Comparison of Health Care Spending of United States With OECD Countrie

Question: Discuss trends in data concerning spending and determine if rates are higher or lower. Discuss the impact of technology and its relationship to spending versus health outcomes in the United States. Answer: The performance of United States in various measures related to well being of the individual. It ranks at the top among the top countries in the Better Life Index. The average household net disposable income per capita is 39531 USD a year. It is more than the OECD average of 23938 USD a year. But there is disparity among the richest and the poorest. The top 20% of the population earn eight times approximately than the bottom 20% (Oecdbetterlifeindex.org, 2015). From the 2014 data, it is evident that the health care system is the most expensive in the world. The health care spending of United States remains the highest than the OECD countries. Health care spending of United States accounted for 16.9% of the GDP in 2012. This is the highest share amongst the OECD countries. In 2012, 48% of the health care spending of United States was financed publicly. It is below the average of 72% in the OECD countries (oecd.org, 2014). As per the data of 2010, the health care expenditure of 2012 is 15.3% of the GDP in United States. On the other hand, in the OECD countries the expenditure in health care is less than 10% of GDP and does not exceed 11.3 %. The health care spending of United States has shown a slow trend due to the rise of price of the products of the pharmaceutical and the hospital sectors. The slowdown has been predated by the crisis in the economy. The slowdown has decelerated further by 2% in the year 2011 and 2012. The lower rate of gro wth of United States is higher than the average of the OECD countries. It is lower than the European countries as there has been significant reduction in the health care spending of the of the OECD countries. A downtrend has been noticed in the spending of the pharmaceutical sector of the OECD countries (OECD Health Statistics 2014 How does the United States compare?, 2014). The pharmaceutical sector of United States has shown downtrend after it has shown years of strong growth. The growth in the pharmaceutical sector has reduced by 1.1% in the year 2012. It was mostly due to the pricing effects which was a result of the loss of patent protection for some of the highly selling drugs. This has resulted in the increase in the share of the cheaper generic of drugs available in the market (OECD Health Statistics 2014 How does the United States compare?, 2014). The trend of health care spending in the year 2006 has been lower than the 2011 and 2012. The rise in the price of the products of the hospital industry and the health care industry has been the major reason behind the rise in spending. There was significant growth in the health care spending in almost all the OECD countries since 2008. The growth in the health care sector was fixed at 4% per annum but after 2008 the health care spending in the country has seen a sharp decline. It grew at only 0.2% in between 2009 and 2011. This was a result of the economic downturn in the country. Amongst the OECD countries, the decline was starkly seen in the decline of the health care spending in Greece and Ireland by 11.1% and 6.6% respectively in between 2009 and 2011. The health care spending also slowed in Canada and United States (OECD Health Statistics 2014 How does the United States compare?, 2014); (oecd.org, 2014). The OECD countries have universal health coverage for a set o health services. But the health scheme of United States varies (Health at a Glance 2013 OECD INDICATORS, 2013). This has increased the expense on health care services in United States. In United States, 15% of the population was uninsured in 2011 in United States. This has increased the out of pocket expenditures of the population in United States. In the OECD countries the life expectancy rate continued to increase from 65 in 2011. But the additional years are lived by the people with some chronic diseases. For e.g. quarter of the people of the age group of 85 years suffer from dementia (Health at a Glance 2013 OECD INDICATORS, 2013). The health care spending in United States has been increasing starkly than the other sectors of the economy. The introduction of new technology in the health care sector has increased the expenditure of the health care sector. Sophisticated imaging technology is used in United States and the MRI techniques are highly costly. Among the other OECD countries, United States spends the most in the technology used in the health care sector. United States is far above than the OECD countries in the use of technology (A, 2015). Technology, administrative expenditure, hospital costs and choice of lifestyle and the chronic conditions has resulted in the rise of the health costs. Installation and implementation of the electronic health records is considered to be a costly affair. The use of advanced technology has adverse effect on the health care spending of the country. Other areas of concern of the health care spending are the rise in the administrative expenses and the increase in the hosp ital costs. There has been rise in the administrative regulations in United States which has burdened the hospitals to overcharge their patients. The rise in the prices of the medicines has also raised the health care spending of the country. In 2010, the health care expenditures was $814 billion. It was 31.4% of the GDP of the country. The cost of the hospital care in the country will increase rapidly. The major health care spending of the country is done in curing the chronic diseases in the country. The chronic conditions of the disease fall into 20% of the health care spending of United States (A, 2015); (Cms.gov, 2015). The various factors that are discussed above have resulted in the rise of the health care costs in United States than the OECD countries (Norbeck, 2013). The health care costs are above the gross domestic product, growth of the population and the rate of inflation. Use of advanced technology has been a major factor for the rise of the health care costs (Norbeck, 2013). References A, W. (2015). The impact of technology on health care cost and policy development. - PubMed - NCBI. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 23 January 2015, from Cms.gov,. (2015). National Health Expenditure Data - Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services. Retrieved 23 January 2015, from Health at a Glance 2013 OECD INDICATORS. (2013) (1st ed., pp. 9-50). Retrieved from Norbeck, L. (2013). Who's To Blame For Our Rising Healthcare Costs?. Forbes. Retrieved 23 January 2015, from OECD Health Statistics 2014 How does the United States compare?. (2014) (1st ed., pp. 1-3). Retrieved from oecd.org,. (2014). OECD Health Statistics 2014 How does Canada compare?. Retrieved 23 January 2015, from