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1-Page Summary of An American Sickness

Overview

Health care has become a major point of debate in the United States. Politicians argue over health insurance and medicine prices, but no one seems to have a clear idea on how to fix these problems. How did it come to this? In these key points, we will look at why the US approaches treatment of the ill differently than most other Western countries. We’ll examine history and current situations as well as possible solutions for the future. There may be a way to save this system that everyone agrees is sick.

A thorough analysis of the TED (Technology, Education, Design) presentations and interviews with those speakers can help us figure out why prescription drugs are so expensive in the U.S., as well as how hospitals make money on tests you might not need. Furthermore, we can reduce health-care costs by starting to take action now.

Big Idea #1: The American health-care system went from humble beginnings to high profits.

The American health-care industry is relatively new. It started around 1900 with the introduction of medical insurance policies that compensated workers for lost income during illness.

Early insurance companies in the US helped hospitals get paid and also helped patients save money.

Health insurance has been around for a long time. However, it wasn’t until the 1950s that health care became big business in America. Soon after, many companies started to see this as an opportunity and entered the market. Since then, health insurance has remained a profitable industry.

To understand the size of the industry, let’s look at Jeffrey Kivi. He has been treated for psoriatic arthritis since childhood and gets infusions of a drug called Remicade every three months to help control it.

Jeffrey used to pay $19,000 every six weeks for his treatments. His insurance company was always willing to cover it because the doctor he went to worked at a particular hospital. But when that doctor moved away, Jeffrey’s treatment suddenly cost $130,000 per infusion and his insurance company didn’t want to pay for it anymore.

It might seem strange, but insurance companies are actually happy to pay such exorbitant bills. In 1993, Blue Cross spent 95 cents of every dollar they earned on patient care and the rest on profit. However, in recent years they have been keeping more money as profit than paying for medical costs. This is because Obamacare requires that insurers spend at least 80-85% of their revenue on patient care. Jeffrey’s insurance company was happy to pick up his $130K bill since it means they can keep a lot of money as profit, which is what allows them to comply with Obamacare standards.

Big Idea #2: Hospitals are being run like any other profit-seeking corporation.

Most American hospitals can be traced back to the nineteenth century.

Today, hospitals are more like corporations than charitable foundations.

In the 1970s, hospitals began hiring business consultants from Deloitte & Touche to help them maximize profits. Hospitals were now in the business of raising prices and manipulating their bills so they could make more money. This is often at patients’ expense. In 2014, attorney Heather Pearce Campbell was pregnant with her child when she had a sonogram that revealed an ectopic pregnancy—the embryo was growing in one of her fallopian tubes instead of inside the uterus.

A woman had a miscarriage, and the hospital charged her over $44,000 for the procedure. The fee was exorbitant because it categorized the procedure as “miscellaneous.” It just showed how hospitals maximize profits by charging patients more than they should.