NewsMine — cabal-elite — corporate — medical — Viewing Item

Bureaucratic waste us health care Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2003/08/20/study_bureaucratic_waste_dogs_us_health_care http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2003/08/20/study_bureaucratic_waste_dogs_us_health_care Study: Bureaucratic waste dogs U.S. health care By Gene Emery, Reuters, 8/20/2003 BOSTON -- Thirty-one cents of every dollar spent on health care in the United States pays administrative costs -- nearly double the rate in Canada, according to a new comparison that sees colossal bureaucratic waste in the American system. Researchers who prepared the comparison said Wednesday that the United States wastes more money on health bureaucracy than it would cost to provide health care to the tens of millions of uninsured Americans. Americans spend $752 more per person per year than Canadians on medical administrative costs alone, according to the study by investigators from Harvard University and the Canadian Institute for Health Information that was published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine. The team, led by Steffie Woolhandler of Harvard, said a large sum of money might be saved in the United States if administrative costs could be trimmed by implementing a Canadian-style, single-payer health care system. "The difference in the costs of health care administration between the United States and Canada is clearly large and growing," the researchers said, questioning whether the $294.3 billion spent each year on U.S. health care administration is money well spent. Woolhandler and co-author David Himmelstein, also of Harvard and a founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, added that if the United States adopted a Canadian-style system, the savings would likely pay for coverage for the more than 41 million Americans without health insurance. The study found overhead costs for U.S. insurance companies -- mostly for underwriting and advertising -- ate up 11.7 cents of every health care dollar, compared to 1.3 cents for Canada's government-run system and 3.6 cents for the U.S. Medicare system for the elderly. Among Canada's private insurance companies, the overhead costs were even higher: 13.2 cents per dollar. The study found that after certain exclusions, administration accounted for 31 percent of health care expenditures in the United States and 16.7 percent in Canada. The estimates do not include the advertising costs of drug companies or hospitals, health care industry profits, or the value of patients' time spent on paperwork. But in an editorial in the Journal, Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the administrative costs in the United States may be 24 percent lower than the Woolhandler estimate. He said the excess spending on health care administration in 1999 was probably closer to $159 billion, not $209 billion cited in the study. Aaron said it also doesn't prove the United States would save a lot of money if it converted to the Canadian system. While Aaron characterized the U.S. health care system as "an administrative monstrosity," he said the latest comparisons "clearly exaggerate" the differences between the North American neighbors. © Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Bureaucratic waste us health care Half of bankruptcy due to medical bills Health care administration 300 perc canada { August 21 2003 } HMO bill 1999 Justices limit suits against HMOs { June 22 2004 } Privatization of medicare { June 27 2003 } Privatizing medicare Tort reform helps insurance not doctors Files Listed: 8

Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security Archives

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information, go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purpose of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.