Medical Care in the United States

Here are the two citations I mentioned in class on Friday April 14.

1.For Americans, Getting Sick Has Its Price

Survey Says U.S. Patients Pay More, Get Less Than Those in Other Western Nations
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 4, 2005; Page A02

Americans pay more when they get sick than people in other Western nations and get more confused, error-prone treatment, according to the largest survey to compare U.S. health care with other nations.

Bardes Shelly and Schmidt claim there are "numerous reasons" for growth of costs, although they discuss only two: the aging population, and advancing technologies.

2. Does Medical Malpractice drive costs? The evidence is "statistically, no." The source is the Congressional Budget Office's 2004 report that links malpractice insurance to 2% of overall medical costs.

Certainly here are horror stories of rates for some specialties, in some locations, being dramatically increased. As students of politics, we might ask whether that is due to costs of litigation, as claimed, or if this is an attempt by an industry to leverage doctors into lobbying on their behalf.

Here are a couple sources to read about malpractice politics
a. The Medical Malpractice Myth, by Tom Baker.
b. Kaiser Family Foundation's Medical Malpractice Policy