Rising Benifit Cost

The Organization for Economic Development is an international organization of 34 countries that helps the economy and world trade. According to the OECD, we spend $7,960 per person per year for health care in the U.S., totaling about $2.5 trillion. In comparison, the average OECD country spends $3,233 per person annually for health care. If we could achieve average spending, the U.S. would save $1.5 trillion a year in health care costs. (McClanahan, 2011

The high cost of health care comes from many different aspects. Some of the reasons are increased number of claims, high physician fees, and the increased use of medical services. We, also, must look at our use of unnecessary medical resources including; frequent visits to the hospital when in fact the treatment could be done in an office setting, specialist referrals, lab tests, and pharmaceuticals. Americans have become accustomed to using a high amount of prescription medicines, because we are flooded with innovative treatments every year and most doctors have become used to prescribing the new medications that are on the market. This problem is described in the article, Pharmaceutical Risk-Sharing Agreements

“the increasing costs of bringing products to the market, as well as increased utilization of pharmaceuticals contribute to increased pharmaceutical expenditure; however, appropriate pharmaceutical use can, in certain cases, reduce overall healthcare costs (Cook, Vernon, & Manning 2008).” Finding the balance between pharmaceutical over production and health benefit levels would ensure some financial stability for It is not hard to see where the increase is coming from when you look at the aging population and the amount of new treatments and technology that are constantly growing. Unit cost tends to be a big driver in health care along with high cost diagnostic equipment. The same set of hospital interventions (including the normal delivery of a baby, a Caesarean section, a hip or knee replacement,...