Kevin Drum | Mother Jones

The High Cost of Technology

Ezra Klein quotes Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson on the cost of healthcare:

The point is that CT scans in this country cost a multiple of what everyone else pays. It costs a few hundred dollars in Europe and over $15,000 here. You can't find a place in Europe than costs $15,000. You can't find a place here that costs less than $15,000. Anyone who is looking at the cost of care and is not looking at the unit cost of care is missing the point. ... To have a health care debate in this country that isn't aware of the price differential is not an informed debate.

Hmmm. This doesn't sound quite right. CT scan prices vary depending on the procedure, but in general they seem to range from around one thousand to a few thousand dollars. $15,000 seems like a stretch.

Still, CT scans and MRIs do cost a lot more here than overseas — upwards of 5x as much in some cases. Why is this? I sort of understand why doctors are paid more here and why prescription drugs cost more. But a CT machine is a CT machine. Siemens sells them for the same price in the U.S. as in Europe, don't they? So what accounts for the fantastic cost difference? And why don't insurance companies bargain the price down? This really does seem to be a little more mysterious than high physician salaries and high drug costs."