Healthcare Ripoff Today and in the Future

[WhiskeyGirl]

Assigning Blame For Rising Medical Costs

by Maggie Mahar

The conventional wisdom about skyrocketing healthcare costs tends to blame someone: patients who demand too much care; doctors who practice defensive medicine because they fear being sued; aging boomers, and finally, everyone’s favorite, “the insurance companies.”

The culprit behind long-term health care inflation, the study reveals, is not a “who” but a what: “advancing medical technologies” combined with low productivity. Yes, that’s right: while improved technology has boosted efficiency in other sectors of the economy, when it comes to healthcare, technological advances are associated with lower productivity.  There is no one group to be blamed for runaway healthcare inflation; the problem is systemic.

The HSC report is part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “Synthesis Project” and it is indeed, synthetic. Paul Ginsburg, the report’s author, bases his study on an in-depth review of an “extensive literature that examines which drivers are most important in explaining increases in health spending over time.”  The conclusions “have been very consistent,” he observes. “Technological change (which in the world of medicine includes innovations in equipment, devices, drugs, tests, and surgical procedures) is the most important factor.”

Moreover, as always, when we waste healthcare dollars, there is a real danger that patients will be harmed.  In the current situation, “extensive investments in inefficiently used capacity” leads to overtreatment—especially, Ginsburg observes, when physicians are referring patients to facilities in which they have a financial interest. Too often, physician- investors send patients to these facilities for a test or a treatment on the theory that “it can't do any harm”—even while there is no medical evidence that they will benefit.

http://takingnote.tcf.org/2008/10/assigning-blame.html

Where does the Obama plan address the escalating cost of technology?

[WhiskeyGirl]

We Pay More for Everything (Except Nurses)

Our inefficient use of ever-more expensive medical technologies stands as the major explanation for unaffordable healthcare. But a question remains: why are these new technologies so expensive?

The answer is that the U.S. is the only nation in the developed world that has decided to let healthcare become a largely unregulated, for-profit enterprise. As a result, in the U.S., those who produce new medical technologies set prices without much push-back. The producer is the “price-maker;” we are the “price-takers.”  In other nations, the government protects taxpayers and consumers by negotiating with drug-makers, device-makers, hospitals and doctors, setting limits on how high prices can go.

Our government doesn’t do this, so we shell out more for every pill and procedure.  The HSC report cites a McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) study which estimates that drug prices are 70 percent higher in the United States compared with OECD countries. When it comes to devices, The United States spends 54 percent more than OECD countries for the top-five inpatient medical devices (e.g. implants, stents).” 

Here the report observes that “many studies show that other healthcare systems effectively exercise monopsony power in setting payment rates for providers, which fragmented U.S. payers cannot muster.”

This, however, is not the whole truth. In the U.S., the government (i.e. taxpayers) picks up more than half of our national  healthcare tab by paying for Medicare, Medicaid, care for government employees, the Veterans administration and other government health programs. As a purchaser, the government does have the size and the clout needed to insist on discounts.

The problem is that Congress does not have the spine to stand up to the lobbyists and let Medicare begin negotiating for lower prices. Though I suspect that, in the recession ahead, this will change.

http://takingnote.tcf.org/2008/10/assigning-blame.html

The one Obama statement that comes to mind is something like "healthcare providers are already being squeezed".

When will the Obama generation stand up to providers?  Ask for the same discounts and special pricing that other countries get?

Keep the cost of care low so that everyone can enjoy the fruits of technology...not just the providers?

I'm thinking with all the money SAVED, we could cover everyone, without charging business and others more. 

Spread around the SAVINGS...