The International Federation of Health Plans released its 2012 Comparative Price Report, detailing its annual survey of medical costs per unit in the United States and 11 other developed countries, which again showed average costs in this country far exceed those in the rest of the world.

The data showed that on average a hospital stay in the United States costs $4,287 per day – nearly three times as much as the next highest cost per day of $1,472 in Australia. Argentina had the lowest average daily cost of only $429 per day. The average cost per day of the highest charging hospitals in the U.S. – those at the 95th percentile of costs compared to its peers – was $12,537 per day.

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Costs examined in the study included those from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the United States. The data for the report was gathered from IFHP member organizations in each country. For the United States the cost averages were derived from claims data from the Truven MarketScan Research database, which includes cost data supplied by roughly 100 private sector health payers.

As in the past, the study found the greatest price spreads between the U.S. and other countries were tied to surgical procedures and hospital stays. For instance, the total cost of bypass surgery, including physician and hospital charges, averaged more than $73,000 in the U.S. – $30,000 more than the next highest country (Australia), and more than eight times the cost of the same treatment in Argentina, whose average cost was $8,882.

The average cost of hip replacement in the U.S. ranged from as high as nearly $88,000 to an average of  $40,364. Australia’s average cost was the next highest at $27,810 and then another significant drop to the third highest average cost of $15,403 in South Africa.

The study also collected data on the cost of six commonly prescribed drugs and in only the case of pain medication Celebrex was the average cost of the medication not the highest in the United States. In this case, the U.S. was second with an average prescription price of $162 compared with Spain where the same Celebrex prescription costs $163. The largest discrepancies between average medication costs between the United States and the other countries in the study were for allergy medication Nasonex (average cost of $108 here versus $39 dollars in the next highest country, Switzerland), and acid reflux medication Nexium ($187 versus $72 in the Netherlands).

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The IFHP provides the data yearly not merely to provide data points, but potentially to spur change in the delivery of healthcare around the world.

“With the cost and availability of healthcare being an important topic around the world, it's essential that we not only examine the disparities that exist, but also why and how certain gaps do exist," said Tom Sackville, chief executive of IFHP, in a news release.

The IFHP was founded in 1968 by a group of health fund industry leaders, and is now the leading global network of the industry, with nearly 100 member companies across 25 countries.

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