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Thu Sep 6, 2012, 10:32 AM

trailmonkee (2,595 posts)

Report: US health care system wastes $750B a year

Source: AP

WASHINGTON -- A new report says the U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year - roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar.

That's through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud, fragmentation and other wasteful practices.

The report was released Thursday by the influential Institute of Medicine. It ties directly into the presidential election: President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are accusing each other of slashing Medicare and putting seniors at risk.

But the counter-intuitive finding from the report is that deep cuts are possible without rationing, and a leaner system may even produce better quality.

The 18-member panel of experts includes doctors, business people and public officials. They spent more than year working on the study.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/06/2321089/report-us-health-care-system-wastes.html

Sound familiar?

15 replies, 2650 views

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15 replies	Author	Time	Post
Report: US health care system wastes $750B a year (Original post)	trailmonkee	Sep 2012	OP
So, eliminate the middle men...	AlbertCat	Sep 2012	#1
That would help, but insurance-based systems can be very low-cost	bhikkhu	Sep 2012	#4
I believe that the majority of the waste in the US system is directly related to the for profit	Vincardog	Sep 2012	#9
I feel like it would save a lot of money	HankyDub	Sep 2012	#10
Which is why the ACA regulations should make a big difference	bhikkhu	Sep 2012	#14
This.	Aquavit	Sep 2012	#13
No surprise here - there is waste pretty much anywhere there are companies.	NRaleighLiberal	Sep 2012	#2
We never hear discussion of emulating those systems that have half our costs with better outcomes...	rfranklin	Sep 2012	#3
Place the Bet (fake money, I'm no Romney)	oldsarge54	Sep 2012	#6
Interesting that the little article	enlightenment	Sep 2012	#5
I'm not even surprised...	SoapBox	Sep 2012	#7
Let's call it what it is -- corruption.	hunter	Sep 2012	#8
+++++	marions ghost	Sep 2012	#12
panel also found there wasn't enough prayer healing and casting out of demons ...nt	Evasporque	Sep 2012	#11
Not only that, but our health care system	area51	Sep 2012	#15

Response to trailmonkee (Original post)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 10:39 AM

AlbertCat (10,450 posts)

1. So, eliminate the middle men...

... Insurance.

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Response to AlbertCat (Reply #1)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 11:15 AM

bhikkhu (7,647 posts)

4. That would help, but insurance-based systems can be very low-cost

Such as the Swiss and German health care systems, which are two of the best there are.

Numbers I have heard are that we spend $2.3 trillion a year for services that would cost $1 trillion a year in a well-run health care system. Look at the size of the difference there, and note that it includes medicare, medicaid, defense department spending, as well as private spending - then compare the waste to the size of the deficit!

I think Obama had it exactly right to tackle healthcare first, and this is one of the ways to move toward a balanced budget that hasn't been talked about at all by the other side.

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Response to bhikkhu (Reply #4)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 01:08 PM

Vincardog (17,415 posts)

9. I believe that the majority of the waste in the US system is directly related to the for profit

insurance industry.

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Response to bhikkhu (Reply #4)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 01:22 PM

HankyDub (246 posts)

10. I feel like it would save a lot of money

if you didn't pay CEO's a billion dollars per year, spend billions more purchasing the government at the local, state and federal level, and further billions paying employees dedicated to denying health care to the paying customer.

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Response to HankyDub (Reply #10)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 08:22 PM

bhikkhu (7,647 posts)

14. Which is why the ACA regulations should make a big difference

- where they require that 80-85% of premiums collected must be used for actual health care, or the balance must be refunded. Basically, that's a cap on profits and non-healthcare related expenses. More is needed, but it is one rare and hard-fought step in the right direction.

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Response to AlbertCat (Reply #1)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 04:11 PM

Aquavit (117 posts)

13. This.

Exactly! We need to be focusing more on health care and not on health insurance. If you get sick, I want you to get healthy again. If you are really, really sick I don't want you to lose it all trying to pay for care, or delay the care you need because of something stupid like money! And I sure as hell don't want your family to go bankrupt trying to help you get healthy again, either! Your well-being should not, and does not in any other industrialized country, be dictated by how well it fits into some anonymous rich bastard's quarterly P&L!

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Response to trailmonkee (Original post)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 10:39 AM

NRaleighLiberal (28,621 posts)

2. No surprise here - there is waste pretty much anywhere there are companies.

I am a process improvement consultant - my job is usually to find waste/improve processes to make them more efficient.

Biggest challenge? People do not like change - they cling to the inefficiencies (it is what they know), or jobs/power are tied to it. Very, very tough to actually make things more efficient because the participants fight tooth and nail to retain the waste!

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Response to trailmonkee (Original post)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 11:08 AM

rfranklin (13,200 posts)

3. We never hear discussion of emulating those systems that have half our costs with better outcomes...

could it be wilfull obfuscation?

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Response to rfranklin (Reply #3)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 11:51 AM

oldsarge54 (582 posts)

6. Place the Bet (fake money, I'm no Romney)

Want to bet that the Republican spinners will say it is all government's intervention, and totally fail that it is the industry that is wasting the money. Their fall back position will be that when ACA is fully implemented, it will be worse (but won't tell us how it will be worse.) Any takers?

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Response to trailmonkee (Original post)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 11:50 AM

enlightenment (6,236 posts)

5. Interesting that the little article

places "unneeded care" at the beginning of the list of faults - the IOM says this in their summary:

The product of the committee’s deliberations, Best Care at Lower Cost, identifies three major imperatives for change: the rising complexity of modern health care, unsustainable cost increases, and outcomes below the system’s potential.

http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2012/Best-Care-at-Lower-Cost-The-Path-to-Continuously-Learning-Health-Care-in-America.aspx

"Outcomes below the system's potential" best fits that "unneeded care" flutter . . . but not really.

See recommendation #3 in this pdf: http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2012/Best-Care/Best%20Care%20at%20Lower%20Cost_Recs.pdf

Disingenuous reporting is annoying. Someone needs a smack upside the head for writing that . . .

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Response to trailmonkee (Original post)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 12:06 PM

SoapBox (5,820 posts)

7. I'm not even surprised...

The capitalist vultures want to line their pockets.

So, we have all sorts of waste in the process...and over inflated prices for everything from supplies to meds.

Free markets? Open markets? I always look at that as code for...rip offs and price gouging.

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Response to trailmonkee (Original post)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 12:12 PM

hunter (16,126 posts)

8. Let's call it what it is -- corruption.

Here in the U.S. we frown on petty corruption, the kind where a person pays a cop not to write a speeding ticket, but we revel in the kind where a huge health insurance company or bank can pay a million dollar fine for illegally squeezing fifty million dollars from their own customers.

This corruption needs to be directly addressed. Laws protecting the public need to be strengthened, enforcement needs to be aggressive, and wealthy corporate leaders need to go to jail, their assets seized, and their corporations nationalized when malfeasance is uncovered.

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Response to hunter (Reply #8)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 02:13 PM

marions ghost (13,922 posts)

12. +++++

Fraud and corruption is rampant. I agree with your solutions.

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Response to trailmonkee (Original post)

Thu Sep 6, 2012, 01:24 PM

Evasporque (2,023 posts)

11. panel also found there wasn't enough prayer healing and casting out of demons ...nt

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Response to trailmonkee (Original post)

Fri Sep 7, 2012, 02:59 AM

area51 (5,034 posts)

15. Not only that, but our health care system

kills 100,000 people per year. GingrichCare can't fix this, but single-payer health care keeps people alive.

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