High US Health-Care Spending and the Importance of Provider Payment Rates

Anderson Gerard, Chalkidou Kalipso and Bradley Herring
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Anderson Gerard: Professor of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Chalkidou Kalipso: Director of NICE International, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

Forum for Health Economics & Policy, 2012, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-22

Abstract: We compare health care spending in the USA to other industrialized countries and find that payment rates for hospitals, physicians, and drugs are generally much higher in the USA than they are in other industrialized countries while the quantity of services – as measured by the number of physician visits, hospital days and prescriptions filled per capita – is relatively similar across countries. We then explore policy initiatives designed to control payment rates and volume of services and review the success and failures of these initiatives. Within the USA, the private sector pays significantly higher rates for hospital and physician services and drugs than the public sector. Thus, if the USA is going to reduce health care spending, it may be necessary to begin by reducing payment rates in the private sector. Options to achieve this goal are presented.

Keywords: health care spending; international comparisons; provider payment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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DOI: 10.1515/fhep-2012-0007

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