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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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).

6. 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.