April 13, 2011
The WSJ had a nice piece showing that United States pays far more per person for health care than other wealthy countries, even though they all enjoy longer life expectancies than we do. After presenting the data, the article then tells readers:
“Among the things that do matter [for controlling costs]: Consumers need to have some skin in the game, through mechanisms such as co-payments.”
Actually, in most, if not all, of the countries in the WSJ chart, patients typically have lower co-payments/cost-sharing than is the norm in the United States. This would not seem to be an essential part of controlling costs.
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