Disparity in US, Canada Heart-Surgery Costs

CHICAGO — Hospital costs for the most common kind of heart surgery are more than 80 percent higher in the United States than in Canada because of overheads, labor and other factors, a study said on Monday.

But there is no difference in death rates from the procedure in the two countries, doctors at Jewish General Hospital in Montreal said after reviewing coronary artery bypass surgeries involving 4,698 U.S. and 7,319 Canadian patients.

Median hospital costs were $16,036 in the United States compared to $7,880 in Canada, said the report published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Both figures are in U.S. dollars.

While Canadian patients stayed in the hospital an average of more than 16 percent longer than their American counterparts, the report said, "there was no difference in in-hospital mortality and the cost in the United States was 82.5 percent higher than in Canada."

The cost disparity is "attributable to differences in direct and overhead costs between the Canadian and U.S. hospitals," it added, mainly reflecting "higher resource prices for products and labor and higher overhead costs in the United States resulting from a nonsocialized medical system."