Here we are, dickering about $20 billion here and there between Boehner and Obama to avoid the fiscal cliff, yet there could be $750 billion of waste per year to cut from health care spending. The key is transparency in US healthcare, most people don't know how much it costs and where the money is going. The U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year â roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar â through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste. That is the report from the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, an independent organization that advises the government. How much is $750 billion? The one-year estimate of health care waste is equal to more than ten years of Medicare cuts in Obama's health care law. It's more than the Pentagon budget. It's more than enough to care for the uninsured. Getting health care costs better controlled is one of the keys to reducing the deficit, the biggest domestic challenge facing the country. The report did not lay out a policy prescription for Medicare and Medicaid but suggested there's plenty of room for lawmakers to find a path. http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2012/Bes...-Health-Care-in-America/Press-Release-MR.aspx http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Activity Files/Quality/LearningHealthCare/Release Slides.pdf http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Report Files/2012/Best-Care/Best Care at Lower Cost_Recs.pdf
One man's waste is another man's income so your premise is bullshit unless you are talking exclusively about govt waste.
This 750 billion is a major component of the extra 1.4 trillion that the U.S. spends on health care each year compared to the average of 13 other industrialized nations. The amount of waste and corruption in Health Care is rivaled only by the waste and corruption in defense industry. We in the U.S. spend 2.8 trillion on health care each year. We would save 1.4 trillion each year by simply copying what the other 13 industrialized nations do. And we would get better health care! By decreasing defense spending to a level 10 times greater per capita than what other industrialized nations spend per capita we would save roughly 400 trillion per year! Medical and defense spending in the U.S. are related as cause and effect to long term budget deficits. These are the two drivers of U.S. long-term deficits. These two items are where Congress should focus reform efforts!
Our healthcare spending is out of control. Our government spends more per person in healthcare than all, but a few countries and those countries cover everyone. The US Government spends more in healthcare per person than Australia or the UK spend in both public and private healthcare, and they cover everyone while we don't. The Dems had a chance to modernize the healthcare system to the rest of the world, but decided to make healthcare spending more expensive with Obamacare. The GOP passed Medicare Part D under Bush which forces the government to buy drugs at retail cost. Both parties are to blame for this bloated healthcare system.
Perfect example of 3rd party pays failures. Give seniors a voucher to buy what they need at the best price they can find. They get to keep the balance.
We need true national health care, not just a health care system for veterans, old people, and the poor. What we got now is USA Scamcare. What we need is USA Care....period.
Hate to burst your bubble but trying to squeeze waste and corruption out of healthcare will yield little to show for it. As a matter of fact I'd say grasping at such silly notions is likely to cost more money than it saves.