Health Insurance Daily

Study Finds Health Care Good Value Despite Costs

The dramatic increase in health-care spending in the United States since 1960 is a major reason that Americans are living longer, making the world's most expensive health-care system a good value despite its high costs, according to an academic study being released today.

The study notes that a baby born in 2000 can expect to live for 76.9 years, compared with 69.9 years for a newborn in 1960. While some of the gain is because of declines in rates of smoking and fatal accidents, it is reasonable to attribute at least half of it to more and better health care, said Harvard University economist David M. Cutler, the study's lead author.

"If you want to evaluate whether we're spending too much, you have to know what we're getting for it," Cutler said in a telephone interview. "And when you look at what we're getting for it, the return actually looks to be pretty high. . . . The presumption that most people have is that it's obvious that we're spending way too much."

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posted by Mike @ 10:35 AM