The American health care system is in dire need of reform. The system is highly fragmented, but so is the patient’s knowledge of the issues. Health care spending reached an all time high in 2011, accounting for 18.2% of GDP. Expenditures are also expected to reach $2.5 trillion this year. Consequently, businesses and families are finding it increasingly difficult to afford health care. A key reason to the skyrocketing health care costs in the United States is the higher costs charged by American physicians. “We pay doctors for every single service, which creates bad incentives to do more; we sue and sue, upping the cost of insurance for doctors and the amount of care. We do waste a lot…why does this matter? Even if we cut waste by as little as five percent we could pay for the uninsured” (Health Care Half Truths, xiii). As a result, American physicians are paid more for each service than physicians in other developing countries, including, Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Primary care physicians in the United States had the highest annual pretax earnings after expenses. American physicians made an average of $186,582 in 2008 compared to physicians in Australia and France who had average earnings of $92,844 and $95,585, respectively. In order to remediate the issue of soaring health care costs, immediate nation-wide deregulation of the medical profession needs to be implemented by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Education and Association of American Medical Colleges.
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