Is Healthcare A Commodity?

Healthcare Is A Finite Commodity : How Providers Can Differentiate Themselves.

Is healthcare a commodity in the US?

Abstract – The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama in March 2010, contains elements of two seemingly contradictory positions: health care as a commodity and as a right. The commodity argument posits that the marketplace should govern demand, supply, and costs of care.

1. The law’s establishment of state insurance exchanges reflects this position.
2. The argument that health care is a right posits that it is a need, not a choice, and that government should regulate care standards that may be compromised as insurers attempt to minimize costs.
3. The law’s requirement for coverage of mental and substance use disorders reflects this position.

This Open Forum examines these arguments in light of current state fiscal crises and impending reforms. Despite the federal government’s interest in expanding prevention and treatment of mental illness, states may demonstrate varying levels of commitment, based in part on their perception of health care as a right or a commodity.

What is the commodification of healthcare?

According to Mackintosh and Kovalev, health care commodification can be defined by 3 components: financing from individual payment or private insurance, production with the primary aim of cash income or profit, and distribution through the market according to the ability to pay.

What is commodity in economics?

A commodity, also called primary product or primary good, is a good sold for production or consumption just as it was found in nature. Commodities include crude oil, coal, copper or iron ore, rough diamonds, and agricultural products such as wheat, coffee beans or cotton; they are often traded on commodity exchanges.

Food and live animals (SITC 0 ); Beverages and tobacco (SITC 1); Crude materials, excluding fuels (SITC 2); Mineral fuels (SITC 3); Animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes (SITC 4).

Sections 0 and 1 can be grouped together as ‘Food and drink’, 2 and 4 as ‘ Raw materials’,

What is the main commodity in the US?

What types of goods and services are produced in the US? – The most exported commodities, therefore some of the most produced and traded commodities in the US are refined and crude petroleum, cotton, soybeans, corn, and wheat. These commodities fall under agricultural and energy commodities.

Is healthcare 18% of US economy?

U.S. health expenditure as percent of GDP 1960-2021. In 2021, U.S. national health expenditure as a share of its gross domestic product (GDP) reached 18.3 percent, second highest in the provided time interval.

What is meant by medical commodities?

Description of the condition – Reliable availability of health commodities is fundamental to diagnosing and treating illnesses in primary healthcare settings. Health commodities include health products, health and medical supplies, and other items that may be needed for the provision of health services, including medicines, vaccines, medical supplies such as contraceptives dressings, needles and syringes, and laboratory/diagnostic consumables ( Family Health International 2001 ).

• The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health highlights the importance of equitable access to life‐saving medicines and other health commodities ( WHO 2010 ).
• A hallmark of functioning health systems is the availability of essential medicines in adequate amounts, appropriate dosage forms, assured quality, and at a price that is affordable for the local community ( WHO 2002 ).

However, stock‐outs of critical medical commodities, such as medicines, are widespread especially in low and middle income countries (LMICs). At least one third of the world’s population does not have regular access to medicines, which makes health care highly inequitable ( WHO 2011 ).

A survey of the national AIDS programmes in 12 countries by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) found that between January 2011 and April 2012, over 67% of countries reported experiencing stock‐outs of at least one drug, lasting an average of 40 days each ( Sued 2011 ). Another study in Kenya reported that over 75% of health facilities had shortages of one component of the combination of drugs used to treat malaria, while one in four reported a lack of all related drugs ( Kangwana 2009 ).

This lack of access to critical drugs caused by a stock‐out has profound effects on the ongoing treatment of diseases. A study in Côte d’Ivoire reported that patients who experienced interruptions in HIV treatment caused by drug shortages were twice as likely to permanently discontinue treatment or die ( Pasquet 2010 ).

Drug stock‐outs have been linked to increases in morbidity and mortality across a number of disease states, including malaria ( Chuma 2010 ), HIV ( Pasquet 2010 ), and the prevention or treatment of pregnancy complications in low‐resource settings ( Hill 2006 ). Lack of access to medicines and other health commodities is often symptomatic of broader systemic problems.

For example, access to medicines is determined by rational use of medicines, affordable pricing, sustainable financing, and reliable health and supply systems ( WHO 2004 ). A reliable medicine supply system must comprise of appropriate procurement and distribution.

What is commodity vs commodification?

