The healthcare marketplace in the United States is confusing, complex, and expensive. Why is it the way it is? Has it always been this way? Is it this way everywhere? These were my questions when I began this deep dive.  After reading a couple books, going on a week-long internet deep dive, and interviewing a healthcare consultant, I felt ready to bring some of my initial findings to you. Big thanks to Taylor, a healthcare consultant, for being interviewed for this episode, and Kaleigh, for sharing her experience giving birth to her daughter.  Snag a copy of Taylor's TEMPLATE FOR DENIED INSURANCE CLAIMS. Since this is a relatively fact-filled episode, sources are listed below by claim. FOLLOW ALONG Money with Katie Blog Money with Katie Instagram Money with Katie Twitter Sign up for the Newsletter! CLAIMS & MORE RESOURCES Any claim that doesn’t have a URL attached came from the book The Healing of America by T. R. Reid.  “Of the 11 richest countries in the world, America’s healthcare system ranks 11th. The judgment metrics are as follows: Access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity, and healthcare outcomes. The U.S. ranked last in four of the five criteria, with the exception of “care process,” for which we ranked second. Historical deep dive resource “The U.S. spends roughly the same amount as a percentage of GDP on Medicare and Medicaid alone that the rest of the rich countries spend insuring their entire populations, and the private sector spends even more.” “Estonia, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Korea, Israel… all of these countries have lower infant mortality rates than the United States.” “And pharmaceutical companies do spend, on average, around 20% of their total revenues on R&D.” “The U.S. actually ranks sixth in the World Index of Healthcare Innovation, behind Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands.” “A new analysis from insurance giant Humana itself and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that between $760 billion and $935 billion—or about a quarter of all U.S. healthcare spending—is considered “waste.”” Comments about Sweden’s economy and benefits FULL TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE AT HTTPS://PODCAST.MONEYWITHKATIE.COM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices