Inefficient health care costs lives: CIHI

Disease Prevention: Saving Lives or Reducing Health Care Costs?

BACKGROUND Disease prevention has been claimed to reduce health care costs. However, preventing lethal diseases increases life expectancy and, thereby, indirectly increases the demand for health care. Previous studies have argued that on balance preventing diseases that reduce longevity increases health care costs while preventing non-fatal diseases could lead to health care savings. The object...

Is American health care uniquely inefficient?

A lthough countries around the world are grappling with the problem of rising health expenditures, the United States has reason for particular concern. Americans are dissatisfied with their healthcare system (Schoen et al., 2007) but also spend more than the citizens of other nations: 15 percent of GDP on health care in 2006, compared to 11 percent in France and Germany, 10 percent in Canada, a...

Rising health care costs.

Tracking health care costs.

This paper provides an update on trends in health care costs since 1999. Although the growth rate in overall costs has been stable since 1999, the trend in costs for hospital services rose, while that for prescription drugs declined, although it remains extremely high. Increased growth in hospital costs reflects the retreat from tightly managed care and labor shortages. The discrepancy between ...

For debate--Does health care save lives?

The contribution of health care to the health of a population has long been controversial. In the 1970s, McKeown and Illich argued that health care had made little contribution to population health and may actually be damaging it. There is, however, a growing body of evidence that health care now has a demonstrable effect on health at a population level, albeit subject to certain methodological...