Medical Xpress July 7, 2022
Modern medicine is remarkable. Conditions like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C were once virtual death sentences. Both can now be treated easily and effectively.
But for Americans, the wonders of modern medicine come at a steep cost: Total U.S. health spending exceeded US$4.1 trillion in 2020, or $12,000 per person. How those trillions of dollars are spent can seem like a mystery.
The biggest portion of that—hospital care, which makes up 31% of total spending—is now subject to transparency rules that are supposed to make it easier for patients to understand what their treatments cost. But so far hospitals’ compliance has been minimal.
Things are both more transparent and murkier when it comes to the second-biggest chunk of America’s annual medical...