High Cost of Staying Healthy in the U.S

The issue of increased medical expenses has gained increasing media attention, with the majority of Americans shocked by the extraordinary cost of medical expenses. Subsequently, various virtual news articles have been devoted to this topic. For example, Zuckerman (1), in his article ‘High Cost of Staying Well’, elucidates that certain kinds of cancer treatments ride into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and an emergency room visit can exceed the cost of a car.

Americans wonder why medical care costs keep rising and yet in almost every industry, advances in technology drive cost down. On average, Americans spend 20 to 30 or even 100 times as much on medical services and devices as what they would cost in a shopping mall (Zuckerman 1).

The article tries to get a reason for the high costs. It cites the partnership of most hospitals and private insurance companies as one reason for the fee hike. The insurance companies have a power in negotiating with hospitals over a patient covered by them. They pinpoint the hospital in their grid of providers. Insured patients can get discounts that are thirty to fifty percent beyond low Medical care charges. Zuckerman (2) further aIDs that doctors tend to over-test to avoid malpractice and misdiagnosis to avoid malpractice and misdiagnosis. The high-tech devices used in the hospitals drive the costs to bizarre levels too.

The author of the article has used information from the analysis of works of medical practitioners. For example, he has cited one Steven Brill who initially exposed the impact of insurance companies on hospitals. The study also has much of its information from the federal government sources such as where it points out that readmissions alone cost over $25 billion a year and that medical care budget may well hit $600 billion this year.

It is through statistics like those and statistics from related reports by government departments and other authors that the authors are able to aID gravity in their deliberations on the matter.

Works Cited

Zuckerman, Mortimer. “The high cost of staying well.” US News and World Report. 18th March (2013). Viewed 18th March 2014.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2013/10/22/why-health-care-costs-so-much-and-how-to-fix-it

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