Understanding Commoditization – A commodity is a fundamental good used in commerce that is interchangeable with other commodities of the same type. Commoditization is an action converts products, including financial products, into such an interchangeable and marketable item, such that it strips a good or service of differentiating characteristics.

1. Standardized removes variations. Agricultural products must be in a raw state. For example, corn is a commodity, but light corn syrup is not.
2. The item must be usable when purchased, without requiring processing or alterations. Corn is a commodity, but stalks of corn on the cob in the husk is not.
3. Products must vary enough in price that a market develops for it. Corn is a commodity because the price fluctuates and changes, but an item which costs the same amount without regulation or pressures is not.

Commoditization lends itself when a good or service can be standardized enough to be purchased as a transaction instead of customized. In finance, a financial contract such as a bond or loan undergoes commoditization when it is no longer necessary to become involved in all the varied terms of the bond or loan.

What is the biggest burden on healthcare?

Burden of disease A straightforward way to assess the health status of a population is to focus on mortality – or concepts like or, which are based on mortality estimates. A focus on mortality, however, does not take into account that the burden of diseases is not only that they kill people, but that they cause suffering to people who live with them.

Assessing health outcomes by both mortality and morbidity (the prevalent diseases) provides a more encompassing view on health outcomes. This is the topic of this entry. The sum of mortality and morbidity is referred to as the ‘burden of disease’ and can be measured by a metric called ‘ Disability Adjusted Life Years ‘ (DALYs).

DALYs are measuring lost health and are a standardized metric that allow for direct comparisons of disease burdens of different diseases across countries, between different populations, and over time. Conceptually, one DALY is the equivalent of losing one year in good health because of either premature death or disease or disability,

One DALY represents one lost year of healthy life. The first ‘Global Burden of Disease’ (GBD) was GBD 1990 and the DALY metric was prominently featured in the, Today it is published by both the researchers at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and the ‘Disease Burden Unit’ at the World Health Organization (WHO), which was created in 1998.

The IHME continues the work that was started in the early 1990s and publishes the Global Burden of Disease study. This entry presents data on burden of health across the world, breakdown by age, types of disability and disease, and regional/country breakdowns.

• The visualizations which follow can be explored by any country or region using the “Change country” option in the charts below.
• Human potential that is lost due to poor health is immense: The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) project aims to quantify this loss by estimating the number of healthy life years lost globally.

This metric takes into account both, the human life years lost due to early death and the life years compromised by disease and disability. It is a massive study that takes into account thousands of datasets to capture the burden of diseases globally.55.9 million people died in 2017.

1. If we sum up all life years lost due to premature death – the sum of the differences between each person’s age of death and their life expectancy at that age – we find that the world population lost 1.65 billion years of potential life due to premature death in that year.
2. Disease and disability meant that an additional 853 million years of healthy life years were lost.

It is hard to get a sense of scale for these enormous numbers. One way to illustrate it is to put it in relation to the, which was 7.53 billion in that year. The global burden of disease, viewed in this way, sums up to a third of a year lost for each person on the planet.

This map shows DALYs per 100,000 people of the population. It is thereby measuring the distribution of the burden of both mortality and morbidity around the world. We see that rates across the regions with the best health are below 20,000 DALYs per 100,000 individuals. In 2017 this is achieved in many European countries, but also in Canada, Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, the Maldives, and Australia.

In the worst-off regions, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, the rate is higher than 80,000 DALYs per 100,000. Epidemiologists break the disease burden down into three key categories of disability or disease – and this is shown in the chart here: non-communicable diseases (NCDs) ; communicable,, neonatal and nutritional diseases, and injuries,

We provide a more detailed breakdown of what sub-categories fall within each of these three groupings in our section. We also look at a higher-resolution breakdown within each of these groupings in the sections which follow. At a global level, in 2017 more than 60 percent of the burden of disease results from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with 28 percent from communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases, and just over 10 percent from injuries.

The chart also shows a notable shift since 1990, when communicable diseases held the highest share at 46 percent. This shift in burden towards NCDs result from a significant reduction in communicable and preventable disease as and overall health and living standards improve.

In high-income nations, NCDs typically account for more than 80 percent of disease burden. In contrast, communicable diseases to be low, at less than 5 percent. The opposite is true in low-income nations; communicable disease still accounts for more than 60 percent across many countries. In the two charts here we see the breakdown of the disease burden by cause.

