Reform

Should Make Health the First Item of Business link(...) Indeed, despite this disproportionate spending, the Commonwealth Fund survey found that more than a third of US adults reported having gone without needed health care in 2007 because of costs. More than a quarter, or approximately 50 million people, were without health insurance for at least part of the previous year. Compared with 38 million people in 2001, this increase provides little endorsement of free market approaches to the problem link
Further, the survey found that 72 million (or 41% of) working-age adults faced serious financial problems from medical bills, which resulted in more than one-quarter becoming unable to pay for food, heat, or rent . Ironically, these burdensome payments largely go to fund inefficiency, with health insurance administrative costs in the US running 30%–70% higher (as a proportion of total health spending) than in countries with more efficient public/private insurance systems (such as Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands). In other words, if the US could reduce these administrative costs to levels that European countries have already achieved, more than US$50 billion per year could be redirected to improve access to actual heath services(...) link PLoS Medicine , Published: 14.10.08 .

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