STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Thursday, 8 November 2012

[Demeter]

4. Health Care Waste Deconstructed: Patients Aren't the Problem

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12372-health-care-waste-deconstructed-patients-arent-the-problem

If anybody ever tells you we can't afford health care for everybody, consider the following: Every other wealthy country in the world provides health care for all at an average of about half the per-person cost in the United States.

Their health care systems are more popular than ours and get better results for all their people. In those countries, there is no such thing as medical bankruptcies and there is no job-lock due solely to health care coverage.

Last month, the National Academy of Sciences reported that in the U.S. we waste $750 billion on health care, or about one in every three dollars we spend. Apologists for our dysfunctional health care system blame fraud and inadequate prevention — "blame the patient" — for most of that. But those two factors accounted for only 17 percent of the waste, according to the NAS.

The rest of the waste, 83 percent, was accounted for by other factors. Unnecessary services accounted for 28 percent. Unnecessarily high prices accounted for 14 percent. Excess administrative costs due to too many private insurance companies and types of insurance accounted for 25 percent.Inefficiently delivered services due to a lack of coordination among doctors, hospitals and other providers accounted for another 17 percent....MORE