American health care system costs four times more than Canada's single-payer system

[True Blue Drew]

Average Americans pay $2,497 a year for insurance overhead and admin costs, while Canadians pay just $551

IGOR DERYSH
FEBRUARY 15, 2020 3:00 PM, Salon

The cost of administering health care in the United States costs four times as much as it does in Canada, which has had a single-payer system for nearly 60 years, according to a new study.

The average American pays a whopping $2,497 per year in administrative costs — which fund insurer overhead and salaries of administrative workers as well as executive pay packages and growing profits — compared to $551 per person per year in Canada, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine last month. The study estimated that cutting administrative costs to Canadian levels could save more than $600 billion per year.

The data contradicts claims by opponents of single-payer health care systems, who have argued that private programs are more efficient than government-run health care. The debate over the feasibility of a single-payer health care has dominated the Democratic presidential race, where candidates like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., advocate for a system similar to Canada's while moderates like former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg have warned against scrapping private health care plans entirely.

Canada had administrative costs similar to those in the United States before it switched to a single-payer system in 1962, according to the study's authors, who are researchers at Harvard Medical School, the City University of New York at Hunter College, and the University of Ottawa. But by 1999, administrative costs accounted for 31% of American health care expenses, compared to less than 17% in Canada.

https://www.salon.com/2020/02/15/american-health-care-system-costs-four-times-more-than-canadas-single-payer-system/

But, but they're a s-s-socialist country!

[SCantiGOP]

1. Another simple stat that is just as revealing:

Our total cost of health care as a percentage of our annual economy is 50% higher than any other industrialized nation.
In rough terms, Western Europe (and Canada, Australia, Japan etc) spend about 12% of their GDP on health care; we spend about 18%.

But, without that the poor insurance companies and pharma giants might have to make do with just enormous profits instead of obscene profits.