One chart shows the absolute numbers of DALYs by cause while the other presents share of the total DALYs by each cause. Non-communicable diseases are shown in blue; communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases shown in red; and injuries shown in grey.

At a global level the largest disease burden in 2017 comes from cardiovascular diseases which account for 15 percent of the total. This is followed by (9 percent); neonatal disorders (7 percent); muscoskeletal disorders (6 percent); and mental and substance use disorders (5 percent). This attribution varies significantly across the world – these figures and rankings of the disease burden can be explored by country and region using the ‘change country’ option in the charts.

If we look at a lower-income country (e.g. Congo), we notice that communicable and neonatal diseases rank much higher. This is in stark contrast to a typical high-income nation (e.g. United States) where no communicable diseases fall within the top ten.

Cardiovascular disease, cancer, muscoskeletal disorders and mental and substance use disorders form the top four health burdens across many upper-middle and high-income nations. A dedicated provides a very helpful interactive tool to explore all available data on burden of disease worldwide. In the two chart here we see the breakdown of total disease burden by age group from 1990 onwards.

This is shown as the relative breakdown of the total disease burden and by the rates of burden per 100,000 individuals within a given age group. Overall we see a continued decline in health burden in ; both in relative terms (falling as a share of the total by more than half, from 41 in 1990 to 20 percent in 2017), and in rates per 100,000 (falling more than 50 percent from over 160,000 to less than half in 2017).

1. Nonetheless, rates of disease burden remain highest in the youngest and oldest in society.
2. DALY rates in under-5s and those over 70 years old remain significantly higher than other age groups.
3. They have, however, seen the most notable declines in recent decades.
4. At a global level, collective rates across all ages have been in steady decline.

This shows that global health has improved considerably over the course of the last generation. The visualizations here focus on the disease burden resulting from non-communicable diseases (NCDs). We see strong differentiation, with high burden across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in particular.

Most countries across these regions have DALY losses greater than 25,000 per 100,000 individuals, reaching over 50,000 in the Central African Republic. Rates in Europe and North America, in contrast, are typically greater than ten times lower, below 2500 per 100,000. There has been a significant reduction in global burden from communicable, neonatal, maternal and nutritional diseases in recent decades, falling from 1.2 billion in 1990 to below 670 million in 2019 (around a 44 percent reduction).

Road accidents are particularly dominant within this category. However, interpersonal violence and self-harm also constitute a high share of health burden. You will notice that burden attributed to both conflict & terrorism and natural disasters are highly volatile (creating dramatic spikes from year-to-year.

We discuss the impact of this volatility on overall trends in the context of death in our blog post, The visualization here shows the relationship between average income – measured by GNI per capita – and the Burden of Disease. The Burden of Disease is disaggregated into the health burden due to communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases.

The chart shows that communicable diseases in particular are closely correlated to average income levels. The relationship that was estimated by Sterck et al.2017 is shown in the legend. GNI per capita has a strong negative correlation with log DALYs lost due to communicable diseases with an elasticity of -0·88.

1. On the other hand, the non-communicable disease burden is much less strongly associated with average income (the elasticity is estimated to be -0·13).
2. Another conclusion we can draw from this chart is that the relationship between GNI per capita and DALYs lost due to the disease burden of communicable diseases is best captured by a log-log function.

The health burden due to communicable diseases vs GDP per capita is shown in the following visualizations. The correlation between both measures is apparent: both DALY loss rates and the total share from communicable diseases tend to decline with increasing incomes.

1. But despite this correlation, Sterck et al.2017 find that GNI is not a significant predictor of health outcomes once other factors are controlled for.
2. The first of these other factors is individual poverty – relative to a health poverty line of 10.89 international-$ per day.
3. The second factor is the epidemiological surrounding of a country which captures the health status of neighbouring countries.

And the third important factor is institutional capacity. The two charts here highlight two important relationships between non-communicable disease burden and income. The first suggests that rates of burden from NCDs is highest at lower-incomes and tends to decline with development.

1. DALYs lost from NCDs are typically lower at higher incomes.
2. However, it is also true that NCDs constitute a dominant share of disease burden at higher incomes (often over 80 percent).
3. The fact that both of these relationships are true: that NCD burden tends to decline with development, but increases its share of overall disease burden further highlights that total health burden declines significantly with improving living standards and healthcare.

