https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...
Don't assume high spending necessarily means poor overall health. Two people in my household are on modern fancy drugs for autoimmune conditions (upadacitinib and etanercept). They work spectacularly well and cost our insurance company thousands of dollars a month. And the family members taking them are doing great!
Would it be cheaper to fly somewhere?
I don't think it's sustainable on the national scale much longer; the insurance premium costs me twice my mortgage each month.
In the US you might have the copay $5, but you also pay for your insurance plan, which might be like $30k/year for a good family plan.
One of the biggest challenges to reform here is the costs are all hidden away from most people. People think their health insurance costs $100/month because their employer chips in the other $1900/month towards the premium.
People choose different plans, but my understanding is that they dont differ much at all in healthcare access. Instead, they differ in the average percentage of healthcare expenses that will be paid by the plan.
The Insurance company is billed some ungodly amount, and my copay is small or $0.
There has to be some financial shenanigans going on: someone is marking up the price, and writing it off to some reasonable level for some benefit. It's not sustainable to the insurer or the insured to be paying these kinds of prices for what amounts to a 'forever' medication.
The stress of maintaining the discount programs, induces quite a bit of anxiety.
There is absolutely some shenanigans going on, but most of that goes on with the Pharmacy benefits manager.
All these parties (ultimately 2?) are doing something to their balance sheets.