Rising Health Care Costs are "Worth It"
9/05/2006Everyone loves to complain about the rising costs of health care and health insurance, but we seldom take a look at what we get for our money.
Harvard and the University of Michigan compared changes in health care costs vs. life-expectancy over the last 40 years and discovered that we're not getting ripped-off as much as we'd like to think.
Here are some interesting extracts from coverage on the report:
"The rising cost of health care has been the source of a lot of saber-rattling in the media and the public square, without anyone seriously analyzing and discussing the benefits gained," says Cutler. "But the dramatic increase in life expectancy that we've seen over the last decades shows that rising medical costs have been largely justified."
Conservatively adjusting for nonmedical factors in longevity such as lower smoking prevalence and reduced death rates from accidents, suicide, and homicide, the researchers attributed 50 percent of the increase in life expectancy since 1960 to improved health care.
Following this methodology, Cutler and colleagues estimated that from birth, the increased life expectancy since 1960 (approximately seven years, from 69.90 to 76.87 years) has cost $19,900 per added year of life.
for what I'm payin' i ought live to 150.
dad
