Healthcare system wastes up to $800 billion a year - Yahoo! News »
Posted By mesodude 4 weeks, 1 day ago in NewsThe U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday.
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Hhussk4 weeks ago
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The U.S. healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday.
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Liberal Logic Exercise
The Problem: The government is wasting billions of dollars a year in health care.
The Solution: Increase the government's role in health care.
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Beau78904 weeks ago
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Excuse me? Under the current system, how is it the government that is wasting billions of dollars a year in healthcare?
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From the article:
One example -- a paper-based system that discourages sharing of medical records accounts for 6 percent of annual overspending.
"It is waste when caregivers duplicate tests because results recorded in a patient's record with one provider are not available to another or when medical staff provides inappropriate treatment because relevant history of previous treatment cannot be accessed," the report reads.
Some other findings in the report from Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Reuters:
* Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure makes up 37 percent of healthcare waste or $200 to $300 a year.
* Fraud makes up 22 percent of healthcare waste, or up to $200 billion a year in fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams.
* Administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork account for 18 percent of healthcare waste.
* Medical mistakes account for $50 billion to $100 billion in unnecessary spending each year, or 11 percent of the total.
* Preventable conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes cost $30 billion to $50 billion a year.
"The average U.S. hospital spends one-quarter of its budget on billing and administration, nearly twice the average in Canada," reads the report, citing dozens of other research papers.
Other than the item about Medicare fraud--which all of the healthcare reforms are attempting to address--what do you see here as a fault of government? -
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mesodude4 weeks ago
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"The Problem: The government is wasting billions of dollars a year in health care.
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The Solution: Increase the government's role in health care."
--I think I get it...Based on your simplistic logicI it's always possible to repair a broken *for profit* approach but government programs that aren't working are de facto beyond repair (even though you know very well they work elsewhere)? -
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Nan464 weeks ago
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When MDs process fradulant claims to Medicare, the government doesn't know that they are fraudulant. They just receive a bill. They pay that bill. The fraud is occurring in the health care system not the government. Do you want the governement to check every test that your MD wants done? When I was in the hospital one time, it cost $500.00/hr for someone to watch me breathe. I had viral pneumonia and heart failure. There were so many patients in the hospital with pneumonia there was no room for me in the ICU.
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Natureboy4 weeks ago
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Poor, confused Hhussk.
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If this were a critique of the BRITISH healthcare system, your "liberal logic exercise" would apply.
As it is, the situation looks like this -
CAPITALIST LOGIC EXERCISE-
PROBLEM: Private, for-profit health insurers and health providers are bilking the system.
SOLUTION: It's profitable. All is well.
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mrpetesurfsComment removed: Spam
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Charlson4 weeks ago
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I watched 60 minutes last night and one of the stories was about Medicare fraud. Crooks buy and sell names of people who are qualified for Medicare and fraudulent claims bilk the system of billions of dollars each year. And the reason is that Medicare funding for fraud is so low that there aren't enough people or resources to catch them all. In fact only a very small number are caught. If the funding was there, they'd have the resources to do a better job.
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philbrick4 weeks ago
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60 billion in Medicare fraud.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/10/23/60minute...
Better oversight would help
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TheNewsseeker4 weeks ago
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The problems mentioned in the article will only be solved, if medical treatment in general was better observed and controled.
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I don´t like the idea of a chip card with every patient´s data on it, which is going to be made real in Germany during the next year, but doubled treatments and dangerous combinations of different medicins mustn´t happen any more. Perhaps it would be possible to store this data at a safe place, where only certain intitutions and certain persons have access to it. Fraud is another point. Only a harder punishment will help to prevent this misbehavior. Last but not least, people should go to the doctor´s before they´re seriously ill, because, at the end, untreated health problems are more expensive than those, which are realised early and fully cured. -
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Tangent0014 weeks ago
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Here's the Reuters article.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59P0...
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mesodude4 weeks ago
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"After President Obama leaves office, are you Democrats going to be ok with a Palin, Romney, or Gingrich (Read: another Republican) running your single payer health care?"
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--Given the last several years of extreme failure on the right politically, I'm just awestruck by the confidence cons maintain in their political judgment. Amazing. ;-P
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aileen20Comment removed: Hard Banned
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tiredofwhiners4 weeks ago
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Somewhere I saw a reference to private health care *for profit* as if that's somehow a bad thing. It seems profit is a dirty word in liberal circles. I read recently that the health care industry is at the low end of profitability of all industries at 2.2% return. I don't know anyone who would be happy with that as an average profit or would be excited to start a company, work hard and invest in same. Not very attractive. Government is not for profit but they have their waste and excesses and seldom would be able to compete in the real world of business. And businesses pay taxes, which govt. needs to keep going.
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tiredofwhiners4 weeks ago
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I am not convinced that the federal government would make health care better than it already is. I think that the idea from proponents is to tax the rich to pay for better health care of the poor regardless of cost. They won't make the doctors better or make hospitals, drug research, new medical devices and technology better. Just more availability which will create the need for many more doctors (who will be paid less) and more facilities. All this will require $$$ and savings by reform won't pay for that. I highly doubt that a lot of savings can be achieved given the feds poor record on saving money on anything. Tort reform, allowing interstate competition, and catastrophic and preventative only insurance would do most to lower cost to the taxpayer.
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Hhussk4 weeks ago
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meso: You are very rude, at times, if someone on the right makes comments not to your liking. Not a good way of encouraging debate.
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What you'll see is that Propeller.com is rarely about honest debate; on any given day it's about how bad FOX news, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, President G.W. Bush and any Republicans are for the country.
Basically, it's a liberal hate-fest.
The reason I make comments is because I enjoy fighting liberal logic. It's always satisfying to reveal the whole picture to their argument.
Remember how we were an imperial nation, taking away the freedoms of our people under Bush? Well, now that a liberal is our President, we can give the government even more control over our liberties! (sarcasm) Unfortunately, for a liberal, they don't seem to understand that Obama can only serve two terms, and that it's entirely possible that another Republican, or conservative, will become President in the future.
They love the government when Kennedy, Clinton, and Obama are President; hated it when Bush or Reagan was President. The conservative answer is to keep government small under any President; that way, you don't make things worse for yourself.
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