The easiest No-Brainer cost savings for healthcare is...

[dkf]

allowing Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate drug prices.

Seriously, how hard is that?

[stray cat]

1. How about eliminating fraud?

[havocmom]

5. been working on that one. (former) Sen Frist's family businees fined

big time
http://mediamatters.org/research/200510070002 (from October 07, 2005 1:10 pm ET)

Out of hundreds of newspaper stories on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's (R-TN) stock sale currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Justice Department, only a handful have noted that, in December 2002, HCA Inc. -- the company whose stock Frist sold off before share prices dropped sharply -- agreed to pay the government $1.7 billion in fines and penalties related to 14 counts of defrauding Medicare and Medicaid. HCA Inc. is the for-profit hospital chain founded by Frist's father. The total in penalties is the largest settlement ever recovered by the federal government in a health care fraud case, although many observers -- including a prominent Republican senator -- criticized the Bush administration's withholding of information in the case and aired concerns that the government may not have been adequately compensated.
...

more at link



http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003/June/03_civ_386.htm

THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2003
WWW.USDOJ.GOV


LARGEST HEALTH CARE FRAUD CASE IN U.S. HISTORY SETTLED
HCA INVESTIGATION NETS RECORD TOTAL OF $1.7 BILLION

more at link

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Virtually impossible when Big Pharma and Insurers are making all the decisions....

[Raster]

4. During the last "reform" to the Medicare/Medicaid system, the bush* administration had it written...

into the law that the government could NOT negotiate for lower drug prices.

[sui generis]

3. I'm with the smart one -->

:hi:

Seriously, reduce the cost of healthcare by adding doctors, increasing preventative care, and the reducing the cost of drugs.

Healthcare is expensive because it has to have a margin, so investors demand that either insurance underpays or doctors overcharge. Reduce the cost of healthcare now and in the future and public insurance has less exposure on claims. Reducing service is only reducing the expense on healthcare, not the cost of healthcare.