US health reforms could hit other countries

By Gemma Newby
Producer, US Health Reform, Beware of Side Effects!
BBC News

The US spends 16.2% of GDP a year on its healthcare, twice as much per head as the UK does, and yet the average American's life expectancy is lower.

Some fear changes in the US will have a knock-on effect

Whilst public debate on US health reform concentrates on reforming the insurance industry, the larger debate over how to change a system that has profits at its heart has become obscured.

Last year America spent $252bn on prescription drugs, and its people paid almost twice as much as most developed countries for their medicines.

While the US spent $2.2tn (£1.34tn) on healthcare in 2007, other OECD nations spent an average of 8.9% of GDP.

US drug companies can set the prices of their drugs at whatever price they think patients will pay for them, which means that even for Americans with health insurance, medical bills can be crippling.

"We went through our savings quite quickly," said Jim Eyler, who spends over £1000 a month on his and his wife Jackie's drugs for cancer, asthma and diabetes.

"I've taken second mortgages out twice to help pay the medical bills. So every month we live month to month."

Yet the Eylers still fear reform of the healthcare system, which contains the financial incentives that they believe gives American's like them the best medical treatment in the world.Read more...