Why is Healthcare so Expensive?

Healthcare is so expensive because:

Health Care Costs and Prescription Drugs.

Prescription Drugs are the fastest growing health expense in the country. Drug companies claim they need to charge so much for drugs because they need to make up high research and development costs. How much? About 15 cents of every healthcare dollar spent. Moving to generics is an option and could save nearly $25 billion dollars a year.

Health Care Costs and Defensive Medicine

Reason two is what some people call "Defensive Medicine", and other people call "Covering Your Rear." In order to protect themselves from lawsuits, doctors have to pay enormous malpractice insurance premiums. They also often have to perform tests, tests and more tests on their patients. What's more, some patients will request even more tests than they need, since they aren't paying out of pocket costs for them. However, since health insurance companies are paying for these tests, everyone's costs go up. It's a complex problem, but it's not insurmountable. By supporting reforms to the malpractice system, we can all work to lower these costs.

Health Care Costs and Patient Care

And while Defensive Medicine is expensive, so are the raw costs of providing patient care. In fact, services in outpatient hospitals and free-standing clinics have been growing rapidly, in part due to the practice of defensive medicine. Add that to hospital price increases over and above the cost of inflation, and hospital services total 35 cents of that dollar.

Health Care Costs and Administration

Healthcare's a complex business, and the paperwork and processing can be expensive. We all have to bear the expense of an inefficient system, government regulations and investing in healthcare information technology.

Health Care Costs and Unhealthy Lifestyles

The next reason is the one we can do the most about. We simply have to take better care of ourselves. Many of us lead lifestyles that are unhealthy. By taking charge of our lives and taking better care of ourselves, we can lead longer healthier lives. And spend less on healthcare.

A few simple things you can do include

• Get 8 hours of sleep a night
• Eat healthier
• Stop smoking
• Cut down or eliminate alcohol consumption
• Exercise

Of course, we can't anticipate all unexpected health events like injuries, however, waiting until you're sick to go to the doctor just means you'll have to spend more money on tests and pills to get better. If you make your doctor an ongoing part of your health routine, you can stay ahead of the game, live healthier and head off most diseases before they get serious.

Summary of Why Healthcare is so Expensive

To sum it up, we pay higher costs because of prescription drug costs, doctors protecting themselves from lawsuits, hospital, insurance industry and administration costs, and folks just not taking care of themselves

We could pay less if the system were more efficient, we used generic drugs, and took a more active approach to our health.

These are complex problems, with no one-size-fits-all solution. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. As health insurers work with physicians and patients to reduce costs, waste and paperwork, and changes work their way into the system, costs will come down.