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Re:Show HN: Compare prices that US hospitals charge patients... by huitzitziltzin on Monday January 18, 2021 @01:58PM (#25825192)
> The simple answer is that Americans really do consume significantly more healthcare than Europeans.

I do not believe this is correct.

From the OECD, average length of hospital stay across rich countries:

https://data.oecd.org/healthcare/length-of-hospital-stay.htm

We pay more but we generally consume less. EDIT: let me add this comparison of health prices across countries from the Health Care Cost Institute. See Table 1:

https://healthcostinstitute.org/hcci-research/international-...

Our prices are higher.

The US is an obese country, but you will find if you look that obesity rates are similar or worse in (e.g.) Mexico and some Gulf States (I think the UAE though I don't have a source for you).

We are not a wild outlier in terms of measured unhealthiness. Life expectancies here are lower though, despite vastly higher expenditure than other rich countries.

There are important failures on the supply side of the market:

From the OECD, we have fewer hospital beds per capita than most rich countries:

https://data.oecd.org/healtheqt/hospital-beds.htm

We have fewer doctors per capita than most countries:

https://data.oecd.org/healthres/doctors.htm

Failures of competition throughout the market (including hospital consolidation) keep prices high. We do basically zero evaluation of cost effectiveness.

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