Good story in the Washington Post today points out what most of us already know:
America’s sky-high health-care costs are so far above what people pay in other countries that they are the equivalent of a hefty tax, Princeton University economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton say. They are surprised Americans aren’t revolting against these taxes.
“A few people are getting very rich at the expense of the rest of us,” Case said at conference in San Diego on Saturday. The U.S. health-care system is “like a tribute to a foreign power, but we’re doing it to ourselves.”
The U.S. health-care system is the most expensive in the world, costing about $1 trillion more per year than the next-most-expensive system — Switzerland’s. That means U.S. households pay an extra $8,000 per year, compared with what Swiss families pay. Case and Deaton call this extra cost a “poll tax,” meaning it is levied on every individual regardless of their ability to pay. (“Polle” was an archaic German word for “head,” so the idea behind a poll tax is that it falls on every head.)
Despite paying $8,000 more a year than anyone else, American families do not have better health outcomes, the economists argue. Life expectancy in the United States is lower than in Europe.
Of course, this is what Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have been saying since the beginning, but the only question the press can ask (continuously) is, “But will you raise taxes on the middle class?”
Warren studiously avoided answering this question for a while by saying “Middle class Americans will save money,” which is true, but which, in my opinion, wasn’t specific enough to cut through the simplistic crap being flung at her by the press and by a few of her Democratic rivals. I think Warren could have been more clear with her messaging (and she still can). All Democrats, in general, can be better on messaging around these facts.
After looking at other health systems around the world that deliver better health outcomes, the academics say it’s clear that two things need to happen in the United States: Everyone needs to be in the health system (via insurance or a government-run system like Medicare-for-all), and there must be cost controls, including price caps on drugs and government decisions not to cover some procedures.
C’mon, Democrats. Call our current health system what it is: a huge tax on the average American.
The two academics presenting this in-depth study, Anne Case and Angus Deaton, have a new book out covering their research and its implications for the country:
Looks like a good read.