Understanding why health care costs in the U.S. are so high

The high cost of medical care in the U.S. is one of the greatest challenges the country faces and it affects everything from the economy to individual behavior, according to an essay in the May-June 2020 issue of Harvard Magazine written by David Cutler, professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Cutler explored three driving forces behind high health care costs—administrative expenses, corporate greed and price gouging, and higher utilization of costly medical technology—and possible solutions to them.

Read the Harvard Magazine article: The World’s Costliest Health Care