PolitiFact: Romney’s Take on Rising Health Costs Has Merit

The statement

“Hospitals, doctors, MRIs, surgeries and so forth are more extensively used and far more expensive in this country than they are in many other countries.”

Mitt Romney, on Fox News Sunday recently

The ruling

Mitt Romney offered an interesting explanation of why health care costs so much in the United States. He said there are undoubtedly some bad health insurance companies, and they should be held accountable, but the industry is not the cause of increasing health care costs.

“Our health care costs are very, very high because we use a lot of health treatments. Hospitals, doctors, MRIs, surgeries and so forth are more extensively used and far more expensive in this country than they are in many other countries. It’s not the insurance companies that are driving our health care cost up and up. The reason their premiums are going up is because doctor bills and hospital bills and usage and so forth is also going up.”

For the purposes of our analysis, we sought a comparison of the United States and other economically developed countries. The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development gathers data on health, medicine, economics and other social indicators.

According to OECD data, Romney is correct about U.S. hospitals costing more but wrong about them being more extensively used. The United States also has fewer hospital beds, shorter hospital stays for acute care and fewer discharges, a measure of hospital visits.

Romney is also right that U.S. doctors are paid more but wrong that they’re used more extensively. American doctors are paid $25,000 to $40,000 more than those in Britain, Germany and Canada. But there are fewer physicians than the average country, and American patients have fewer doctor consultations.

The United States gives the most MRI exams of all the countries monitored by the OECD. And a group of private insurers reports that the average MRI fee is higher in the United States.

The United States also appears to have an above-average rate of surgeries and three times the average rate of same-day surgery, according to the OECD.

Romney was right about MRIs, surgery, hospitals and doctors costing more in the U.S. And he was right about higher rates of MRI exams and surgery here, but wrong about hospital usage and doctor consultations. We’re rating this Mostly True.

Alex Holt, Times staff writer This ruling has been edited for print. For the full ruling — and others — go to PolitiFact.com.