No. of Recommendations: 6
Regarding the high costs of health care in the USA, one area I haven't yet seen mentioned in this thread is the legal expenses doctors and hospitals face due to malpractice legislation. The insurance costs are high, but maybe even higher are the additional testing that is done to build a defense against malpractice into the actual processes practiced.
Excess sanitation costs were mentioned - albeit a minor cost in the bigger scheme of things. But how do these compare with the costs of infections that result in a malpractice suit. And lawyers are constantly on the search for such events for which they can sue. Now extend this to all the other, more serious, opportunities where a negative event is the outcome. Why didn't you run this test before surgery? Why didn't you test for all these markers in the blood instead of just the key ones? On and on. How many doctors have dropped out of private practice to work as employees for a hospital - just to avoid malpractice suits and insurance costs? And what practices are they instructed to follow by their employer to try to avoid the same?
I have a granddaughter who just graduated as a pre-med major. She is now going through the very competitive battle for admission to a med school. I paid her undergrad tuition and fees, and will be doing so for her medical school years. By the time she finishes med school and a low paying residency, that's an additional 8 years of basically no income. Add living and other costs to that period - and also consider the earnings that might have been made during those years. Her earnings as a doctor had better be good if all that money is to earn a decent return. She's doing it because she loves what she wants to do. We can afford to help make that happen, so at least she won't be battling student debt issues. Most
med school students will.
Meanwhile, her older sister who earned a BS in physics at a good school is making six figures working for an internet data center company. She also loved physics, and wanted to practice or teach it. But not enough to get the required PhD and then earn an academic income. So she chose the "road best traveled" based on economics.
The medical cost issues are sufficiently complex and intertwined that a combination of Buffett, Dimon, and Bezos attempted to jointly address them. And, ultimately gave up.
That doesn't bode well for expecting any major improvements - especially in a country as politically divided now as the USA.
