Warren Buffett says health care costs are a bigger problem than corporate taxes

Re:Warren Buffett says health care costs are a bigger proble... by seanmcdirmid on Tuesday May 09, 2017 @10:12AM (#14300132)

The Swiss spend about as much as the USA does on health care (as a percent of GDP) and have a similar mandated health insurance system, the main difference being that employers aren't allowed to provide health insurance as a benefit do there are no group policies (everyone is in the individual policy market).

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Re:Warren Buffett says health care costs are a bigger proble... by scholia on Tuesday May 09, 2017 @11:38AM (#14300926)

The Swiss government spends about the same per head as the US government (and partly that's a currency problem).

However, US private spending is much higher, so the total cost of healthcare is higher.

The OECD numbers for 2013 put US per capita spending at $9,086 compared with Swiss spending of $6,325. The OECD median is $3,661.

It would be better to compare the USA with Canada, which has a universal healthcare system at a lower cost to the state ($3,974 vs $4,197).

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Re:Warren Buffett says health care costs are a bigger proble... by seanmcdirmid on Tuesday May 09, 2017 @12:39PM (#14301516)

I stand corrected, thanks! I actually liked the Swiss system when I was a part of it, even though I was a bit mad for having to pay for health insurance out of pocket at the beginning.

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Re:Warren Buffett says health care costs are a bigger proble... by dv_dt on Tuesday May 09, 2017 @01:38PM (#14302181)

Switzerland also controls the max price of drugs as part of their gov't approval process.

"Drugs must be effective, cost-effective and appropriate to be listed in the positive drug list (SL/Spezialitätenliste). The federal government sets the maximal allowable public price for drugs in the SL."

https://www.ispor.org/HTARoadMaps/SwitzerlandPH.asp

It is also the most expensive of the european OECD nations...

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