How U.S. Health Care Broke The Bank

Prognosis: Misconception

Bloomberg

Health & Fitness, Science

4.1 • 838 Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2020, Americans will spend almost $4 trillion on health care. Yet for all that spending, Americans overall tend to be less healthy and die younger than citizens of other wealthy nations. The cost of health care has become so burdensome that people all across the United States are forced to make difficult choices every day: forgo urgently needed medicines or treatment for serious injuries out of fear the cost, even with insurance, could bankrupt them. How did the U.S. health-care system get this way? And what are some people trying to do to change it? This season’s Prognosis explores these questions.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Are you looking for a new podcast about stuff related to money?
0:05.3	Well, today's your lucky day.
0:07.1	I'm Matt Levine.
0:08.2	And I'm Katie Greifeld.
0:09.5	And we are the hosts of Money Stuff, The Podcast.
0:13.0	Every Friday, we dive into the top stories about Wall Street, finance, and other stuff.
0:17.9	We have fun. We get weird, and we want you to join us. You can listen to
0:22.0	Many Stuff the Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:47.3	In 2018, a woman getting off a subway in Boston fell and got her leg trapped between the train and the platform. The Boston Globe reported that she was injured so badly that the bone was exposed.
0:52.3	Yet she begged bystanders not to call an ambulance because she worried it would cost
0:57.2	too much.
0:58.2	Last year, Box told the story of a mother who parked outside a hospital with her toddler
1:02.5	after the child swallowed some dramamine pills.
1:05.8	She waited in the car for hours to see if her daughter would get sick without ever going
1:10.7	inside.
1:11.6	She said she was afraid of what she might be charged for any treatment.
1:15.6	American healthcare is the most expensive in the world.
1:19.6	We're now at the point where it's squeezing every aspect of American life,
1:23.6	from spending by government and employers to individuals.
1:31.3	Many people are forced to make terrible choices in their everyday lives because they think they can't afford care.
1:34.4	How we got to this point is the story of a system that was allowed to grow out of control.
1:42.8	Welcome to Prognosis, Bloomberg's podcast about the future of healthcare.
	...

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