Rising Seniors' Healthcare Costs: Unaddressed Waste & Price Gouging

Social SecurityPhoto byMarkus WinkleronUnsplash

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand want Congress to raise the cost of living adjustment for seniors to allow for higher health care costs, which make up a disproportionately higher amount of their annual spending.

"Even with Social Security income, many older adults still can't afford basic necessities, and far too often, we have older adults facing homelessness, food insecurity, or financial ruin," Gillibrand said.

While her goal is laudable, there is another aspect of the problem that she is not addressing. The U.S. has the most expensive health care in the world. The three primary reasons for this, according to Harvard Professor David Cutler, are "administrative expenses, corporate greed and price gouging".

There is also higher utilization of more expensive and complex treatments. Many Americans who die from disease have an underlying condition which is high health care costs. They cannot afford the treatments to cure their disease. Some prescriptions cost tens of thousands of dollars a year, much of that money is pure profit.

American health care costs so much: about $3.5 trillion per year (that’s the norm, before an emergency like COVID-19)—of which one-third is wasted.

That issue should be a major focus for Congress in an aging society.