2004 Study: Single payer would save more than enough to cover all the uninsured

Study Shows National Health Insurance Could Save $286 Billion on Health Care Paperwork

February 2004

A study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Public Citizen published in the January issue of the International Journal of Health Services finds that health care bureaucracy last year cost the United States $399.4 billion. The study estimates that national health insurance (NHI) could save at least $286 billion annually on paperwork, enough to cover all of the uninsured and to provide full prescription drug coverage for everyone in the United States.

The study was based on the most comprehensive analysis to date of health administration spending, including data on the administrative costs of health insurers, employers’ health benefit programs, hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, physicians and other practitioners in the United States and Canada. The authors found that bureaucracy accounts for at least 31 percent of total U.S. health spending compared to 16.7 percent in Canada. They also found that administration has grown far faster in the United States than in Canada.

The potential administrative savings of $286 billion annually under national health insurance could:

1. Offset the cost of covering the uninsured (estimated at $80 billion).



2. Cover all out-of-pocket prescription drugs costs for seniors as well as those under 65 (estimated at $53 billion in 2003).



3. Fund retraining and job placement programs for insurance workers and others who would lose their jobs under NHI (estimated at $20 billion).



4. Make substantial improvements in coverage and quality of care for U.S. consumers who already have insurance.

http://www.tradewatch.org/documents/hl_feb2004.pdf

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There's lots more administrative costs there. You would think that somebody in Congress would at least ask the CBO to check this out and produce a study of their own.

Most people believe a monopoly is never in their best interest, but those who will administer that monopoly will reap unearned benefits.

The funny thing is corporatists clearly dominate our government and a “single payer health care plan” aka “government-run monopoly” is a “corporatist-run monopoly”.

It’s good to be the monopolist, i.e. dictator, and as Dubya Bush said, "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier; just so long as I'm the dictator."

There's really no such thing as a 'free' market. It's just a matter of who exercises control.