Health care is among the largest sectors of the U.S. economy and accounted for more than 17 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014. About 60 percent of the U.S. population has private health insurance, which pays for over a third of health care spending annually. ''The fact that prices are so high and can vary so much for hospital treatments of the same costs and quality is simply mind-boggling to foreign observers of the U.S. health care system,'' says John Van Reenen, professor of economics and director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, one of the study's authors. ''This is surely one of the reasons why U.S. health care absorbs a bigger share of GDP than in every other large advanced country.''
This article was published online by HealthNewsDigest.com on December 15, 2015
Link to article here
Related publications
'The Price Ain't Right? Hospital Prices and Health Spending on the Privately Insured', Zack Cooper, Stuart Craig, Martin Gaynor and John Van Reenen, Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No.1395, December 2015
Related links
Zack Cooper webpage
John Van Reenen webpage
Growth Programme webpage
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