American Healthcare By: Sofia Diaco, Alexzaundra Culley, and Ryan Jamison

Cost of American Healthcare? Individually, Americans spend about $7,000 annually on healthcare. 31% goes to hospital care, 21% goes to physician services, 10% goes to pharmaceuticals, 8% to nursing homes, 7% administrative costs and 23% to all other categories.

Examples of Waste/Inefficiency Too many tests-$210 Billion a year spent on this. Doctors are frequent victims of lab errors. Inefficient claim processing- $210 Billion a year. Using the ER as a clinic- $14 Billion a year Errors- $17 Billion. Discharge patients too soon- $25 Billion. Most people do not have a regular doctor. High rates of chronic conditions that doctors don’t treat correctly.

The Healthcare Triumphs For the last 20 years average costs for clients of healthcare have been approximately 30% below national average costs. Provides healthcare for the elderly and terminally ill. Provides jobs for many Americans. Jobs sometimes provide insurance.

Why So Costly? We don’t ration care- we don’t have to wait weeks for an MRI. Tests are performed that patients sometimes do not need. Inefficient insurance companies are to blame- we devote about 1/3 of our health care money to administrative costs and it’s not as efficient as Canada’s single-payer system. Consumers aren’t shopping wisely- people use more expensive healthcare than necessary (We go to doctors more frequently than needed, and chronically ill people with multiple conditions have so many costs).

Other Countries Canada -Has Medicare -Every person in Canada Is covered for healthcare. -Publicly funded. -Long waits for care. -Lower class can be Treated. Australia -Private and government institutions. -Medicare coexists with a Private health system. -Funded by a 1.5% income tax. -Universal healthcare. Venezuela -Total health expenditures per capita= $386. -Low, no-cost healthcare. One of Latin America’s most Advanced. -Involves both state and private hospitals.