7 Days to the Election...And Healthcare is Again the Subject

It is 7 days until election day, November 8, 2016, and many in the country are gripped by the letter of FBI Director Comey about the Clinton email scandal. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is again in Pennsylvania criticizing Obama care and promising to repeal it once elected and replace it with...what?

In the meantime, it might be helpful to take a second and look at just how bad, yes bad, the healthcare is in the United States by comparing prices for drugs and procedures with those from some other countries around the world. Because Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and President Obama should be ashamed of what their respective plans won't do in terms of reducing the costs that Americans pay for their healthcare.

The International Federation of Health Plans is a global network of health insurance members world wide. Here are some drug and procedure prices for a set of drugs and procedures from their 2015 Comparative Price Report. The US prices are based on 370 million medical claims and over 170 million pharmacy claims that represent actual prices negotiated and paid (not list price) by insurers. The prices for Austria, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa and the U.K. are from the private sector from at least one private health plan. In many countries the private health plans compete with "socialized" health care.

Drug	Use	South Africa	Spain	Switzerland	New Zealand	UK	US
Xarelto	Blood Clots	$48	$101	$102	$n.a.	$126	$292
Humira	Rheumatoid Arthritis	$552	$1,253	$822	$n.a.	$1,362	$2,669
Harvani	Hepatitis C	$n.a.	$18,165	$16,861	$n.a.	$22,554	$32,114
Truvada	AIDS	$n.a.	$559	$906	$n.a.	$689	$1,301
Tecfidera	Relapsing M.S.	$n.a.	$1,399	$1,855	$n.a.	$663	$5,089
Avastin	Cancer	$956	$1,534	$1,752	$n.a.	$470	$3,930
Oxycontin	Moderate to Severe Pain	$n.a.	$84	$36	$n.a.	$590	$265
Angiogram	Diagnostic	$n.a.	$240	$191	$1,089	$2,149	$1,164
C.T. Scan Abdomen	Diagnostic	$233	$85	$383	$483	$860	$844
MRI	Diagnostic	$455	$130	$503	$811	$788	$1,119
Colonoscopy	Diagnostic	$632	$589	$604	$1,421	$3,059	$1,301
Cardiac Catheterization	Diagnostic	$2,596	$2,974	$181	$3,196	$4,046	$5,061
Hospitalization	Cost per day	$631	$424	$4,781	$2,142	$n.a.	$5,220
Appendectomy	Hospital and Physician	$1,786	$2,003	$6,040	$6,199	$8,009	$15,930
Normal Delivery	Hospital and Physician	$1,271	$1,950	$7,751	$n.a.	$n.a.	$10,808
C-section	Hospital and Physician	$2,192	$2,352	$9,965	$7,901	$n.a.	$16,106
Cataract Surgery	Hospitalization and Physician	$1,186	$1,719	$2,114	$2,740	$3,145	$3,530
Knee Replacement	Hospitalization and Physician	$7,795	$6,687	$20,132	$16,508	$18,451	$28,184
Hip Replacement	Hospitalization and Physician	$7,685	$6,757	$17,112	$15,465	$16,335	$29,067
Bypass Surgery	Hospitalization and Physician	$18,501	$14,579	$34,224	$32,480	$24,059	$78,318
Angioplasty	Hospitalization and Physician	$6,510	$7,839	$10,006	$13,667	$7,264	$31,620

Note that these prices are for private insurance. A standard claim against countries with national health care "aka socialized medicine" is that people have to wait until they die to get care. Anyone that can afford private insurance can get care they want any time outside the national health care. Even then, Americans pay substantially more than people in other countries. Why?

Is it possible that national health care might work to keep private prices down?

Regardless, it is readily apparent that Americans, for whatever reason, pay too much for health care. Perhaps it is time that that changed.