Dr. Robert Levine author of the new book “Shock Therapy” addressed the problem of rising health care costs. He advocates overhauling the entire system. Health care cost has increased by 8.9% per year. About 3.9% of inflation and this issue is not addressed in the health care legislation passed in congress and the senate version that is up for vote. Over $500 million goes to administrative costs in health care each year. Couple that with unnecessary surgery which is a chronic and systemic problem, it is estimated that about 500,000 out of one million cases involved unnecessary surgery. Doctors are also ordering unnecessary test, because of the huge number of malpractice test.
According to Dr. Levine, there are three main drivers that ramp up the cost of health care . Unnecessary surgeries, the more operations doctors perform , the more they get paid. Doctors are afraid of law suits so they order unnecessary test. Doctors and patients have no access to test, so doctors may inadvertently order the same test. All of these instances cause a tremendous rise in cost. These alternatives are not addressed in any of the bills, house or senate.
In order to eliminate this problem there must be a single payer system. This is needed in order to understand that it is not the government that is the problem, it is the insurance companies that are already between the patient and the doctor. Insurance companies know everything there is to know about you. You cannot hide this information from them. So if you worry about big brother, he already is on the prowl and it is the insurance company. Just ask any insurance agent, if they are honest they will tell you. It does not matter what you withhold on the insurance application underwriters will find out. If you lie, you will lose when you file your claim.
Dr. Levine’s fix is to have an administrative agencies oversee medical administration, put doctors on salary and put everyone on a single payer system. This approach makes total sense.
Tags: Doctors, health care cost, Health Care Legislation, inflation, Insurance Companies, medical administration, Robert Levine, Shock Therapy, Single Payer
