Insurers and healthcare providers in the United States spent a staggering $812 billion on paperwork and other administrative burdens in 2017 alone, bureaucratic costs that could be dramatically reduced by switching to a single-payer system like Medicare for All.
That’s according to a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, which found that administrative costs amounted to 34.2 percent of total U.S. national health expenditures in 2017—twice the amount Canada spent on healthcare administration that same year.
“Medicare for All could save more than $600 billion each year on bureaucracy, and repurpose that money to cover America’s 30 million uninsured and eliminate co-payments and deductibles for everyone.”
—Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, Physicians for a National Health Program
The study’s authors noted that U.S. healthcare providers impose “a hidden surcharge” on patients “to cover their costly administrative burden.” U.S. insurers and providers spent $2,497 per person on healthcare administration in 2017 while Canada spent just $551 per capita, the study found.
“The average American is paying more than $2,000 a year for useless bureaucracy,” said Dr. David Himmelstein, lead author of the study and […]
The thing that especially concerns me about the idea of Medicare being expanded to cover everyone is the current level of waste and fraud in the system. Scale that up and the cost could be a big surprise. I also think that eliminating all deductibles and co-pays is a very bad idea that just promotes over use. This kind of “benefit” should be income based. Some people might qualify for exemption but not everyone or even most people. I have serious doubts about a universal coverage, single payer program that leaves all other components of the current system in place.