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

[pameladean]

At least Keith Ellison's in our corner.

P.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I think he is, but it's still probably a good idea to contact him so he knows he's got support among his constituents.

[pameladean]

He definitely is, it's all over his website. But yes, letting him know that not everybody in Minnesota is a raving lunatic is probably a good idea.

P.