Relevant Healthcare Stats
What follows is an assortment of statistics gleaned from various sources. It is by no means comprehensive. As you know, it takes time to accumulate and organize data and, as a result, the only stats readily available may be several years old. In addition, statistics are often aggravatingly inconsistent. Not being a statistician and having no desire to act like one, I include here only a smattering of the wealth of material available to anyone inclined to spend hours in research. I’m not. Those cited below are snapshots of some of the information I believe bear greatly on our current healthcare insurance issues. I have included the date and source of the statistics cited below. 
  • Healthcare spending in the United States recently made up more than 17% of our gross domestic product. (Fox Business, 8/10/16)
  • In 2014, healthcare spending totaled $3 trillion. Of that, approximately 20% was for doctors and clinical services; 32% for hospitals; 10% for prescription medications; 5% for nursing care facilities. Other expenditures included retail medical equipment, dental services, and home healthcare. (Fox Business 8/10/16)
  • Per capita spending on healthcare that year was $9,403, according to the World Bank, far more than in most other developed countries, which have some form of nationalized healthcare systems. For example, in Germany it was $5,411; in Canada, $5,292; in the U.K. and Japan, less than $4,000. (Fox Business, 8/10/16)   
  • In a recent year, billing and insurance-related costs per physician in the U.S. were estimated to be $82,975 versus $22,205 in Canada (72% lower than in the U.S.). (BioMed Central Health Services Research, 11/13/14)
  • According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, administrative costs in Medicare are only about 2 percent of expenditures. Administrative costs of private insurers are estimated to be approximately 17% of revenue. (justcareusa.org, 11/20/16)
  • ​​According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Medicare premiums rose 4.3 % as compared with a 6.5 % rise for private insurance premiums between 1997and 2009. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts that in 2022, the private insurance equivalent of Medicare would cost almost 40% more for a typical 65-year-old. (justcareuse.org 11/20/16)
  • Healthcare in the U.S. costs about twice as much as it does in any other developed country. Even so, the U.S. has been ranked last among the top 11 industrialized countries in the overall quality of healthcare and 37th in healthcare systems globally. (Investopedia, 8/6/15)
May 31,  2017
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Comparative Costs of a Few Common Medical Expenses
(New York Times, 6/1/13)
Angiogram
Colonoscopy
Hip Replacement
Lipitor
MRI
Avg U.S. Price
​$914
Avg U.S. Price
​$1,185
Avg U.S. Price
​$40,364
Avg U.S. Price
​$124
Avg U.S. Price
​$1,121
Canada
​$35
Switzerland
​$655
Spain
​$7,731
New Zealand
​$6
Netherlands
$319