Contents tagged with health care costs

  • America’s health care price tag: An inflationary tale

    Tags: health care costs, fee-for-service, health insurance, payment, reform

    By Roland A. Goertz, M.D., M.B.A.

    What is it that makes American health care so expensive compared to every other developed country? I am often asked that question, and giving an accurate or simple answer is difficult. Instead of a long list of items that underlie the problem, I will describe four well-intended processes that I believe have created an inherently inflationary model of care. We have all benefited from the creation of the four processes, but we now pay a huge price for maintaining them.

    Health Insurance

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  • Feeling the health insurance squeeze

    Tags: siy, health insurance, health care costs, perspective

    By Linda Siy, M.D.
    TAFP President, 2007-2008

    We are inundated almost daily with tales of escalating health care costs, exploding health insurance premiums and horror stories from small businesses that have been forced to drop health insurance and families who have lost coverage.

    Health care costs have long outpaced the rest of the economy. In 2008, health insurance premiums are projected to increase at more than twice the rate of inflation. Yet most employers simply accept this as a cost of doing business. But what are we getting in return for these exorbitant health insurance premiums?

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