Rebuttal to this video - your thoughts? Why USA healthcare is so expensive

[Lord Xar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSjGouBmo0M&feature=youtu.be

[Zippyjuan]

One major expense of healthcare is administration costs. Some 40% of healthcare costs are paperwork processing. Compare to Canada where it is closer to 16% in overhead. One reason? Canada has only one payer which greatly cuts down on the paperwork. In the US, we have dozens of companies with hundreds of plans. Each one requires different paperwork to be sent to different places with different attachments to different places. Competition between insurance companies should make things cheaper but is actually making them more expensive.

[Lord Xar]

One major expense of healthcare is administration costs. Some 40% of healthcare costs are paperwork processing. Compare to Canada where it is closer to 16% in overhead. One reason? Canada has only one payer which greatly cuts down on the paperwork. In the US, we have dozens of companies with hundreds of plans. Each one requires different paperwork to be sent to different places with different attachments to different places. Competition between insurance companies should make things cheaper but is actually making them more expensive.

How much of the cost is attributed to only certain companies being able to operate in certain states. Wouldn't this reduce competition, and create a fixed pricing scheme?

[torchbearer]

third party pay.
introduce that system to grocery stores and guess what would happen?

[tangent4ronpaul]

A year or two ago, a doctor wrote in the paper comparing how his practice differed from his dads practice in 1950.

His dad's practice:
Only accepted cash or barter. It was also very affordable.
He did house calls for a little bit more.
His price included everything - exam, lab work, treatment, medication, followup visit if needed.
He had one employee, his wife who was his nursing assistant, did all the billing, all the lab work, all the x-rays, etc.
Charting was minimal.

He, on the other hand had to join a practice or go out of business.
They have 15 clerical workers just to do paperwork.
They have to send most lab work out. A WBC count used to cost $12 and he'd get the answer while the pt was still there. Now he has to send it out, it costs $75 and he doesn't get the results or 3 days. (guess who lobbied for that one?)
All radiology must be sent out, or sent to a different department - which bills separately.
He spends a third of his time charting to insurance company edict, so he can be reimbursed for his time.

What happened to the cost of health care? The government happened!

-t

[VIDEODROME]

One major expense of healthcare is administration costs. Some 40% of healthcare costs are paperwork processing. Compare to Canada where it is closer to 16% in overhead. One reason? Canada has only one payer which greatly cuts down on the paperwork. In the US, we have dozens of companies with hundreds of plans. Each one requires different paperwork to be sent to different places with different attachments to different places. Competition between insurance companies should make things cheaper but is actually making them more expensive.

Probably this along with redundant or unneeded tests required by the different providers.

It's an upside down system. It seems like if I a county hospital and related clinics could just provide health coverage and bill their patients directly. In a funky way, is that kind of what Canada accomplishes? More or less depending on the Province? The Hospitals are the Provider and the Government is the single payer?

[FindLiberty]

At the gut level, the whole problem boils down the lack of Liberty. (the very existence of licensing, rules, regulation, control, etc. is the source of the problem).

If anyone/everyone could claim to be a doctor, perform procedures and/or pass out various roots, nuts and berries for medication, healthcare would not cost very much at all. The top priority would be the process of discovering a good (good enough?) doctor. It would naturally evolve and prices would remain low as long as there was no government manipulation/coercion!