I am personally receiving some significant medical treatment and anecdotally I'm seeing costs in the USA as much as 20% to 3 times higher than for the very same thing in Hong Kong. To be fair, I am at one of the best medical centers in the USA and I came precisely to get the very best treatment. I don't begrudge the doctors a premium for that. But I also was in Hong Kong's very best hospitals being attended to by some of the leading doctors there as well, with the first doctor diagnosing my condition within 15 minutes, even though there are less than 5 such cases in HK per year and it is not his specialty.
But here are some comparisons from actual invoices:
Item USA Hong Kong
Lipid Blood Test $102 $64
Chest CT Scan w read $486 $450
Heart ECG $140 $80
Generalist Visit $200 $100
Specialist Consult $400-600 $200
Specialist report MRI $794 $400
A full 7 day inpatient stay at one of HK's leading hospitals cost me about $8200. A similar experience in US, on an outpatient basis will cost about $2000 more plus my hotel/lodging costs. I'm also told that in Hong Kong costs can be even less at other clinics and hospitals.
There does seem to be more duplication and additional testing in the US. I had one consultation that will cost me about $400 that was perhaps not necessary as it didn't tell me anything that the other doctors didn't already have in hand.
Another difference is that when I ask the doctors in USA about the costs of the tests, they don't typically know. In Hong Kong all the doctors and nurses know the costs and will tell you up front.
Assuming about 15% of the US economy is health care ($2 Trillion), a productivity gain of just 10% would save something like $200 Billion a year. That would pay for all of ObamaCare with money left over and no tax increases for anyone. It seems to me that malpractice reform, incentives to lower costs of drugs, and perhaps even work to improve administrative efficiency at clinics and hospitals could achieve this. Market forces require the private sector to drive efficiency (think Lasik). Why not health care?
Here's the view from my room at the hospital in Hong Kong. Not bad!
