Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

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Vonz90
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Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

Post by Vonz90 »

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/4 ... ing-wasted

Interesting thesis, I doubt it is literally true (for a variety of reasons) but no doubt a large quantity of it is wasted. Of course there is waste in every industry, normally there is a competitive pressure to reduce said waste along with a counter competitive pressure to increase services (which always has a tendency to increase some degree of waste). These factors do not apply much in health care since it is both heavily regulated and competing for money being spent by people who are not the end customers (the end customers being whomever pays for the insurance, usually their employers).
BDK
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Re: Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

Post by BDK »

There's tremendous amounts of admin costs in billing, etc

Admittedly, it's a biased source, but one of the men I smoke cigars with specializes in converting doctors offices to private practices

Their largest expense is usually in billing
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Steamforger
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Re: Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

Post by Steamforger »

If I get bipap supplies off Amazon, they tend to run 70-90% cheaper than what my supplier charges my insurance.

If that isn't waste....
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Weetabix
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Re: Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

Post by Weetabix »

BDK wrote:There's tremendous amounts of admin costs in billing, etc
Too tired to read the linked article right now, but I remember when I was uninsured (by personal choice) at one point, and the providers offering 20-30% discounts for cash, pre-Obamacare. I imagine it's only worse now.

A relative, again pre-Obamacare, had gold-plated healthcare as part of a state plan, and her child went to the doctor and received antibiotics for every cold and sniffle.

Think about drug costs here vs. Canadian pharmacies.

Procedural costs at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma vs what hospitals charge insurance.

SteamForger's experience on supplies.

$5/Tylenol tablet when I was in the hospital.

Lots of anecdotal evidence, sure, but It's hard not to believe 50% waste.
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Jered
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Re: Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

Post by Jered »

Weetabix wrote: $5/Tylenol tablet when I was in the hospital.
How much of that is to offset Medicare and Medicaid patients?
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Kommander
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Re: Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

Post by Kommander »

Frankly I am surprised that we don't have more waste. We somehow ended up with a heath care system that managed to cram all the evils of both government over-regulation and greedy private businesses.
Greg
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Re: Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

Post by Greg »

Jered wrote:
Weetabix wrote: $5/Tylenol tablet when I was in the hospital.
How much of that is to offset Medicare and Medicaid patients?
EMTALA, as always, is the elephant in the room.
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Weetabix
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Re: Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

Post by Weetabix »

Greg wrote:EMTALA, as always, is the elephant in the room.
But, it wasn't faaaiiiirrr that free medical treatment wasn't as good as medical care someone else was willing to pay more for!

I think if we could:
- repeal EMTALA,
- restart County hospitals for the indigent,
- reel in the FDA's regulated monopolies,
- disallow frivolous malpractice lawsuits,
- allow insurance to charge based on actuarial risk, and
- allow insurance companies to be competitive

We'd have reasonable health care costs. Americans are generous enough, that I bet churches and charities would operate clinics to help out special cases. The whole "equality of outcome" thing screws up everything it touches.
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blackeagle603
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Re: Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

Post by blackeagle603 »

golly, one might even see the reemergence of mutual aid societies.
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Jered
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Re: Half of all Health Care dollars are wasted?

Post by Jered »

Greg wrote: EMTALA, as always, is the elephant in the room.
Yep. As a requirement of participating in Medicare, hospitals are required to take EMTALA patients.
But, it wasn't faaaiiiirrr that free medical treatment wasn't as good as medical care someone else was willing to pay more for!
Hmm...thinking on that. What about, if to end EMTALA abuse, we enacted a law that forbade EMTALA patients from suing hospitals? Actually, I suspect the best way to address EMTALA is to allow hospitals to bill Medicaid for their EMTALA patients.
I think if we could:
- repeal EMTALA,
This is actually a good idea, but, is probably not politically feasible. It's probably easier to allow hospitals to bill Medicaid for EMTALA patients. At least they get something, then.
- restart County hospitals for the indigent,
Or a county clinic or something. Emergency rooms are expensive, so, if we could have some way of diverting EMTALA patients to a primary care provider, we'd be way better off.
- reel in the FDA's regulated monopolies,
I'm not sure how we'd do that. Drugs and medicines are expensive to develop and pharmaceutical companies need a way to pay for the failures of their drugs. That also infringes on the US Constitution's authority of Congress to grant patents. We definitely need to figure out a way of offsetting the costs of medical treatments and medical devices, though.
- disallow frivolous malpractice lawsuits,
I that's also a pretty good idea. The way things stand right now, doctors have absolutely no incentive to admit that they may have made a medical error because of the fear of a lawsuit. What about if we capped the damage limit in cases where the provider made and error, recognized the error, and then made a good faith effort to correct the error or to remedy the consequences of the error?
- allow insurance to charge based on actuarial risk, and
You mean a non-compliant diabetic might have to pay more than a healthy adult male with no family history of illness? That isn't fair!
- allow insurance companies to be competitive
That's a good idea. What if we also allowed insurance companies to sell policies that didn't cover a diabetic's needs, but offered a discount?
We'd have reasonable health care costs. Americans are generous enough, that I bet churches and charities would operate clinics to help out special cases. The whole "equality of outcome" thing screws up everything it touches.
You mean I'd have to ask people for help! That isn't fair!
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