Comments on: Opinion: the public and experts often don’t agree on what in healthcare needs fixing – Drew Altman http://mylocalhealthguide.com/2009/05/19/opinion-the-public-and-experts-often-dont-agree-on-what-in-healthcare-needs-fixing-drew-altman/ Your source for Seattle health news and information Wed, 16 May 2012 23:56:45 +0200 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: podunk soup http://mylocalhealthguide.com/2009/05/19/opinion-the-public-and-experts-often-dont-agree-on-what-in-healthcare-needs-fixing-drew-altman/comment-page-1/#comment-73 podunk soup Fri, 22 May 2009 04:33:29 +0000 http://localhealthguideonline.com/?p=5272#comment-73 Let's talk about the rising costs of healthcare: Private insurance! The US spends more than any other developed country on health insurance per capita and gets less for it. Private companies drive up the cost of care. Single payer overhead in Canada consumes about 11% in the US, with a myriad of forms, policies, denials, re-files and rebuttals for care, overhead is a whopping 25%. Doctors are now, more and more simply the errand boys for insurance and pharmaceutical companies. This isn't medical care. A big hospital the size of Massachusetts General in Canada has no billing department - costs and payment have already been negotiated. The patient just swipes a card and gets treatment. How hard is that? Then let's begin to put a single payer system into place and shift those employees from administrative desk flying to health care professions? We need all the trained professionals we can get. Let's talk about the rising costs of healthcare: Private insurance!
The US spends more than any other developed country on health insurance per capita and gets less for it. Private companies drive up the cost of care.
Single payer overhead in Canada consumes about 11%
in the US, with a myriad of forms, policies, denials, re-files and rebuttals for care,
overhead is a whopping 25%. Doctors are now, more and more simply the errand boys for insurance and pharmaceutical companies. This isn't medical care.

A big hospital the size of Massachusetts General in Canada has no billing department – costs and payment have already been negotiated. The patient just swipes a card and gets treatment. How hard is that?

Then let's begin to put a single payer system into place and shift those employees from administrative desk flying to health care professions? We need all the trained professionals we can get.

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