Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Justifying The Higher US Medical Costs

Gary Becker on the Becker-Posner Blog, "Mortality from Disease and the American Health Care System" asks if the lower life expectancy rates in the US than Europe are due to factors outside the US medical establishment. He compares the mortality for specific diseases in the US and Europe and finds that the US mortality rate is lower for serious diseases.

Becker says:
These results suggest that the US health care system does deliver better control over serious diseases than systems in other advanced countries.
He then goes on to do a back of the envelope cost analysis of the extra longevity and finds it justifies the additional US medical expense. Read his entire blog post here.

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