Medical symbol that has been bothering me indeed as well.

For america the left symbol is better, because the medical healthcare there is a multibillion dollar industry thriving on earning money instead of curing patients.

The reason why American Healthcare is so expensive

American Healthcare is the most expensive healthcare of the world. This could be could of two reasons:

1. The healthcare is poorly organised
2. USA has a higher disease load

I think the main reason is reason number 1, which coincidentally also creates 2 creating even higher healthcare expenses.

The reason

A large group is uninsured. This drives up the costs for everyone.

Imagine 1,000 Uninsured People. Of those 1,000 people 30 develop chest pain. Because they are uninsured, they do not seek medical care. Of those 30, 10 people develop an myocardial infarct and present at the ER. The hospital has to treat them and for costs are made for 10 Myocardial infarcts and the longterm results.

Contrast this to the next example:

A large group is insured. This will dampen the costs for everyone.

Imagine 1,000 insured people. Of those 1,000 people 30 develop chest pain. Because they are insured, they seek medical care. They are properly treated by cardiologists. This proper treatment prevents myocardial infarction, only 1 person in the 30 develops a myocardial infarct. This not only increases proper healthcare, it also decreases total costs made in the

Comparison with cleaning your room:

If you clean your room everyday, it is an easy task and costs  only 5 minuts

However if you wait really long, it becomes a way harder task. Every week, it will take you an hour. Compare this to 7 times 5 = 35 minutes. Ignoring early problems will result in way bigger problems down the road.

Multiple factors:

People of low socioeconomic class have a way higher disease burden. Coincidentally, this group is more often uninsured. This exponentiaties the cost.

Question:

Is this a dichotomous effect (insured vs uninsured) or can there be a comparable continuous effect found in healthcare with universal insureance? This can be intersting for ways to reduce costs in universal healthcare, which in my eyes is the gold standard for a good health economy.

Bonus video with extra effect:

Market competition in Health Care

If

The reason given to start market competition in health care is usually to increase quality and efficiency of the care. However, it will also increase the volume. This will increase the total costs of health care!

 

How you have to manage health care

So:

Imagine a person A smoking, being overweight and dying of a heart attack at 60.

Now imagine a person B that succesfully keeps his weight in check, never smoked and dying of a pneumonia in the hospital at 90.

To reduce the costs of healthcare it is important to make sure that the life of person A is changed into person B. How is this done?

Education and culture. Ban smoking everywhere, give efficient incentives to drop weight and eat healthy etcetera. Heart disease is one of the costliest diseases in the world.