As we debate health care reform, keep in mind two points:
One, fixing the fundamental problem with health care is seldom addressed. Instead, we continue to argue about how to finance a broken system. If we stopped treating symptoms with drugs and surgery, we could help patients more and save enough to pay for those who cannot afford health care.
Two, if we rooted out corruption and practices that only help the bottom line of big corporations and corrupted minor players, we could save even more money.
References
Roughly 20 to 25% of U.S. health care spending is wasteful
“In the New York Times (10/7, Frakt) “The Upshot,” Austin Frakt writes that research published online in JAMA indicates “roughly 20 percent to 25 percent of American health care spending is wasteful.” Investigators arrived at this conclusion after combing “through 54 studies and reports published since 2012 that estimated the waste or savings from changes in practice and policy.” The study revealed that “the largest source of waste…is administrative costs, totaling $266 billion a year.” Modern Healthcare (10/7, Bannow, Subscription Publication) reports, “The study also estimated potential annual savings from measures shown to cut waste,” which, “in aggregate…could save $191 billion to $282 billion annually, or about 25% of the total cost of waste.”
May 29th, 2006, cover story.
It is written by David Eddy, a Heart Surgeon trained in Mathematics and chairman of the Center for Health Policy Research & Education at Duke University. 75-85% of what we are doing in health care is unproven, and often driven by monetary gain by the few who stand to benefit the most.
