April 01, 2012
National Public Radio told listeners that, “Like the U.S., Europe Wrestles With Health Care.” If the wrestling in Europe is anything like the U.S., then we must be talking about professional wrestling. (“Hit him over the head with a chair!”)
The per person cost of health care across Europe is far less than in the United States. According to the OECD, in 2009 (the most recent year for which it has comparable data), per capita health care expenditures in the United States were $7,960. In France, Germany, and the UK, the three countries featured in the piece, the costs were $3,978, $4,218, and $3,487 respectively.
In other words, costs in the U.S. were more than twice as high as in France and the U.K. and more than 80 percent higher than in Germany. While the rise in health care costs poses a problem in these countries, as it does in the United States, the impact is very different than what it is in the United States. NPR should have pointed out the huge difference in current costs instead of trying to imply that all countries face the same problem.
There is one other point in this piece that badly needs correcting. The piece quotes Arthur Daemmrich, a professor at Harvard Business School:
“In Britain, for example, a new bio-tech drug that extends a person’s life on average one or two months, but costs $25,000, would not be reimbursed.”
Actually, the drug does not “cost” $25,000. The British government gives a drug company a patent monopoly that allows it charge $25,000 because the government will arrest any competitors that try to sell the drug. The actual cost is more likely in the range of $5-$10.
This speaks to the incredible inefficiency associated with the patent system as a mechanism for financing drug research. However it is wrong to imply that it would be expensive to society to give patients these drugs. It would actually be very cheap.
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