USA Today Downplays Its Own Explanation of Health Care Costs
Major series fails to
understand why premium care has a premium price.
By Dan Gainor [1]
August 31, 2005
According to the August 31 issue of USA Today, More than one in
four Americans are faltering under the burden of health costs. The
story, written by Julie Appleby, claimed Medical progress has
helped Americans live longer, but the exploding cost of those
breakthroughs has polarized the nation.
The article blamed medical inflation for creating a
burden, and it was filled with talk of double digit increases in
health insurance premiums and a stream of bills to doctors and
labs. USA Today painted a picture of consumers overwhelmed by
expensive health care and then buried a key fact: a major reason
health care is so expensive is that it can save lives that never
would have survived in the past.
Perhaps unwittingly, USA Today illustrated that point
with another story on the front page of its Money section. That
article, part of the special Health Care Crunch package running
this week in the paper, profiled the family of a 16-year-old boy
whose cancer care has cost $3 million in just four years. According
to a sidebar, medical care costs $6,423 per person each year. Based
on that calculation, the teen cancer patient has cost the equivalent
of the care for 467 people and counting.
Not only that, but The side effects of treatment
which range from heart disease to brain damage can linger for
decades and cost nearly as much as therapy for the original cancer,
said Appleby. In other words, this 16-year-old will grow up to be a
$6-million man, at least. The story detailed a wide range of
complications and special treatment the teen has received from
chemotherapy to blood replacement.
The main article, titled Even the insured can buckle
under health care costs, buried the crux of the problem three
paragraphs from the end of a story that spanned more than two full
pages. There, Appleby stated, New medical treatments, rising prices
and growing demand from aging baby boomers are expected to continue
to fuel rapid inflation for years.
Instead, Appleby focused more on the travails of
individuals and the uninsured, downplaying causes and emphasizing
costs that only the healthy or wealthy could afford. The series is
based on findings from a nationwide survey done in conjunction with
the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health.