Health care reform and the living room elephant

[dreamshark]

Where can we scrape up enough cost savings to provide health care coverage to all our citizens?  Well, *duh* The elephant in the living room that every politician is afraid to talk about is this (from Physicians for a National Health Plan):

The United States has the most bureaucratic health care system in the world. Over 31% of every health care dollar goes to paperwork, overhead, CEO salaries, profits, etc. Because the U.S. does not have a unified system that serves everyone, and instead has thousands of different insurance plans, each with its own marketing, paperwork, enrollment, premiums, and rules and regulations, our insurance system is both extremely complex and fragmented.

The Medicare program operates with just 3% overhead, compared to 15% to 25% overhead at a typical HMO. Provincial single-payer plans in Canada have an overhead of about 1%.

It is not necessary to have a huge bureaucracy to decide who gets care and who doesn’t when everyone is covered and has the same comprehensive benefits. With a universal health care system we would be able to cut our bureaucratic burden in half and save over $300 billion annually. 

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

As long as so many politicians care more about getting re-elected next time around than about actually making this country's systems work for everyone, I can't see how we are going to get out of this mess.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I'm feeling discouraged too, but the only thing I can think of to do is to repeat the facts that politicians are afraid to speak aloud and to repeat them often.

This is, I think, the real answer to the perfectly reasonable question, "How can we afford to pay for this?" Use it if you find yourself in a conversation where you need it. Please post it on your own LJ if you think it deserves to be seen.