The fact that NCD DALY losses at low-income are high, but still only constitute a small share of overall health burden emphasises the scale of DALY losses from communicable and preventable diseases which remain. The visualization shows the relationship between total health burden, given as rates of DALY losses per 100,000 individuals (from all causes) versus average per capita health expenditure (in US dollars).

1. At low levels of we see a steep decline in health burden as per capita expenditure increases.
2. However, towards mid-range health expenditure levels we begin to see a significant tailing off of burden reduction.
3. This diminishing rate of return stagnates at around 20,000 DALYs per 100,000 individuals.
4. Nonetheless, per capita health expenditure at this level of health burden varies by several multiples.

Countries such as the United States, Norway and Switzerland have a per capita expenditure over $9,000 per year, but have achieved little or no burden reduction relative to other high-income nations with a per capita expenditure less than half of these figures.

Some countries – such as South Korea – have achieved one of the lowest rates of health burden with an expenditure of around $2,000 per capita. Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) lost is a standardized metric allowing for direct comparison and summing of burdens of different diseases. Conceptually, one DALY is the equivalent of one year in good health lost because of premature mortality or disability (see Murray et al.2015).

Assessing health outcomes by both mortality and morbidity provides a more encompassing view on health outcomes than only looking at mortality or life expectancy alone. Three categories of health conditions and burdens are distinguished:

Communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional diseases;Non-communicable diseases (NCDs);Injuries (which include violence and conflict).

The sub-categories of disease or health burden, as differentiated in the data provided in this entry from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) are detailed in the table.

Communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional diseases	Non-communicable diseases (NCDs)	Injuries
Diarrhea, lower respiratory & other common infectious diseases	Cardiovascular diseases (inc. stroke, heart disease and heart failure)	Road injuries
Neonatal disorders	Cancers	Other transport injuries
Maternal disorders	Respiratory disease	Falls
Malaria & neglected tropical diseases	Diabetes, blood and endocrine diseases	Drowning
Nutritional deficiencies	Mental and substance use disorders	Fire, heat and hot substances
HIV/AIDS	Liver diseases	Poisonings
Tuberculosis	Digestive diseases	Self-harm
Other communicable diseases	Musculoskeletal disorders	Interpersonal violence
	Neurological disorders (including dementia)	Conflict & terrorism
	Other NCDs	Natural disasters

ol> shows the distribution between countries. The poorest countries do suffer from much poorer health, but even in the world’s richest countries health problems are still very severe. This is a in 1990. Also important to remember that this is the burden relative to life expectancies that are possible today. The suffering caused by age-associated morbidity and mortality remains a problem too, and solving it will increase the expected length of life. Sterck, O., Roser, M., Ncube, M., Thewissen, S. (forthcoming) – Allocation of development assistance for health: Is the predominance of national income justified? (accepted in Health Policy and Planning). Sterck, O., Roser, M., Ncube, M., Thewissen, S. (forthcoming) – Allocation of development assistance for health: Is the predominance of national income justified? (accepted in Health Policy and Planning). Murray CJL, Barber RM, Foreman KJ, et al.2015. Global, regional, and national disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 306 diseases and injuries and healthy life expectancy (HALE) for 188 countries, 1990–2013: quantifying the epidemiological transition. Lancet 386:2145–91.

Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. This topic page can be cited as: Max Roser, Hannah Ritchie and Fiona Spooner (2021) – “Burden of disease”.

What are 5 examples of commodities?

What are Commodities Trading commodities dates back to ancient times; the rise of many empires can be directly linked to their ability to create complex bartering systems and facilitate the exchange of commodities. Unlike stocks and bonds, commodities are an important aspect of daily life.

A commodity is a basic good used in commerce that is interchangeable with other goods of the same type, and these are often used as inputs in the production of other goods and services. Traditional examples of commodities include grains, gold, beef, oil, and natural gas. Commodities affect the prices of your food, gasoline, plane tickets, jewelry, and the clothes you wear.

