Law-Forums.org

[curran]

A paper-based system that discourages sharing of medical records accounts for 6 percent of annual overspending. There are no funds in the bill to fix this, they are relying on the system to repair itself.

Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure makes up 37 percent of healthcare waste or $200 to $300 billion a year. So we shoot all the lawyers to make this one work!

* Fraud makes up 22 percent of healthcare waste, or up to $200 billion a year in fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams. And the new bill won't have any fraud!! Wake up!

Administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork account for 18 percent of healthcare waste. The forms and paperwork involved in the new system will be several times the existing load.

Preventable conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes cost $30 billion to $50 billion a year. So we shoot anyone who is in danger of becoming diabetic?? or overweight??

"The average U.S. hospital spends one-quarter of its budget on billing and administration, nearly twice the average in Canada," reads the report, citing dozens of other research papers. Thanks to existing Government regulations, and nothing in the new bill changes that.

American physicians spend nearly eight hours per week on paperwork and employ 1.66 clerical workers per doctor, far more than in Canada," it says, quoting a 2003 New England Journal of Medicine paper by Harvard University researcher Dr. Steffie Woolhandler. And the bill does nothing to change that.

So where are the real savings coming from? Not from the B.S. our government is spewing out, thats for sure!

[edin]

There is nothing to really address these issues in the current bill that I've seen (I have a job so I don't have time to analyze all 1400+ pages).

The bill also has a 3% revenue tax on medical device manufacturers and drug companies. Working for an impacted company, I can tell you the tax is going to have only two potential outcomes 1) we raise our prices by 3% to offset or 2) we lay people off to offset the 3%, neither will lower health care costs but the second one will reduce potential improvements in health care.

Edit - how much is it going to raise health care costs just to have hospitals, manufacturers and insurers read this bloated, piece o' crap bill? Their lawyers will all be billing them $500 an hour to read and interpret it. At well over 1,000 pages that alone will add millions to health care costs.

[flannagain]

You are asking about a Government that pays a thousand dollars for a hammer. A government that has raided and busted Social Security, Bill Clinton being the last for 158 billion, broke Medicare and the Treasury. Yeah, give them your health care. Everything will be hunky dory.

[wendlesora]

Has our government ever done anything better? Look at Amtrak.

[siwili]

So your saying the single payer system in Canada is better.

Thank you.

[koltin]

LOL ...no it will not

[piaras91]

LOL ...no it will not

Nope. Fix the problems that shoot up cost: per service billing. Free unnecessary ER visits for SCHIP/Medicaid families. Fragmented regulation, those who buy the company plan get a tax write off those who buy thieir own don't get a write off, no sense.