Re: CABG costs 80 percent higher in U.S. than CANADA
- From: "Sharon Hope" <shope@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 14:51:32 -0700
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050710/ap_on_he_me/health_care_push;_ylt=AqaYAmczCupTwTrGhLPSFdys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3czJjNGZoBHNlYwM3NTE-
Universal Health Care Push Being Revived
By MATT LEINGANG, Associated Press Writer Sun Jul 10, 5:58 AM ET
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A push for universal health coverage is being rekindled in
some states by the soaring cost of health care and the lack of political
support in Washington for federal changes.
Advocates of a single-payer system - where the government would collect
taxes and cover everyone, similar to programs in Canada and across Europe -
have introduced bills in at least 18 state legislatures. Some are symbolic
gestures, but heated debate is taking place in California and Vermont.
[more...]
Claims that the system would cost less have merit, said John Sheils, vice
president of the Lewin Group, a Virginia consulting firm that conducted a
study last year of how a single-payer system would work in California. The
study found that the state would save $343.6 billion in health care costs
over 10 years.
[more...]
"It's really going to the states to push health care reform along," said
Janne Hellgren, coordinator for a universal health care movement in
Massachusetts. "Washington just isn't willing to change the status quo."
<Hawki63@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:iIXze.8933$Tc6.8110@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "zee" <outrider@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1120944062.001361.166630@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Hospital Costs of Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery in U.S. More
>> Than 80 Percent Higher in U.S. Than in Canada
>>
>>
>>
>> CHICAGO - Although there are no differences in clinical outcome, the
>> in-hospital cost of coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) in the
>> U.S. is 82.5 percent higher in the U.S. than in Canada, according to a
>> study in the July 11 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the
>> JAMA/Archives journals.
>>
>>
>>
>> Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of illness and death in the
>> U.S. and Canada, with an estimated direct cost in the U.S. of $209.3
>> billion in 2003, including $94.1 billion in in-hospital costs alone,
>> according to background information in the article. In 2000, more than
>> 500,000 CABGs were performed in the U.S.
>>
>>
>>
>> Mark J. Eisenberg, M.D., M.P.H., of Jewish General Hospital, Montreal,
>> and colleagues compared the outcomes and costs of treatment of 12,017
>> consecutive patients (4,698 U.S. and 7,319 Canadian patients)
>> undergoing CABG at five U.S. and four Canadian hospitals.
>>
>>
>>
>> "In-hospital costs of treatment were substantially higher in the United
>> States than in Canada [an average cost of $20,673 vs. $10,373]," the
>> authors report. "After controlling for demographic and clinical
>> differences, length of stay in Canada was 16.8 percent longer than in
>> the United States; there was no difference in in-hospital mortality
>> [death]; and the cost in the United States was 82.5 percent higher than
>> in Canada."
>>
>>
>>
>> "Coronary artery bypass graft surgery requires substantial resources
>> in Canada and the United States," the authors conclude. "However,
>> patients undergoing CABG at U.S. hospitals incur approximately twice as
>> much cost compared with those at Canadian hospitals, with little
>> difference in clinical outcome and despite shorter average LOS [length
>> of stay]. The difference in total in-hospital costs is almost equally
>> attributable to differences in direct and overhead costs between the
>> Canadian and U.S. hospitals. This cost differential primarily reflects
>> higher resource prices for products and labor and higher overhead costs
>> in the United States resulting from a nonsocialized medical system.
>> However, U.S. hospitals also appear to streamline services better to
>> reduce LOS, a strategy Canadian hospitals might emulate to further
>> reduce treatment costs."
>>
>> (Arch Intern Med. 2005; 165:1506-1513.)
>>
>> Editor's Note: This study was supported by an unrestricted research
>> grant from Pfizer, Inc., Groton/New London, Conn. Dr. Eisenberg is a
>> Senior Physician-Scientist of the Quebec Foundation for Health
>> Research, Montreal. Co-author Kristian B. Filion, B. Sc., was supported
>> by a Canadian Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Team Summer Studentship.
>> Co-author Louise Pilote, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., is a Physician-Scientist
>> of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Ottawa, Ontario.
>>
> Canadian docs are paid by the government...thus..at a fixed rate...
>
> not so in the US
>
> not to mention how many Canadians have their surgeries here in the US
> rather than face a long wait in Canada...
>
>
>
.
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- From: Hawki63
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