First we present the Table which shows the health care costs as a percent of a nations GDP. This is below.
In the above we not that the US is at 15%. Thus at a $14 trillion GDP we have a $2.5 trillion health care costs. The next simple question is, is this because our physicians are paid more or are there other dominant factors. To address that question they have also presented other data.
The following shows the costs of physicians, general practice including internists and specialists as a percent of the average wage in a country.
Note that the US is second here and the Netherlands is first. Austria is third and it is close to Luxembourg and Canada. For general practitioners the salaries of the top 8 are almost the same as a percent! The Netherlands total costs are 2/3 s of the US whereas their physician costs are a 1/3 more for general physicians. This anomaly persists throughout the data.
The conclusion is that it is NOT the physician that is causing the problem in the US. We have argued that it may very well be the chronic diseases such as those due to obesity that are indeed the true cause. The OECD also recently released a study on obesity.
The first chart below is for obesity in men. Obesity is a BMI in excess of 30. The US clearly dominates in this area with an explosive growth rate. The US has an obesity rate in excess of 30%. The relationship between diabetes (type 2) and obesity is almost 1:1. This means that we can expect almost 30% of the males in fiver years to have Type 2 Diabetes and then its consequences.
Sweden and France are at 5%, one third the number. This alone may account for much of the difference. We argue in our other White Papers that this was indeed the case.
Now the second chart is for obesity in women. The results are the same. In fact women are even more obese! The impact on women can be even more severe in that is causes increased infant mortality and increases in breast cancer as well as the plethora of all other Type 2 Diabetes disorders.
Now we look at overweight which is a BMI between 25 and 30. For men we show it below from the OECD study. The overweight category is a precursor of the obese stage. Most overweight persons become obese in 10 year time span. The results for men are shown below. 70% of US males are overweight! That means we can anticipate truly explosive health care costs unless we remediate this immediately!
Finally the last is for overweight in women. The rates are comparable.
The result is clear. The major reason for health care cost difference in our opinion are solely related to obesity and the resulting Type 2 Diabetes effects. This is a preventable disease. It can be resolved by taxing.
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