Inequality Is At The Core Of High Health Care Spending: A View From The OECD

It is commonly said that the US spends more than twice as much on health care as other developed countries, yet its outcomes are worse. The inference is that too much care is provided, to no good end.

Such international comparisons are drawn from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of 34 developed countries. Analyzing these data is a multi-step process, like peeling an onion, and the truth resides deep within its core.

The process starts by adjusting health care spending for “purchasing power parity” (PPP) and expressing it in US dollars. By that measure, per capita spending in the US is 160 percent more than the OECD mean (Panel A, left bracket), and this is the basis for the notion that the US spends more than twice as much. But it is only the first layer.

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Source: Health Affairs