Where health-care costs shouldn't be cut

Here's one sector of the American health-care system that definitely deserves a boost

Hands.
(Image credit: Illustrated | thodonal/iStock, Kseniya_Milner/iStock, jessicahyde/iStock)

Cost control is one of the most pressing problems in American health care. The U.S. spends twice as much GDP on health care as other advanced nations, due in large part to absurdly priced treatments and doctors who rake in way more than their peers abroad. But not all costs are the same.

There are also health-care workers who provide critical services to their fellow Americans but are paid a pittance. Their wages are costs to the system, too — but they don't need to come down. They need to go up.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.