Health costs rising in US

Americans spend a lot more on health care than any other country in the world. According to a new study published, annual health care expenditure of Americans is the highest in the world, twice as much as Europeans. The main reason for this is thought to be Americans' poor health habits. The study shows an expenditure of around $6,000 per person each year in US.

The major factors thought to be responsible for this are Obesity and Smoking. These two finally lead into major chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke and arthritis.

Treatment of these and other chronic diseases adds between $100 billion and $150 billion to the annual health care expenditure in the United States.

"We expected to see differences between disease prevalence in the United States and Europe, but the extent of the differences is surprising," said Ken Thorpe, professor of public health at Emory University and co-author in this study. "It is possible that we spend more on health care because we are, indeed, less healthy."

The statistics reveal that more than half of the American population is either a former or a present smoker and almost 17% of the population is obese, which is far more than 43% smoking and 10% obese population in European countries.

The United States of America spends around $2 trillion per annum on the health care of its citizens which is almost 16 percent of the GDP. Although the reason for this high expenditure is thought to be the high medical treatment costs in America, but at the same time a relatively sicker population than other countries is also a strong factor affecting the costs.

The study found 12.2 percent of Americans are diagnosed with cancer, more than twice that of Europe. The following trends suggest that overall health is bad, but at the same time the testing procedures in America are much better and advanced, which helps in reporting the cases which might have gone unregistered in Europe.

The report said that the Americans also don’t mind spending aggressively on health even if the problem is minor and can even be dealt with simple diagnosis and treatment.

The report also made some suggestions on how to reduce the expenditure on health while maintaining good health of the Americans. The Americans need to improve their overall health by eating good, well-balanced diet rather that going in for junk food. Smoking should be avoided as much as possible.

The estimates say if these procedures are complied with, Americans would save almost $1200 per year on medical bills.