Important new data on administrative costs
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 05:33:22 -0700
Subject: qotd: Important new data on administrative costs
Public Citizen
The Health Research Group
August 20, 2003
The Cost (of Health Care Administration) to the Nation, the States and the District of Columbia, with State-Specific Estimates of Potential Savings By David U.Himmelstein, M.D., Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H. and Sidney M. Wolfe, M.D.
Executive Summary
The U.S. wastes more on health care bureaucracy than it would cost to provide health care to all of the uninsured. Administrative expenses will consume at least $399.4 billion out of total health expenditures of $1,660.5 billion in 2003. Streamlining administrative overhead to Canadian levels would save approximately $286.0 billion in 2003, $6,940 for each of the 41.2 million americans who were uninsured as of 2001. This is substantially more than would be needed to provide full insurance coverage.
These results are derived from detailed data on administrative costs in the U.S. and Canada in 1999 which appears in tomorrow's (Aug. 21, 2003) New England Journal of Medicine. This report updates the New England Journal estimates of nationwide administrative spending and potential savings to 2003. The complex and fragmented payment structure of the U.S. health care system increases administrative overhead in the U.S. relative to Canada,where a single-payer national health insurance program has existed since 1971.
The cost of excess health bureaucracy to the states is equally striking.(The breakdown for each state is listed in a table in the article,which can be accessed at the link listed.)
Only a single payer national health insurance system could garner these massive administrative savings, allowing universal coverage without any increase in total health spending. Because incremental reforms necessarily preserve the current fragmented and duplicative payment structure they cannot achieve significant bureaucratic savings.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/349/8/768
Comment: The New England Journal of Medicine results are based on data for
1999, the latest year for which numbers are available. The Harvard/Public
Citizen results are based on the NEJM study, but the numbers are updated to
2003 estimates of spending from the Office of the Actuary, National
Center for Health Statistics. Thus the Harvard/Public Citizen numbers should
be used in your advocacy activities.
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 10:20:41 -0700
Subject: qotd: Sen. Boxer supports single payer
Leisure World News
August 21, 2003
Sen. Boxer calls on Leisure World
By Cheryl Walker
At a press conference after the main meeting, (Sen. Barbara) Boxer said she
also applauded the recent action on the part of physicians nationwide to
throw their support behind a single-payer, universal health care program which would serve as a baseline safety net for all. "I've long been a supporter of a single-payer system," she said.