- About 50 percent of health care spending is eaten up
by waste, excessive prices and fraud, according to a report by Boston University
researchers.
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- Major sources of unnecessary spending include administrative
costs and profit in the insurance industry, high prices of prescription
drugs and health services and, to a smaller extent, theft and fraud, according
to the study released Wednesday.
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- U.S. health spending is projected to reach $1.9 trillion
in 2005, according to the report. Spending for healthcare is gobbling up
about one-quarter of the growth in the economy, and health-related items
amount to more than three times the defense budget and twice what the nation
devotes to education. Health care will consume 15.5 percent of the U.S.
economy this year, up from 13.2 percent in 2002, the study notes.
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- Alan Sager, co-director of the health reform program
at Boston University's School of Public Health and co-author Deborah Socolar
arrived at their 50 percent waste estimate by culling published material
such as comparisons of U.S. medical costs with those of other countries
and estimates of administrative expenses in the U.S. health care system.
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- Sager argued that to curb waste doctors need to make
more careful decisions to control runaway spending. "We know there
is enough money to take care of everyone, but not if we keep practicing
blank-check mentality and using cost controls that have failed for decades,"
he said.
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- Susan Pisano of the America's Health Insurance Plans
said it's difficult to calculate administrative costs because much of that
spending benefits consumers by providing better quality care and finding
ways to save money.
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- The report placed much of the responsibility for reform
on doctors because it contends that decisions made by them determine about
87 percent of personal health spending. "We certainly make decisions
about what care or what treatment the patient needs ... but (we) don't
control the prices charged by the pharmaceutical companies or the hospitals,"
said Dr. Michael Sexton, president-elect of the California Medical Association.
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- The report also found that U.S. health spending per person
is twice the average of such spending in Canada, France, Germany, Italy
and Britain -- countries that guarantee healthcare for all their citizens.
"Current U.S. spending should be adequate to cover all Americans,"
it said.
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- http://www.detnews.com/2005/health/0502/10/A04-85971.htm
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