American families pay an additional $ 8000 to cover the country's health care costs

According to two leading economists, American families are essentially paying a $ 8000 tax to cover the country's rapidly growing healthcare costs, writes Fox Business.

Фото: Depositphotos

Princeton University economists Ann Case and Angus Deaton at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association in San Diego claimed that part of the US population is enriched by the rest.

The U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world, and its cost far exceeds that of other high-income countries, according to a 2019 report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. America spends about $1 trillion more than Switzerland, the country with the second most expensive health care system. This means that US households spend about $8000 more than their Swiss counterparts.

Case and Deaton called the extra $8000 that families pay a “head tax.” The idea is that the tax falls on every “head”, regardless of ability to pay.

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Although the US spends astronomical amounts on healthcare, the country has the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rates compared to the UK, Canada, Germany, Australia, Japan, Sweden, France, Denmark, the Netherlands and Switzerland, according to a study JAMA.

“We can boast that we have the most expensive health care,” Case said. “We can also now boast that it provides worse health than residents of any rich country.”

To combat rising costs, Case and Deaton, Nobel Laureate in Economics, said all residents should be in the health care system through insurance or a single payer system such as Medicare-for-all, and there should be cost control. including price restrictions on medicines and government decisions not to cover the costs of certain procedures.

Deaton is particularly critical of American doctors, pointing out that 16% of the first 1% of income recipients are doctors., According to a study by Williams College professor John Bakia and others.

“Doctors are a giant rent-seeking conspiracy that robs us of our money, and yet everyone loves doctors,” Deaton said. "You can't touch them."

Changing the healthcare system was the focus of Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Both senators endorsed and advocated for Medicare for everyone, implementing broad, multi-million dollar plans to shift the country's priorities toward the state system.

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However, overhauling a healthcare system will not be easy. Economists have pointed out the practice of unexpected billing when a person is taken to a hospital (even a hospital on a network covered by insurance), and then he gets an invoice for the amount that the insurance does not cover.

Despite overwhelming support among voters—at least three-quarters of Americans favor policies that would protect them from surprise bills—and a bipartisan push for action in Congress, pressure from industry late last year crushed those efforts.

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