Give The Gift of the Health Care System

By NATHAN MOORE, MD and ELISABETH ASKIN,MD The United States health care system is a big, expensive mess, and the people working in the system today often don’t even know how to start learning about the system, and it’s problems.  My own frustration with the health care system – and lack of teaching about it during medical school – lead me to write The Health Care Handbook: A Clear and Concise Guide to the US Health Care System with my colleague Elisabeth Askin.  The goal was to create an understandable primer on the health care system for providers so that we can all work together to improve the system and help our patients. We have partnered with THCB to provide excerpts from the 2nd edition of the Handbook, which will provide background and insight on important health care issues that we face today.  We would love your questions, comments and feedback.  Today’s excerpt provides a brief overview of the state of the US health care system today. Cost  The U.S. currently spends more than 17% of its national gross domestic product (GDP) on health care, far more than any other country in the world. Health care spending now averages almost $9,000 per American,1and health care is the fastest growing industry in the country.2Private (nongovernmental)health care spending accounts for a large portion of the difference between spending in the U.S. and in other industrialized countries. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “Healt...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: THCB Nathan Moore Source Type: blogs