Goldman's Alec Phillips is out with a new report titled: Is Health Spending Unsustainable?
The basic gist: Public healthcare spending is unsustainable, but overall healthcare spending isn't too much of a threat, and isn't likely to badly crowd out other areas of the economy.
Still, this chart below from the report really stands out, as it shows just how much of a freakish outlier the US healthcare system is.
Meanwhile, Fareed Zakaria had some kind of special about the dismal state of US healthcare last night on TV, and so he tweeted out a bunch of interesting facts.
The least efficient payers in the world are American private insurance companies with administrative costs of 20-30%. #SavingHealthCare
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) March 19, 2012
Just 5% of Americans accounted for half of all #US health care costs in 2009. #SavingHealthCare.
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) March 19, 2012
Taiwan went with a "single-payer" insurance model in 1995 and the number of uninsured dropped from 41% to 8% in one year. #SavingHealthCare.
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) March 19, 2012
In the UK, the Brits spend about $3,500 per person on health care. The #US spends around $8,500 per person. #SavingHealthCare.
— Fareed Zakaria (@FareedZakaria) March 19, 2012