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50 U.S. Health Care Statistics That Will Absolutely Astonish You

Michael Snyder,

2011-07-02T15:05:00Z

The U.S. health care system has become one gigantic money making scam, and you are about to see the statistics that prove it.

Click here to see the facts >

Today, the United States spends more on health care per person than any other country in the world by far. The health insurance companies and the big pharmaceutical corporations are raking in gigantic mountains of cash and yet the quality of the health care that we receive in return is rather quite poor.

People living in Puerto Rico have a greater life expectancy than we do. Residents of Cuba have a lower infant mortality rate than we do. We are the most medicated population on the planet and yet we are also one of the sickest.

If the U.S. health care system was a country, it would have the 6th largest economy on the globe and yet rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes continue to increase. The U.S. health care statistics that you are about to read below are absolutely stunning. For as much money as we shell out for health care, we should have the greatest system in the entire world. But we don't. Something has gone horribly wrong.

As you read this, there are hordes of health bureaucrats and greedy corporate fat cats that are becoming incredibly wealthy while the rest of us go broke trying to pay for our health care. In the United States today, health care bills cause more bankruptcies than anything else does. Millions of Americans are afraid to go to the hospital because they know that even a short visit would be a huge financial burden.

Sadly, our politicians in Washington D.C. continue to make the problem worse. Obamacare was one of the worst pieces of legislation that anyone has ever come up with in the history of the United States. You could put a thousand monkeys in a room with a thousand typewriters for a thousand years and they wouldn't come up with anything as bad as Obamacare. Rather than doing something to address the abuses of the health insurance companies and the pharmaceutical corporations, Obamacare actually gives them more power. In fact, huge portions of Obamacare are virtually identical to a bill that was written by the health insurance trade association in 2009. Under Obamacare our health care costs will go up even faster and the quality of our health care will continue to go down. So please don't try to tell me that Obamacare is the solution to anything.

The health care system in the United States is so broken that it probably cannot be repaired. The entire thing needs to be dismantled and completely reinvented.

If you doubt this, just check out the stats that I have compiled below.

As I put together this list of statistics, Business Insider proved to be a very valuable resource. In addition, I relied heavily on the following articles which I previously authored....

*25 Shocking Facts That Prove That The Entire U.S. Health Care Industry Has Become One Giant Money Making Scam

*18 Ridiculous Statistics About Medical Bills, Medical Debt And The Health Care Industry That Will Make You So Mad You Will Want To Tear Your Hair Out

*The Coming Doctor Shortage

The following are 50 U.S. health care statistics that will absolutely astonish you....

Click here to see the facts >

What the United States spent on health care in 2009 was greater than the entire GDP of Great Britain

Source: TIME

Health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%

Source: New America Foundation

The United States spent 2.47 trillion dollars on health care in 2009. It is being projected that the U.S. will spend 4.5 trillion dollars on health care in 2019

Source: TIME

Approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt

Source: Commonwealth Fund

Medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States

Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

Source: CNN

Over the past decade, health insurance premiums have risen three times faster than wages have in the United States

Source: Commonwealth Fund

The chairman of Aetna the third largest health insurance company in the United States brought in a staggering $68.7 million during 2010

Ron Williams exercised stock options that were worth approximately $50.3 million and he raked in an additional $18.4 million in wages and other forms of compensation. The funny thing is that he left the company and didn't even work the whole year.

Source: USA Today

The top executives at the five largest for-profit health insurance companies in the United States combined to receive nearly $200 million in total compensation for 2009

Source: LA Times

Even as the rest of the country struggled with a deep recession, U.S. health insurance companies increased their profits by 56 percent during 2009 alone

Source: ABC News

America's five biggest for-profit health insurance companies ended 2009 with a combined profit of $12.2 billion

Source: ABC News

In the United States, health insurance administration expenses account for 8 percent of all health care costs. In Finland, that figure is just 2 percent

Source: The Commonwealth Fund

Blue Shield of California announced plans earlier this year to raise rates an average of 30% to 35%

Some individual policy holders were slated to see their health insurance premiums rise by up to 59 percent.