In fact, the price of your breakfast is highly dependent on some of the most actively traded commodities out there – cereal (corn), toast (wheat), latte (coffee), sausages (pork), and donuts (sugar)! Commodities that are traded are typically sorted into three broad categories: Metals (Industrial & Precious), Energy (Fossil Fuels, Renewables, & Power), and Agricultural (Softs & Livestock).

1. In the most basic sense, commodities are known to be risky investment propositions because their market (supply and demand) is significantly impacted by uncertainties that are difficult or impossible to predict, such as unusual weather patterns, epidemics, and disasters both natural and man-made.
2. For investors, commodities can be an important way to diversify portfolios beyond traditional securities.

There are a number of ways to invest in commodities, such as futures contracts, options, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which offers investors ways to select what kind of risks they want to take on as well as how they do it. : What are Commodities

What are 4 examples of a commodity?

Understanding Commodities – Commodities are the raw inputs used in the production of goods. They may also be basic staples such as certain agricultural products. The important feature of a commodity is that there is very little, if any, differentiation in that good whether it is coming from one producer and the same commodity from another.

• A barrel of oil is basically the same product, regardless of the producer.
• The same goes with a bushel of wheat or a ton of ore.
• By contrast, the quality and features of a given consumer product will often be quite different depending on the producer (e.g., Coke vs. Pepsi).
• Some traditional examples of commodities include grains, gold, beef, oil, and natural gas.

More recently, the definition has expanded to include financial products, such as foreign currencies and indexes. Technological advances have also led to new types of commodities being exchanged in the marketplace. For example, cell phone minutes and bandwidth,

Commodities can be bought and sold on specialized exchanges as financial assets. There are also well-developed derivatives markets whereby you can buy contracts on such commodities (e.g., forwards, futures, and options). Some experts believe that investors should hold at least some portion of a well-diversified portfolio in commodities since they are not highly-correlated with other financial assets and may serve as an inflation hedge Experts recommend around 5-10% of a portfolio be allocated to a mix of commodities.

Those with a lower risk tolerance may consider a smaller allocation. Ordinary investors can look to one of several commodities ETFs or mutual funds to gain exposure.

What are the big 3 commodities?

Key Takeaways –

Investing in commodities can provide investors with diversification, a hedge against inflation, and excess positive returns.Investors may experience volatility when their investments track a single commodity or one sector of the economy.Supply, demand, and geopolitics all affect commodity prices.Investors can trade commodity-based futures, stocks, ETFs, or mutual funds, or they can hold physical commodities such as gold bullion.Three of the most commonly traded commodities include oil, gold, and base metals.

What is the biggest commodity in the world?

1. Brent Crude Oil – Brent Crude oil is the most traded global commodity. Brent Crude is extracted from the North Sea and accounts for two-thirds of global oil pricing. Like the other crude oil benchmark WTI, Brent Crude is mainly refined into diesel fuel and gasoline.

Brent Crude is generally slightly more expensive than WTI crude oil. The difference in price is known as the Brent/WTI spread and changes often because of their different supply factors. Global conflicts in Europe and the Middle East are more likely to affect Brent Crude oil while economic or political events in the US economy more heavily affect the price of WTI.

Brent Crude contracts equal 1,000 barrels of oil and are traded primarily on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

What country spends the most on healthcare?

Health Expenditure in the U.S. The United States is the highest spending country worldwide when it comes to health care.

Why is healthcare so expensive in the United States?

The Increasing Cost of Healthcare Services – Prices are another significant driver of healthcare spending in the United States; the cost of healthcare services typically grow faster than the cost of other goods and services in the economy. In the past 20 years, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — the average change in prices paid by urban consumers for various goods and services — has grown at an average of 2.4 percent per year while the CPI for medical care has grown at an average rate of 3.4 percent per year. There are many possible reasons for that increase in healthcare prices:

The introduction of new, innovative healthcare technology can lead to better, more expensive procedures and products. The complexity of the U.S. healthcare system can lead to administrative waste in the insurance and provider payment systems. The consolidation of hospitals can lead to a lack of competition or even a monopoly, granting providers the opportunity to increase prices.

More research needs to be done, though, to confirm the reasons that healthcare costs grow so quickly.

Is healthcare for profit in the US?

By The Commonwealth Fund The U.S. health system is a mix of public and private, for-profit and nonprofit insurers and health care providers. The federal government provides funding for the national Medicare program for adults age 65 and older and some people with disabilities as well as for various programs for veterans and low-income people, including Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

What are common commodities?

