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DesideriScuri -> RE: Why is US medical care so expensive? (3/9/2012 7:52:34 PM)
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ORIGINAL: SoftBonds
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ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri
Until you have actually shown how a Universal Health Care system would reduce costs, you have not answered the question. That you haven't shown any sort of process that would lower costs shows me that either you don't know how the cost drop would be effected, or that you know it won't actually do that.
Aetna administrative costs, 18%, other health insurance companies are similar (vs. 2% for medicare)
Hospital billing costs, over 20%
Increased costs of procedures for the uninsured and under-insured due to not going for care until they need the ER, unknown (but at least 12%). A good example of that is the friend of Fluke who had to have an ovary removed because the health insurance company kept trying to claim that the birth control pills she needed to treat her PCOS were just for birth control, therefore they wouldn't cover it.
There you have it, a huge amount of money that is on the table, easily allowing us to save 50% of what we currently spend on health care, if we just get rid of the health insurance bureaucracy (ironic that the government is so much more efficient, yes?).
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2010/03/are_most_emergency_room_visits_really_unnecessary.html
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According to Peter Orszag, the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, about $700 billion, or 5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, is wasted on unnecessary care, such as extra costs related to medical errors, defensive medicine, and just plain fraud.
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But there are a few problems with this logic. While the past decade has seen dramatic increases in the use of emergency care and ER crowding, ER care is but a tiny portion of the U.S. health care pie: less than 3 percent. The claim that unnecessary visits are clogging the emergency care system is also untrue: Just 12 percent of ER visits are not urgent. People also tend to think ER visits cost far more than primary care, but even this is disputable. In fact, the marginal cost of treating less acute patients in the ER is lower than paying off-hours primary care doctors, as ERs are already open 24/7 to handle life-threatening emergencies. And while we're at it, let's dispel one other myth: Despite the belief that the uninsured and undocumented flood ERs, most emergency room patients are insured U.S. citizens.
These stats are for the country. Individual hospitals may see stats different from these. The Cleveland Clinic of Naples (FL) has been inundated with illegals to the point where they were going to close down because of it. There was a deal between the Hospital and the City of Naples regarding the "free" care given and the City was incapable of controlling it. So, there will be areas where the stats don't hold true. Overall, however....
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