The 2010 health-reform law does little to directly address prices. It includes provisions forcing hospitals to publish their prices, which would bring more transparency to this issue, and it gives lawmakers more tools and more information they could use to address prices at some future date.
Two of the five most profitable industries in the United States – the pharmaceuticals industry and the medical device industry – sell health care. With margins of almost 20 percent, they beat out even the financial sector for sheer profitability.
Many researchers are skeptical that this is an effective way to fund medical innovation. “We pay twice as much for brand-name drugs as most other industrialized countries,” Anderson says. “But the drug companies spend only 12 percent of their revenues on innovation. So yes, some of that money goes to innovation, but only 12 percent of it.”
“The money we spend on health care is money we don’t spend educating our children, or investing in infrastructure, scientific research and defense spending. So if what this means is we ultimately have overmedicalized, poorly educated Americans competing with China, that’s not a very good investment.”
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IDAHO INSURANCE AGENCY
Paul King and Charlotte Hildebrandt
1650 Albright Ln #101
Boise, Idaho 83709
208-377-7101
