

U.S. Healthcare: Most Expensive and Worst Performing - nealabq
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/us-healthcare-most-expensive-and-worst-performing/372828/

======
lsh123
I read the original report and I don't feel it is objective. First, there are
a lot of benchmarks about patient communication. While it is important, it is
not necessarily the only way to deliver information. For example, while my
kids doctor don't talk to kids about health eating, they receive a lot of
information at school and constantly talk about it at home (yeah, I do like a
good and unhealthy steak :) ).

Plus, some benchmarks are completely arbitrary: "Out-of-pocket expenses for
medical bills more than $1,000 in the past year, US$ equivalent" \- of course
US will get lower scores than Canada or any other country with government run
healthcare which is paid from taxes. It doesn't make any sense to ask this
question.

P.S. My wife works in Stanford ER and I hear a lot of stories (good and bad)
from her and her colleagues. The kind of stuff they do and the tools they have
today is just magic.

------
illini123
I think the other thing to keep in mind is that most of our costs have just
grown over time since solutions become that much harder with legacy systems.
It's much tougher to go and change a hospital's processes when they just
bought a $60 million platform that will most likely continue the status quo.
Legacy systems on top of legacy systems.

