Last year, the big-name medication for preventing and treating blood clots cost just $48 for a 30-day supply in South Africa.
But in the U.S., the same quantity of the drug Xarelto typically sold for $292.
In Spain, a diagnostic MRI exam typically sold for $130 last year, compared with the much higher U.S. average of $1,119.
These and other price comparisons for 2015 were reported last month by the International Federation of Health Plans, which offers a yearly report comparing the cost of health care services in different countries. Go here to read more about it.
In the survey of price points for 21 treatments, the United States was usually home to the most expensive health care services, although there were examples of higher prices in the United Kingdom.
Sixty tablets of the pain medication OxyContin at 20 milligram strength, for example, cost $36 in Spain, $265 in the U.S. and $590 in the U.K., according to the report.
What explains the differences?
"There is no reason why identical procedures and products should vary in price so much across countries: It illustrates the damaging effects of an inadequately regulated health care market," said Tom Sackville, the chief executive of the International Federation of Health Plans, in a news release.
The report comes with caveats.
"Prices for Australia, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland and the U.K. are from the private sector, with data provided by one private health plan in each country," the report states.
"Comparisons across different countries are complicated by differences in sectors, fee schedules and systems," the report adds. "In addition, a single plan's prices may not be representative of prices paid by other plans in that market."
