libertybill:cuzyouwanttotakemypicture:YepFrom WAC THE MISLEADING CLAIM: “The average h

libertybill: cuzyouwanttotakemypicture: Yep From WAC THE MISLEADING CLAIM: “The average hip replacement in the USA costs $40,364. In Spain, it costs $7,371.“ The Reality: First, note that Spain has a single-payer health care system run by the government. Their system requires, by law, that the state provide healthcare at “no out-of-pocket” cost to the individual. (except for prescription drugs.) Thus, costs are incurred by taxpayers. One reason the cost of surgery is different between the two countries? Incomes are lower in Spain than they are in the U.S. This means the labor component that factors into your hip replacement is severely reduced. The Median salary of an Orthopedic surgeon in Spain, for instance, is only $64,152 a year. The same position pays about $432,552 a year in the U.S. The labor component for surgery in America is therefore roughly 6.75 times greater than it is in Spain. If one were to adjust the cost of a hip replacement surgery in Spain by accounting for what the surgeon SHOULD be getting paid, we’d see a final price much closer to what’s charged in America. WHAT’S THE COST RELATIVE TO MEDIAN INCOME? Spain’s Median Household Annual Income, adjusted for purchasing parity, was $17,191 in 2011. The United States’ Median Household Annual Income, on the other hand, was $50,054 in 2011. If the average cost of a hip replacement in Spain is $7,371, that’s roughly 43% of that country’s median household income. Note, that price is billed to the taxpayer. As we’ll demonstrate however, in America, the cost is less burdensome. Now, there is no such thing as an “un-insured” price for medical care in Spain, since everyone is insured via the government. Therefore, Spain’s cost must be compared to what INSURED individuals are charged in America. The Average Cost of the same hip replacement surgery in the U.S. is $39,299 (per our sources). This would represent a whopping 78% of median household income IF - and only if - people actually paid it, but they don’t. Most of the cost is billed to private insurance companies, which sustain themselves via profitable investments mitigating the need to profit directly off of consumers. Only about $3,000 is ever billed to an insured individual. That’s around 6% of median household income. One might point out that while the costs are mostly incurred by private insurers in America, those insurers merely disperse such costs amongst their customers not unlike the Spanish government passing costs onto taxpayers. This is a fair critique, and for the sake of argument, we can attempt to adjust for that. For 2011, premiums for employer-sponsored family-health coverage were roughly $15,500. (Paid largely by the employer) On average, workers, however, only paid about $4300 of that. For single (non-family) coverage, workers paid even less, with an average contribution of only about $950. [x] If we were to include one year’s worth of insurance premium contributions with the cost of this surgery, the cost in America would still only range from $3950 - $7300. That only represents 7.9% - 14.5% of our 2011 median household income, which is significantly less than Spain’s 43%. In fact, for the burden of a U.S. family to match that of Spain, we’d have to include, not only the out-of-pocket expense from the surgery, but also over 4 years of health insurance contributions. For individual coverage, we’d have to include 19.5 years of health insurance contributions! Luckily, our burden isn’t 43% of our median household income. WHAT’S THE CONCLUSION? Yes, the absolute cost is lower in Spain than it is in America, but that cost represents a burden far greater than what we experience in the U.S. Meanwhile, in the United States, depending on how you count it, people only pay an amount equivalent to about 6%, 7.9%, or 14.5% what they earn annually. When Spain’s burden is 43%, which system sounds less burdensome to YOU? —————————- Sources: http://www.salaryexplorer.com/salary-survey.php… http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php… http://www.ine.es/en/daco/daco42/etcl/etcl0412_en.pdf http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=IDD http://health.costhelper.com/hip-replacement.htmlanted=all&… http://www.justlanded.com/engli…/Spain/Articles/Jobs/Doctors [x] (*2011 figures were approximated. Source actually only provided 2010 and 2012 figures, but indicated what the growth rate was in that time, allowing for a 2011 approximation.) http://www.ncsl.org/resear…/…/health-insurance-premiums.aspx -- source link

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