One of the things that everyone has been talking about, including Obama, is slowing the growth in healthcare costs, what some have called ‘bending the curve’ (and if we bend it, will we Bend It Like Beckham?). But consider these per capita healthcare expenditure data from the OECD:
In case you missed, let me make this a little clearer:
Other than Canada and Norway, every other country in the OECD spends less than half of what we do per capita. And before someone starts talking about higher incomes in the U.S., Denmark has a higher median income than the U.S., but half the per capita insurance costs.
We don’t need to slow the growth of healthcare costs (the first derivative). We need to cut the cost of healthcare in absolute terms. Even if one views this from the perspective of percent GDP, we still spend far too much.
And virtually nobody seems to be talking about this.