The Cost Conundrum – What a Texas town can teach us about health care.

Some hundred thousand people die each year in the U.S. from complications of surgery—far more than die in car crashes.

It is spring in McAllen, Texas. The morning sun is warm. The streets are lined with palm trees and pickup trucks. McAllen is in Hidalgo County, which has the lowest household income in the country, but it’s a border town, and a thriving foreign-trade zone has kept the unemployment rate below ten per cent. McAllen calls itself the Square Dance Capital of the World. “Lonesome Dove” was set around here.

McAllen has another distinction, too: it is one of the most expensive health-care markets in the country. Only Miami—which has much higher labor and living costs—spends more per person on health care. In 2006, Medicare spent fifteen thousand dollars per enrollee here, almost twice the national average. The income per capita is twelve thousand dollars. In other words, Medicare spends three thousand dollars more per person here than the average person earns.

by Atul Gawande

Full Story: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande

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(Many thanks to Sen. Max Baucus http://baucus.senate.gov/ for bringing this story to our attention and recommending that everyone read it to better understand the current and future health care crisis.)