Source: The Raw Story

Health insurance premiums for small employers in the U.S. increased 180% between 1999 and 2009

Source: Mother Jones

Since 2003, health insurance companies have shelled out more than $42 million in state-level campaign contributions

Source: LA Times

There were more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies that made over a billion dollars in profits each during 2008

Source: CNN Money

Each year, tens of billions of dollars is spent on pharmaceutical marketing in the United States alone

Prescription drugs cost about 50% more in the United States than they do in other countries

Source: Congressional Budget Office

Nearly half of all Americans now use prescription drugs on a regular basis

elderly medicine prescription drugs health care

Approximately one-third of all Americans use two or more pharmaceutical drugs, and more than ten percent of all Americans use five or more drugs on a regular basis.

Source: Natural News

About 750,000 people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs

Source: Leo Galland - HuffPo

The Food and Drug Administration reported 1,742 prescription drug recalls in 2009, which was a gigantic increase from 426 drug recalls in 2008

Source: CNN Money

Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are

Source: Science Daily

The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world

Source: Scientific American

The medical liability system in the United States added about $55.6 billion to the cost of health care in 2008

Source: CNBC

According to one doctor, "a gunshot wound to the head, chest or abdomen" will cost $13,000 at his hospital the moment the victim comes in the door

There will be significant additional charges depending on how bad the wound is

Source: FOX

C-sections are on the rise because a vaginal delivery costs approximately $5,992, while a c-section costs approximately $8,558

Source: Forbes

The United States had a higher infant mortality rate than 45 other nations in 2009

Source: CIA World Factbook

The infant mortality rate in the United States is nearly three times as high as it is in Singapore

Source: CIA World Factbook

It is estimated that hospitals overcharge Americans by about 10 billion dollars every year

Source:Third Age

In fact, one trained medical billing advocate says that over 90 percent of all the medical bills that she has audited contain "gross overcharges"

Source:Third Age

It is not uncommon for insurance companies to get hospitals to knock their bills down by up to 95 percent

But if you are uninsured or you don't know how the system works, then you are out of luck.

Source: Talking Points Memo

Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from about 38 million to about 52 million

Source: Becker's Hospital Review

People living in the United States are three times more likely to have diabetes than people living in the United Kingdom

Source: OECD

Today, people living in Puerto Rico have a greater life expectancy than people living in the United States do

Source: CIA World Factbook

Americans are twice as obese as Canadians are

Source: OECD

Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid

Source: Business Week

The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run out five years faster than they were projecting just last year

Source: USA Today

It is being projected that the federal government will account for more than 50 percent of all health care spending in 2012

Source: TIME

Greece has twice as many hospital beds per person as the United States does

Source: OECD

The state of California now ranks dead last out of all 50 states in the number of emergency rooms per million people

Source: LA Times

According to one survey, approximately 1 out of every 4 Californians under the age of 65 has absolutely no health insurance

Source: LA Times

According to a Price Waterhouse Cooper's report, "inefficient claims processing" costs the U.S. health care system 210 billion dollars every single year

Source: CNN Money

Today, approximately 40% of all U.S. doctors are age 55 or older

Source: NY Post

We were already going to be facing a shortage of more than 150,000 doctors over the next 15 years even before Obamacare was passed

Source: NY Post

4 out of every 9 American doctors said that they "would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement" if Congress passed Obamacare

Source: Investors.com

Approximately one-third of all practicing physicians in the United States indicated that they may leave the medical profession because of the new health care law

Source: CNSNews

40 percent of all U.S. doctors plan to leave the profession at some point over the next three years, according to one study

Source: Investors.com

According to the executive director of Physician Hospitals of America, Obamacare has already forced the cancellation of at least 60 doctor-owned hospitals

Source: CNSNews

According to a report released in 2010, Americans spend approximately twice as much as residents of other developed countries do on health care

Source: Reuters

If the U.S. health care system was a country, it would be the 6th largest economy in the entire world

Source: Kaiser EDU

According to numbers released by Deloitte Consulting, a whopping 875,000 Americans were "medical tourists" in 2010

Source: Reuters

Source:NCPA

But on the other hand...

