According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. ranks a lowly 35th among 191 countries in health outcomes and health care efficiency. In longevity, the U.S. ranks 37th in the world below countries like Albania and Cuba. Moreover, longevity has declined in recent years with a major cause being the continued proliferation of medical mistakes that caused more than 80,000 deaths last year.
The U.S. spends more than 17.5% of its Gross National Product (GNP) on health care. The next highest paying country by percentage is Switzerland with a 12.2% rate. Even England and Canada only spend about 10% of GNP on health care.
Clearly, our health care delivery system is rife with problems.
Freakonomics has dedicated the last two podcast episodes to health care in the United States. In the last episode, titled, "How To Fix The Hot Mess of U.S. Healthcare," host Stephen Dubner explores the possible efficacy of smaller, more-targeted solutions rather than massive changes to health care.
This week's episode of the Freakonomics Radio podcast
concludes its series on whether the U.S. healthcare system is really
as messed up as people think with a deep dive on one particularly
troubling area -- the dialysis industry.
"Kidney failure is such
a catastrophic (and expensive) disease that Medicare covers treatment
for anyone, regardless of age. Since Medicare reimbursement rates are
fairly low, the dialysis industry had to find a way to tweak the system
if they wanted to make big profits. They succeeded."
To
investigate, host Stephen Dubner speaks to a host of doctors and health
economists - plus former Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex
Azar, who, during his time in the Trump administration, helped launch a
series of kidney-care initiatives that went well beyond dialysis.
Listen to the episode here and on all podcast providers: https://freakonomics.com/
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