It is incredibly expensive to be sick or injured in America, and it always has been. In 2020 alone the average health expenditure cost per capita in the U.S. was $11,946 compared to costs in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, which were only $6,731 $7,138 and $6,299, respectively. How is it the case that when you are living in America you are being charged nearly twice as much to receive medical attention than in other wealthy countries? Unfortunately, there are a number of reasons: drug costs are rising, doctors and nurses are paid proportionally more, and that our own healthcare system is run on the basis of a free market.
Try to think back to when you have ever had a headache, or just were not feeling right. For me, my mom would always tell me to take some Tylenol for the headache, but what is Tylenol? I had always thought that was the name of the medicine, but it turns out that Tylenol is simply the name of a company that produces a drug called acetaminophen, and they are not the only ones. Tylenol, Paracetamol, Aceta, and Panadol are all different “brands” of the same exact medicine. What is even more interesting is that they all have the liberty of charging any price that they choose for their drug, something that is unheard of in many other countries. The lack of government regulation on the pharmaceutical industry is one of the main reasons why the average cost of healthcare per person in our country is so high.
It is also interesting to see the differences in the salary of doctors in our country vs doctors in other countries. A quick comparison at the salary of U.S. doctor vs a doctor in the UK is baffling. The average starting salary of a U.S. doctor is roughly $68,000 w
here in the UK it is only $28,000, but as they progress through their career, the average salary of a doctor in the U.S. reaches upwards of $294,000 compared to the UK doctor only receiving $66,000. The reasons why we pay doctors so much in our country have to do with the high cost of becoming a doctor first, and then the differences in government regulation within the industry itself.
These factors make it increasingly difficult for people who cannot afford healthcare in America to receive the help that they need. It is sickening to me that a basic human need has been turned over and over again for profit. Prices will continue to rise now due to the lack of people going to the hospitals due to COVID, and as many more people begin to suffer because they can not pay their medical bills, it raises the question for doctors and healthcare providers everywhere, your six figure salary is comfortably, but at what cost?
I learned about drug costs in my high school AP economics class when we discussed monopoly. When a company comes out with a brand new drug, they have a patent on that drug for a certain period of time, usually a matter of years, before any other company can copy their “recipe”. This allows drug companies to charge as much as they want for a drug that usually is absolutely necessary for the survival of their consumers, without competition from other companies bringing this price down. It’s also really interesting that medical care costs come down to education costs in this country and the salaries necessary to make doctors able to get out of medical school debt. Great post!
People always complain about the cost of medical care but I didn’t know anything about it until now. I didn’t realize how different the cost of treatment is in different countries. Probably the most shocking difference is the average salary for doctors. If American doctors make so much because of the high cost of education, I wonder how much it costs to become a doctor in any of those European countries. Is their education the same quality as well?
It is crazy to think how essential medicine and healthcare quality are in America. I think we tend to pride ourselves in how great our healthcare system is. However, we tend to look past other countries and their healthcare systems. I wonder if the starting wages of doctors in America is due to the fact that the quality of healthcare is better? Maybe it is just economic differences?