Commodities – A commodity is a basic good used as an input in the production of goods and services. That means companies use commodities in the manufacturing process to turn them into everyday goods. Commodities are found in the majority of goods that end up in the hands of consumers, including tires, tea, ground beef, orange juice, and clothing.

The most common commodities include copper, crude oil, wheat, coffee beans, and gold, Commodities can be further broken down into two different categories: hard and soft commodities. Soft commodities are those that are grown and cannot be stored for extended periods. Examples include coffee, cocoa, orange juice, and sugar.

Hard commodities are those that can be mined or extracted from the earth, such as metals and petroleum products. Soft commodities futures are often more volatile than others because of the unpredictable risks involved, including the weather. Hard commodities, on the other hand, are mined and extracted, such as oil, natural gas, and precious metals.

What all comes under commodities?

What Is a Commodity Market? – A commodity market is a marketplace for buying, selling, and trading raw materials or primary products. Commodities are often split into two broad categories: hard and soft commodities. Hard commodities include natural resources that must be mined or extracted—such as gold, rubber, and oil, whereas soft commodities are agricultural products or livestock—such as corn, wheat, coffee, sugar, soybeans, and pork.

How much of the US economy is healthcare?

NHE Fact Sheet

NHE grew 2.7% to $4.3 trillion in 2021, or $12,914 per person, and accounted for 18.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Medicare spending grew 8.4% to $900.8 billion in 2021, or 21 percent of total NHE. Medicaid spending grew 9.2% to $734.0 billion in 2021, or 17 percent of total NHE. Private health insurance spending grew 5.8% to $1,211.4 billion in 2021, or 28 percent of total NHE. Out of pocket spending grew 10.4% to $433.2 billion in 2021, or 10 percent of total NHE. Other Third Party Payers and Programs and Public Health Activity spending declined 20.7% in 2021 to $596.6 billion, or 14 percent of total NHE. Hospital expenditures gre w 4.4% to $1,323.9 billion in 2021, slower than the 6.2% growth in 2020. Physician and clinical services expenditures grew 5.6% to $864.6 billion in 2021, slower growth than the 6.6% in 2020. Prescription drug spending increased 7.8% to $378.0 billion in 2021, faster than the 3.7% growth in 2020. The largest shares of total health spending were sponsored by the federal government (34 percent) and the households (27 percent). The private business share of health spending accounted for 17 percent of total health care spending, state and local governments accounted for 15 percent, and other private revenues accounted for 7 percent.

For further detail see NHE Tables in downloads below.

Is healthcare the largest industry in the US?

U.S. Healthcare Industry Statistics FAQ –

1. How much is the healthcare industry worth? The healthcare industry is worth $808 billion in the United States as of 2021. An impressive 65% of revenue comes from patient care. For comparison’s sake, the global health industry is worth $12 trillion.
2. What percentage of the U.S. economy is made up of the healthcare industry? The healthcare industry comprises 18.3% of the U.S. economy as of 2021. This is significantly higher than most other developed countries, where healthcare typically makes no more than 10% of national GDP.
3. Is healthcare the fastest-growing industry? Yes, healthcare is the fastest-growing industry. Healthcare is the largest and fastest-growing industry in the U.S. and globally. For example, between 2020 and 2030 employment for healthcare occupations is expected to grow by at least 16%. Not surprisingly, the healthcare sector is one of the largest and most complex in the U.S. economy, accounting for 18.3% of the country’s GDP in 2021.
4. Is the U.S. healthcare market efficient? No, the U.S. healthcare market is not efficient. In fact, the U.S. healthcare system ranks 22nd out of 27 high-income nations when analyzed for its efficiency of turning dollars spent into extending lives. Denmark ranked number one in healthcare efficiency. Healthcare market efficiency is measured by looking at how much money is spent and how that translates to life expectancy. For example, every additional $100 spent on healthcare by the United States translated into a gain of less than half a month of life expectancy. In Germany, on the other hand, every additional $100 spent translated into more than four months of increased life expectancy.
5. How big is the U.S. healthcare industry? The U.S. healthcare industry is the third-largest industry in the U.S. In 2021, 18.3% of the country’s GDP went toward healthcare. The industry earned $4.3 trillion in revenue that same year.