get that check-up.