Why an MRI costs $1,080 in America and $280 in France

Discussion in 'Economics' started by bigarrow, Mar 5, 2012.

  1. I'm pretty sure Obama care didn't go anywhere near tort reform.
     
    #21     Mar 5, 2012
  2. piezoe

    piezoe

    There are no significant differences, with regard to your list, between the U.S. and other countries other than cost. That was the point of the article.
     
    #22     Mar 5, 2012
  3. The difference may be doctors here live in 10,000 square foot mansions and own private helicopters and have vacation homes on the beach. I put in private helicopters because my orthopedic surgeon owns a helicopter. I hope he puts more time in preparing for a flight than he did in preparing for my surgery.
     
    #23     Mar 5, 2012
  4. I had a CT scan recently and it cost 10$. I pay 200$ insurance yearly.

    Ofcourse my country's debt is 100% but Japan's is 250% so who is counting right...:D
     
    #24     Mar 5, 2012
  5. Many thanks to the OP. And to those who immediately look for a partisan political reason I point out this goes way beyond what side of the aisle you sit on. It is a sick system that is a product of a collapsing empire. In our credentialed society we have pushed talent so far toward the bottom that simply MD or Esq. after your name gives you a way into a cartel.

    That is not to say every attorney gets in and of course there are a few who don't want in ... ditto for doctors. But for any half bright guy with the paper in hand that monopolistic door is open.

    These establishments must be taken on and anything short of shooting half of them has my endorsement. and I'm not far grom saying shooting one in ten should at least be considered.
     
    #25     Mar 5, 2012
  6. piezoe

    piezoe


    Maybe a hospital administrator making 500K/Yr or a heart surgeon 800K after 3 years in practice has something to do with it. Maybe artificially low medical school enrollments; maybe lack of prescribing pharmacists, as in other countries; maybe having more drugs available by prescription only than in any other country has something to do with it; maybe medicare being forbidden to negotiate drug prices has something to do with it. Do you suppose? Maybe the McCarran–Ferguson Act has something to do with it.

    Maybe U.S. health care is just ridiculous. Maybe the simple fact that U.S. medicine operates as a government protected CARTEL has something to do with it. Do you suppose?
     
    #26     Mar 5, 2012
  7. ..... Actually the military is full of failure, and possibly corruption (depends on definition).
     
    #27     Mar 5, 2012
  8. i want a school to be selective with someone who will be cutting me open.
     
    #28     Mar 5, 2012
  9. Unfettered economic growth in the healthcare sector is the solution. That means hundreds/thousands more medical schools, all growing and competing with each other, and millions more doctors practicing and competing. Government intervention makes care more expensive. The care in France is not less expensive. French people pay for it with higher taxes, high unemployment, low opportunity, and rationing.
     
    #29     Mar 5, 2012
  10. Shouldn't that selection be made based on skill rather than who can pay for education the most? Expensive education often creates overpaid underskilled staff. Some Russian engineers might confirm that with free education, and other parts of Europe.
     
    #30     Mar 5, 2012