Comments on: What We Know About Health Care Waste Isn’t True? http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/what-we-know-about-health-care-waste-isnt-true/ taking the most charitable view of those who disagree Mon, 21 Dec 2020 16:18:52 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.32 By: Handle http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/what-we-know-about-health-care-waste-isnt-true/#comment-450983 Sun, 14 Sep 2014 00:48:08 +0000 http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/?p=3868#comment-450983 But this isn’t the geographic variation comparative analysis we were looking for, which is international, not interstate. And it isn’t for variation in medical spending per capita in general, it’s the variation in the price charged for the same treatments and procedures.

What we really want to know is why a comparable developed country with high-quality health outcomes, well-paid medical professionals and similar track records can do the same procedures for so much less. A MRI costs +$1K in the US. In France it’s a quarter that. An appendectomy in the U.S. can be over $10K, some places $20K. In Japan it’s less than $4K, even privately procured. It’s not just India and Mexico that do medical tourism for Americans, even Spain has a thriving market.

A difference of 20-50% isn’t too bad. A difference of a few hundred percent without any apparent bang for the extra bucks is what needs explanation.

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