Healthcare Prices

What are health prices and usage in the US compared to other states?

Overall healthcare expenditure depends both on the prices charged to suppliers or for medicines and on the volumes of service used. The graphs show prices and use of healthcare in the US compared to similar economies (those whose overall gross domestic product is above both the OECD average and the OECD medium).

Whilst the available information is confined to selected service and drug categories, we find that higher prices - even more than usage - account for the high level of healthcare expenditure in the United States compared to other high-income states. According to international comparative figures, the USA has higher prices for most healthcare benefits and prescriptions.

The use of several tertiary care facilities, such as doctor appointments and hospitalisation, is now lower than in many similar Member States. The use of some therapies, such as Caesarean section and replacement of the joint of the knee, is higher in the USA than in similar states. In spite of fewer trips to the offices and lower mean stay in hospitals, the US as a whole spend twice as much per capita on health as similar states.

The diagrams are accompanied by an analytical look at how healthcare prices in the US have risen over the years. In 2016, the US invested 18% of its GNP in healthcare, while the next highest nation (Switzerland) invested 12% of its GNP in healthcare.

Mean expenditure per head on health care in similar jurisdictions (USD 5,198) is half as high as in the US (USD 10,348). Apart from Sweden, the USA has the lowest number of visits per head among similarly rich states. By 2015, there were an annual mean of 7.6 consultation per individual in doctors' surgeries, hospitals and emergencies in similar jurisdictions, while the US had an annual mean of 3.9 consultation per individual.

There are fewer doctors per head in the USA than in similar states ( 2.6 per 1,000 in 2013 in comparison to the comparative national mean of 3.4). Approximately 46% fewer visits per person took place in the USA in 2000 than in similarly prosperous nations, and the difference has generally been constant over the years.

By 2015, there were an annual mean of 7.6 consultation per capita in doctor's surgeries, hospitals and emergencies in similar jurisdictions, while the US had an annual mean of 3.9 consultation per capita. In the USA, prisoners spend on average (6 days) less hospitalized than in similar European states ( 10 days). Mean length of continuance has declined continuously over the years due to changes in health policies and practice, enhanced technologies, changes in payment of hospitals and limited funding.

In the USA and most similar coutries, the number of patients in need of hospitalization has decreased at a similar rate since 1994. Healthcare expenditures account for 32% of overall US healthcare expenditures. U.S. prices for selected healthcare benefits (based on employer-related entitlements and patients' contributions ) and some similar jurisdictions are available from the International Federation of Heath Plans.

Even though US hospitals are generally less expensive on the average, the US costs are much higher than Australia and slightly higher than Switzerland. Compared to OECD member states, the USA carries out on avarage fewer angioplasties and slightly more corresponding operations.

Fewer US operations on angioplasty and more operations on patients with congenital heart disease are performed than in similar jurisdictions, but their mean prices for both methods are significantly higher than in similar jurisdictions for which available evidence is available. The International Federation of Health Plans estimates that the US is 183% more expensive than Australia, which has the next highest rate among similar available states.

Mean per person undergoing balloon grafting in the US is 129% higher than the next highest Swiss averages. There are more caesarian births in the United States than in most similar jurisdictions, although the US birth rates for caesareans have slightly decreased after rising nearly 60% to 32 points between 1996 and 2009.

By 2014, the cost of a regular shipment in the US stood at an annualized $10,808, about 33% below the annual cost of a Cesarean section ($16,106). In comparison with similar jurisdictions for which available figures are available, the prices for both kinds of shipments in the USA are on aggregate significantly higher. The USA has more MRIs per million inhabitants than most similar jurisdictions on aggregate and carries out more MRIs per 1,000 persons than the equivalent national number.

It is not necessarily the case in other similarly rich economies. By 2014, the U.S. was conducting more MRI examinations than similarly affluent nations with an annual median cost of $1,119 per MRI. That was 42% more than the UK median rate, 122% more than the Swiss median rate and 420% more than the Australian median rate.

The International Federation of Health Plans reports that the US federal regulatory authority's 95% percent mean MRT cost is US$3,031. Whereas on a national basis fewer apectomies are carried out in Great Britain than in the USA, the cost per operation in the USA is 15,930 US dollars - almost twice as high as in Great Britain.

In Australia and Switzerland, where on four continents more operations are carried out than in similar jurisdictions, the cost of each operation is even lower, at only USD 3,814 in Australia and USD 6,040 in Switzerland. In both the US and similarly prosperous economies for which available figures are available, the number of operations to replace the leg has increased since 2000, although the US has increasingly carried out more of these operations.

By 2014, an estimated 227 prosthetic knees per 100,000 inhabitants had been fitted in the USA, up from 180 per 100,000 in similarly rich states. In 2014, the median cost of a joint substitute in the USA was 28,184 US dollars, 40% more than the median cost in Switzerland, 53% more than in Great Britain and 77% more than in Australia.

In the USA, the mean cost of a prosthesis is significantly higher than in similar jurisdictions for which information is available. Mean colorectal examination prices in the UK are higher than in the US. The mean colorectal examination prices in the UK are 135% higher than in the US. Humira, which is administered for the treatment of RA, is 96% higher in the US than in the UK and 225% higher than in Switzerland, according to International Federation of Health Plans figures.

In the US, these figures represent mean payment levels, which include insurances and patients' contributions, but not discounts. Xarelto, a medication used to diagnose or cure clotting, is on average more than twice as expensive in the United States as in the United Kingdom or Switzerland.

Harvoni, a high-priced special medicine for the treatment of hepatitis C, is on US prices on 42% more expensive than in Great Britain and 90% more expensive than in Switzerland. Truvada, which is administered for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, is on US prices on 44% more expensive than in Switzerland and 89% more expensive than in Great Britain.

Tecfidera (prescribed for the treatment of relapsing-remitting forms of MS ) is on US prices on average 174% more expensive than in Switzerland and 668% more expensive than in the UK. Avastin, which is used for the treatment of some types of cancer, is on average 124% higher in Switzerland and 125% higher than in the UK.

In contrast to some other medicines contained in the International Federation of Health Plans, the Avastin margin is relatively wide; the 25% percent was $2,289 and the 95% percent was $8,831 in 2014.