WSJ Recap: Why Americans Spend More on Health Care Than the Rest of the World
Blue Daily
| 2 min read
Key Takeaways
- A recent Wall Street Journal article discussed how prices for surgeries and drugs are far higher in the United States compared to other countries.
- For example, on average, Americans spend anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 more than its peers on certain surgeries.
- The U.S. also spends more on administrative functions like billing, claims processing and customer service compared to the rest of the world.
- The WSJ article reinforces what Blue Cross has consistently been saying about rising hospital prices, expensive prescription drugs and other upstream medical costs that eventually flow downstream into what members and employers pay for coverage.
Health care costs are rising in most countries, but as a new Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article suggests, the United States is lapping the field based on the amount of money Americans spend on prescription drugs, services, utilization and administrative costs.
The WSJ article discusses how prices for surgeries and drugs are far higher in the U.S. compared to other countries. American patients have also been using more care recently, including costly hospital treatment and expensive new drugs for weight loss, two factors that drive up costs and threaten health care affordability. The heavily visual article uses graphics to discuss how:
- Hospital consolidation has given hospital systems leverage to command higher rates during negotiations with health insurers.
- On average, Americans spend anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 more than its peers on certain surgeries.
- The median cost of prescription drugs used to treat conditions like cancer, arthritis and stroke and blood clots are far more expensive in the U.S. compared to countries like Germany, Spain and Greece.
- The U.S. spends more on administrative functions like billing, claims processing and customer service compared to the rest of the world.
In the case of prescription drug costs, the WSJ describes how most other countries force drugmakers to accept lower rates, while the U.S. government generally does not. The lack of prescription drug price regulation has been a consistent talking point for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which has paid $2.6 billion more for medical and pharmacy services in 2025 than it did the year before.
The WSJ article reinforces what Blue Cross has consistently been saying about rising hospital prices, expensive prescription drugs and other upstream medical costs that eventually flow downstream into what members and employers pay for coverage. We have also discussed hospital consolidation at length, and how particularly in the state of Michigan, consolidation has proven to reduce competition and may pressure health care costs upward in the future.
While the WSJ’s reporting doesn’t reveal a new problem, it reinforces one that many Michigan families, businesses and health plans are already familiar with: health care is becoming harder to afford and solving that crisis will require addressing the real drivers of cost, not just shifting them around.
Reader's note: The WSJ article is behind the company website's paywall. Subscribers can read it by clicking here.
Learn more about what Blue Cross is doing to address health care affordability at bcbsm.mibluedaily.com/affordability.
Photo credit: Getty Images