Why Is The US Health Care System The Envy Of The World >

Health Care

50 U.S. Health Care Statistics That Will Absolutely Astonish You

Click here to see the facts >

Click here to see the facts >

What the United States spent on health care in 2009 was greater than the entire GDP of Great Britain

Health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%

The United States spent 2.47 trillion dollars on health care in 2009. It is being projected that the U.S. will spend 4.5 trillion dollars on health care in 2019

Approximately 41 percent of working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt

Medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States

Over the past decade, health insurance premiums have risen three times faster than wages have in the United States

The chairman of Aetna the third largest health insurance company in the United States brought in a staggering $68.7 million during 2010

The top executives at the five largest for-profit health insurance companies in the United States combined to receive nearly $200 million in total compensation for 2009

Even as the rest of the country struggled with a deep recession, U.S. health insurance companies increased their profits by 56 percent during 2009 alone

America's five biggest for-profit health insurance companies ended 2009 with a combined profit of $12.2 billion

In the United States, health insurance administration expenses account for 8 percent of all health care costs. In Finland, that figure is just 2 percent

Blue Shield of California announced plans earlier this year to raise rates an average of 30% to 35%

Health insurance premiums for small employers in the U.S. increased 180% between 1999 and 2009

Since 2003, health insurance companies have shelled out more than $42 million in state-level campaign contributions

There were more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies that made over a billion dollars in profits each during 2008

Each year, tens of billions of dollars is spent on pharmaceutical marketing in the United States alone

Prescription drugs cost about 50% more in the United States than they do in other countries

Nearly half of all Americans now use prescription drugs on a regular basis

About 750,000 people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs

The Food and Drug Administration reported 1,742 prescription drug recalls in 2009, which was a gigantic increase from 426 drug recalls in 2008

Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are

The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world

The medical liability system in the United States added about $55.6 billion to the cost of health care in 2008

According to one doctor, "a gunshot wound to the head, chest or abdomen" will cost $13,000 at his hospital the moment the victim comes in the door

C-sections are on the rise because a vaginal delivery costs approximately $5,992, while a c-section costs approximately $8,558

The United States had a higher infant mortality rate than 45 other nations in 2009

The infant mortality rate in the United States is nearly three times as high as it is in Singapore

It is estimated that hospitals overcharge Americans by about 10 billion dollars every year

In fact, one trained medical billing advocate says that over 90 percent of all the medical bills that she has audited contain "gross overcharges"

It is not uncommon for insurance companies to get hospitals to knock their bills down by up to 95 percent

Over the last decade, the number of Americans without health insurance has risen from about 38 million to about 52 million

People living in the United States are three times more likely to have diabetes than people living in the United Kingdom

Today, people living in Puerto Rico have a greater life expectancy than people living in the United States do

Americans are twice as obese as Canadians are

Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid

The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run out five years faster than they were projecting just last year

It is being projected that the federal government will account for more than 50 percent of all health care spending in 2012

Greece has twice as many hospital beds per person as the United States does

The state of California now ranks dead last out of all 50 states in the number of emergency rooms per million people

According to one survey, approximately 1 out of every 4 Californians under the age of 65 has absolutely no health insurance

According to a Price Waterhouse Cooper's report, "inefficient claims processing" costs the U.S. health care system 210 billion dollars every single year

Today, approximately 40% of all U.S. doctors are age 55 or older

We were already going to be facing a shortage of more than 150,000 doctors over the next 15 years even before Obamacare was passed

4 out of every 9 American doctors said that they "would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement" if Congress passed Obamacare

Approximately one-third of all practicing physicians in the United States indicated that they may leave the medical profession because of the new health care law

40 percent of all U.S. doctors plan to leave the profession at some point over the next three years, according to one study

According to the executive director of Physician Hospitals of America, Obamacare has already forced the cancellation of at least 60 doctor-owned hospitals

According to a report released in 2010, Americans spend approximately twice as much as residents of other developed countries do on health care

If the U.S. health care system was a country, it would be the 6th largest economy in the entire world

According to numbers released by Deloitte Consulting, a whopping 875,000 Americans were "medical tourists" in 2010﻿

But on the other hand...

Why Is The US Health Care System The Envy Of The World >

According to numbers released by Deloitte Consulting, a whopping 875,000 Americans were "medical tourists" in 2010