A study just released by the Commonwealth Fund supports my contention that in comparison to the other health care reform measures now in Congress, Pres. Bush’s health care reform plan would have minimal impact on health care costs and the number of uninsured..
On the positive side, Sen Ron Wyden’s Healthy Americans Act and the Stark/Kennedy/Dingell expansion of Medicare look pretty good.
Politically, I don’t see how either the Bush plan or the expansion of Medicare are going to be palatable to the majority of Congresspeople. One is too much big government (Americare) and the other (Bush) is just a tax break masquerading as health care reform.
The Wyden plan preserves a healthy (no pun intended) role for private health insurers, maintains competition and the marketplace, yet covers everyone and removes much of the burden from employers who are hard-pressed to compete in the international economy with a health care burden double that in other countries.
What’s not to like?
“removes much of the burden from employers who are hard-pressed to compete in the international economy with a health care burden double that in other countries.”
Where does it go?
It goes into billing and into outsized profits/salaries for pharmaceuticals and specialist doctors.
A study that came out this past week said that 30% of the money spent on healthare goes into hospitals billing and insurers paying claims. That number seems a little inflated to me, but only a little. Compare that to countries with a less-fragmented system, fewer (or only one) payers, more government-fostered IT investment, etc., and they are spending a LOT less on the administrative aspects of healthcare. One of the great things about Wyden’s plan is it does keep competition, but it also provides a mechanism through which you could simplify the billing process (by limiting the number of payers, thus making it easier to enforce industry-wide standards and bring about other economies of scale savings) and save tons of money in administrative expenses. The main problem with any Republican plan is that they never do anything to address the underlying fragmentation in the system which is a huge driver in healthcare costs.
Cool.
It just disappears.
Cool.