Abstract
Over the last half-century, medical science has dramatically improved throughout the
world. Although costs have risen in all western countries as new technologies have
been widely adopted, costs in the United States have risen much more than they have
in any other country. Despite using fewer resources (eg, numbers of physicians and
nurses, hospital beds) than do peer countries, per-capita spending on health care
in the United States is double that in similar countries. The major driving force
behind this difference is that we in the United States pay much more for the same
products and services. There is no evidence that this increased spending gives better
outcomes. Neither the general public nor doctors are happy with our current health
care system. Subsequent articles will discuss the components of our system and how
they are failing and how they can be improved.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to The American Journal of MedicineAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Physician burnout—a leading indicator of health system performance?.Mayo Clin Proc. 2017; 92: 1608-1611
- Health Affairs. 2018; 37: 140-149
- US Health Care from a Global Perspective.(Available at:)The Commonwealth Fundhttp://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2015/oct/us-health-care-global-perspectiveDate accessed: December 20, 2018
- It’s the prices, stupid: why the United States is so different from other countries.Health Affairs. 2003; 22: 89-105
- It’s still the prices, stupid: why the us spends so much on health care, and a tribute to Uwe Reinhardt.Health Affairs. 2019; 38: 87-95
Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 26, 2019
Footnotes
Funding: None.
Conflict of Interest: None.
Authorship: The author is solely responsible for the content of this manuscript.
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.
