Run away health care costs

Why are health care costs in the United States so high and why has there been little effort to control them?

Listen 49:30
(credid, Bigstocks)

(credid, Bigstocks)

Guests: Dean Baker, Jared Bernstein, Anita Kumar

Health care is significantly more expensive in the United States compared to other advanced economies, and yet health outcomes aren’t any better. An Epipen runs about $300 in the U.S. compared to $38 in the UK, an MRI is $1,400 here vs. $190 in Holland, and for a hospital stay, head to Spain, it’s just $484 vs. $5,220 in the states. This hour, we look at why costs in America are so high, why we don’t do more to control them, and what can be done to reign them in. Our guests are DEAN BAKER, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and JARED BERNSTEIN, senior fellow at the Center on Budget. But first Politico’s White House correspondent ANITA KUMAR catches us up on the opening arguments in President Trump’s impeachment trial.

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