How do the high average cost of healthcare in the U.S. impact the price of common medical procedures and treatments? Let’s look at the cost of an MRI, a frequently used diagnostic tool. All costs listed are from the most recent survey by International Federation of Health Plans, done in 2017. It's important to note that the costs listed below are lower than current U.S. prices; as noted earlier in this article, United States healthcare costs have gone up significantly since 2017.
The average cost of an MRI in the United States, according to the 2017 report, is $1,430. In Holland it's $190 while in New Zealand the price falls in the middle at $750.
The average cost of an angioplasty, which inserts a stent in a blocked blood vessel, was $32,200 in the United States at the time of the report. Meanwhile, in Switzerland, famous for both its high cost of living and its near-perfect health care standards, it's only $7,400.
When you take all of these into account, a common malady among travelers like abdominal pain suddenly becomes very costly. It will require diagnostic imaging and 24 hours of observation, which as discussed above is astronomically expensive. This is just for the diagnosis. Add in treatment and care, and the price goes up further. You can see why the average cost of a hospital stay in the U.S. is so high.
If that abdominal pain is found to be caused by an inflamed appendix that requires immediate surgery, it will cost you an average of $15,200 in the United States, according to the 2017 report. If you are in cost-friendly South Africa, it will be a meager $3,200. On the other hand, things will be a bit more expensive in the UK at $5,100 - that is still over $10,000 less expensive than getting the same treatment in the United States!
On the more dramatic end of the scale, both in terms of pricing and health risks, a bypass operation costs an average of $78,100 in the United States. In The Netherlands, it will cost only $11,700, according to the 2017 report. Either way, the cost of the operation is still far too expensive than what the average person can afford. Getting treated in The Netherlands, however, will be far less likely to cause medical bankruptcy compared to when you undergo the same procedure in the USA.
