Knotty Challenges in Health Care Costs

The numbers, the projections, make health economists shudder.

The average per capita cost of health care in the United States is over $8,000 annually, double the amount spent in most European countries. The Congressional Budget Office projects that unless costs are brought under control in the next decade, the nation will be spending all of its tax revenues on health care, Social Security, interest on the debt and defense — but mostly health care.

“If we solve our health care spending, practically all of our fiscal problems go away,” said Victor Fuchs, emeritus professor of economics and health research and policy at Stanford University. And if we don’t? “Then almost anything else we do will not solve our fiscal problems.”

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Source: The New York TImes