Introduction
The healthcare system in the United States is considered to be one of the most expensive. Prices are increasing for all the services, such as doctor visits, treatment, and prescription medications, while the quality remains the same or even decreases. Medical expenses rise faster than inflation and the whole economy of the country. As the result, many Americans struggle to cover the spending on the medical care they need and many providers have financial difficulties because of the problems with collecting debts from patients. This expenditure increase is happening due to several major causes, such as a lack of transparency in prices, an increase in treatment and medication costs, and excessive use of unnecessary prescriptions by doctors.
Body
The lack of pricing transparency is one of the most important factors defining the growth of expenses in the United States. This situation makes it impossible to make balanced intelligent decisions. It causes a high discrepancy in prices and makes consumers confused. People are the main element of the medical system in any country, but they are usually motivated not to spend much out of pocket, as typically a third-party payer covers a big part of their expenses. Many patients are satisfied when they see that they gain better care when spending more, but it is becoming difficult to know the actual cost of medical care. Most people are aware that prices are rising, but they do not know all the details, and their bills are complicated for understanding. For example, The Wall Street Journal reported about a hospital that was charging more than $50,000 for knee-replacement surgery, considering the ordinary price of this procedure is between $7,300 and $10,550 (as cited in Probasco, 2019). There is no doubt that patients have many difficulties in case they do not know the true costs of medical treatment. According to a survey held by the New England Journal of Medicine, “only about 17% of care professionals believed their institutions had either “mature” or “very mature” transparency” (as cited in Probasco, 2019, para. 23). Theoretically, healthcare coverage should provide an individual with the care they require with guarantees that their treatment will cost as much as they can afford. In reality, patients often avoid or abandon treatment due to their worries about their expenses, as discussion of financial issues usually happens after the patient receives a bill. There is no other industry where a consumer would purchase a service without knowing its price. This results in people feeling insecure about their expenses for medical services, being financially unstable, and constantly covering the debts of other people. To make the situation better for patients, the government should provide them with more transparency, so that people are not feeling confused when receiving a bill for their treatment.
Another essential factor is an increase in prices for drugs and medical procedures. In the past 20 years, the cost of healthcare services has been growing faster than that of other goods and services. There are a few reasons for this augmentation in medical care prices: the appearance of new technologies, the complexity of the healthcare system in the country, and the consolidation of hospitals. In general, people notice that drugs and diagnostic tests become more expensive. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are often in conflict with payers and pharmacy benefits managers (PBM), which control social security payments for drugs. According to Branning and Vater (2016), producers “need to recoup their investment in research and development, as well as marketing and other expenditures needed to bring the drug to market and achieve uptake among physicians and patients” (para. 12). They try to negotiate better prices, but when manufacturers are accused of elevating them, they respond that not all the costs are paid by patients. Moreover, many services in the United States are much more expensive than in other countries. There is also a big issue concerning the drug market as the United States spends around $1,500 per capita on pharmaceuticals, while in other countries, this figure is approximately $700-900 (Blumberg, 2018). Experts believe prices need to be thoroughly analyzed and lowered where it is possible. According to Irene Papanicolas, an assistant professor at Harvard Chan School, “as the U.S. continues to struggle with high health-care spending, it is critical that we make progress on curtailing these costs” (as cited in Blumberg, 2018, para. 21). All of these factors lead to people becoming more susceptible to medical care costs since much of the expenses come from their pockets. Patients need to be sure that they receive the required medical assistance when they need it, and they should know that they can afford it.
In addition, the fact that doctors in the United States are paid more contributes to the reasons for the increase in healthcare costs, as their motivation system results in prescribing unnecessary drugs and procedures. To earn more, physicians tend to send people to more get treatment and diagnostics, which are often not required for those patients. Reducing overtreatment is one of the most urgent questions in the medical care system of the country, as it would improve patient-centered care. Excessive use of treatment procedures is connected with the harm caused by antibiotic overuse which often leads to resistance and infection. Moreover, there is a significant misapplication of diagnostic testing and many complications from unnecessary surgical procedures. According to Moise (2017), unnecessary care was found in 20.6% of all the cases, medications were not required in 22% of situations, and tests were prescribed without a reason in 24,9% of treatments. The main reasons for overtreatment are reported to be fear of malpractice, the request of the patient, and problems with accessing medical records (Moise, 2017). Most people are sure that physicians prescribe unnecessary procedures when they receive profit from them. The appropriateness of medical measures is difficult to estimate, as it depends on many factors. However, certain limits should be known by all people in order not to allow unnecessary care and expenses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, each of the aforementioned factors contributes to the increase in healthcare costs. This process is greatly influenced by the growth in expenses for treatment and drugs, the lack of transparency in pricing formation, and by receive unnecessary prescriptions. Experts confirm that the price policy is too complicated and expensive, and it needs changes to make medicine available for every individual requiring care. To lower prices, the government needs to remove technologies that are not efficient and provide transparency to help people understand what they are paying for. Moreover, doctors should have changes in motivation systems, so their salary would not depend on the quantity of provided services, which usually leads to the prescription of unnecessary procedures.
References
Blumberg, Y. (2018). Here’s the real reason health care costs so much more in the US. CNBC LLC. Web.
Branning G., & Vater, M. (2016). Healthcare spending: Plenty of blame to go around. American Health & Drug Benefits, 9(8), 445–447. Web.
Moise, I. K. (2017). Overtreatment in the United States. US National Library of Medicine, 12(9), e0181970. Web.
Probasco, J. (2019). Why do healthcare costs keep rising? Web.