US Healthcare Waste: Larger Than Entire Pentagon Budget But Smaller Than Obama’s Annual Deficit

Waste in the US health care system is larger than the entire Pentagon budget but smaller than Obama’s annual trillion dollar deficits.

The American Interest reported:

It’s not exactly earth-shaking news that there’s a lot of waste in the U.S. health care system, but this item we came across still managed to stagger us: A report by the Institute of Medicine estimates that as much as $750 billion is wasted in the U.S. health care system each year. Three quarters of a trillion dollars. Every year. As the Wall Street Journal notes, that’s bigger than the Pentagon budget, amounting to roughly 5 percent of GDP.

The report goes on to say that Obamacare will not fix any of these problems.
What did Obamacare fix?

1. 

   #2 September 8, 2012 at 2:38 pm

   FurryGuy commented:

   The report goes on to say that Obamacare will not fix any of these problems.
   What did Obamacare fix?

   That pesky capitalistic freedom of choice and liberty and that progressives rail against.

2. 

   #6 September 8, 2012 at 3:34 pm

   chuck in st paul commented:

   please define “waste”

   A lot of times these numbers are highly inflated to give rise to panicky decisions in favor of the report writer or their underlying supporters.

   Not to say that there isn’t waste. All the government specified paperwork tends to qualify. Add to that the burden of absurd jury awards for hangnails and the forceful addition of government mandates, and I KNOW that there’s a lot of wind in there that can be let out.

3. 

   #7 September 8, 2012 at 3:35 pm

   chuck in st paul commented:

   [good grief!! how did the comment counter jump from 2 to 6 all in one swell foop? did the moderaters kill of that many?]

4. 

   #8 September 8, 2012 at 3:56 pm

   dba...vagabond trader commented:

   He11care was not designed to fix anything. It was designed to enslave us.

5. 

   #9 September 8, 2012 at 3:59 pm

   JoyO commented:

   The one thing Obamacare fixed was that the Government’s grab for power via Obamacare woke up a sleeping giant — the American People. Like Biden, We the People think Obamacare is a big F***ING DEAL! We don’t want an unelected Government Board to decide what treatments our doctors are “allowed” to provide us. We don’t want the Government to decide what people are allowed to be treated based solely on their “value to the collective.” We don’t want our Government to violate our First Amendment by requiring the Catholic Church to free abortions and contraceptives. WE DON’T WANT THE HIGH COSTS AND THE GROSS INEFFICIENCIES ASSOCIATED WITH GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS. MOST OF ALL, WE DON’T WANT THE LOSS OF FREEDOM THAT WE WILL EXPERIENCE IF OBAMACARE IS NOT REPEALED!

   On November 6, We the People must vote for people in the House, the Senate, and the White House that will repeal Obamacare or this country’s freedom is at stake. As my 92-year mother says, she does not want to live under Socialism or Communism!

6. 

   #10 September 8, 2012 at 4:03 pm

   lizzy84 commented:

   ^^^^^^
   THIS.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdnY8r7_fLw

7. 

   #11 September 8, 2012 at 4:13 pm

   bigkahuna commented:

   What Obamanationcare fixed was Obama’s way to control the people by taxing and feeing them to death and enslaving more dependent parasites on government’s tit

   It fixed the problem of expensive old people that they will refuse to pay for unless they belong to powerful democrats family.

   What it fixes is Obamas lack of ability to ad more and more laws and red tape without congressional approval since about every 100 lines in Odumbasscare is a line that states to be determined by HHS secretary.

   By the time they are done that will be a 15,000 page bill nobody has read

8. 

   #12 September 8, 2012 at 6:38 pm

   MT Geoff commented:

   Re #6: yes, the first question is “how do we define waste?”
   Actually, the first question is, “What are we actually spending on healthcare?” I can’t figure out whether the $2T annual figure is based on retail billing, amounts actually paid, amount billed plus the amount discounted (talk about double-counting) or quite what.
   But to the question of the thread: first, what would we call waste? Re-work of medical tests might be one: when a patient sees several providers with one problem, the patient may have blood and imaging work done repeatedly. Unnecessary medications, but which meds are unnecessary? Providing a patient with a knee replacement when she has a two-year life expectancy due to a cancer diagnosis?
   Healthcare financing has become one of the most confusing topics around and politicizing the topic has only made it worse.

9. 

   #13 September 8, 2012 at 7:48 pm

   tommy mc donnell commented:

   somebody is getting rich that shouldn’t.

10. 

    #14 September 8, 2012 at 7:52 pm

    Patty commented:

    What did Obama care fix? Obama’s lust to pass his Affordable Health Care act in which a Democratic House and Senate could do.

    Free for all, they were biting at the bit to pass health care act for years now.

    Obama’s signature act and who knew how long he would have a majority again.

    This is now one of the Biggest National Taxes on the Middle Class American population.

    This is why Obama isn’t leading, stagnating in the polls. Unemployment, housing, debt, tax reform, medicare all issues that would have been so different for Obama, he probably would have been leading in the polls by 10 points.

    But, he just had to pass a bill that was widespread into law. HIS SIGNATURE PIECE.

    WHO WILL HAVE THE LAST LAUGH COME NOVEMBER?

11. 

    #15 September 8, 2012 at 8:08 pm

    Patty commented:

    In Top Journal, Obamacare Boosters Push ‘Global Spending Target’
    Which is the very definition of “rationing,” the word they aren’t supposed to say.

    Free-market economists have long known that “controls breed controls.” In health care, leading Obamacare supporters are now proposing unprecedented new government controls over all medical spending — private as well as public — to “solve” problems caused by prior controls. Welcome to ObamaCare 2.0.

    In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), several prominent Obamacare supporters have called for a binding “global spending target for both public and private payers.” In regular English, this means a government-enforced cap on how much Americans may spend in aggregate on their health care, both public and private. The co-authors of this article include former Obama administration officials Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel (former White House health care advisor and brother of Rahm Emanuel, former White House chief of staff), Dr. Donald Berwick (former head of Medicare), and Peter Orszag (former budget director).

    The authors argue that current Obamacare cost controls do not go far enough. Although Obamacare will reduce government-sector health spending (e.g., Medicare and Medicaid), insurers and medical providers will simply shift those costs onto the private sector. To properly control health care costs (they claim), the government must therefore also control private health spending.
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    The state of Massachusetts has already passed into law a global cap on public and private health spending to deal with the skyrocketing costs of their “universal coverage” plan. Given that Massachusetts has been the testing ground for national health legislation and given the political clout of the NEJM authors, this proposal will likely be the basis of Obamacare 2.0.

    In particular, voters should be aware of five key points:

    1) This means rationing.

    Obamacare proponents have long denied their plan would result in “rationing,” even going so far as to advocate avoiding the “R-word” in public discussions.

    But a hard cap on private medical spending means the government must necessarily restrict Americans’ right to spend their own money for their own medical care. The rationing will not be overt. Instead, the government will use proxies (such as “Accountable Care Organizations”) to limit medical care. But it will be rationing all the same.

    2) Get ready for the lobbyist feeding frenzy.

    A fixed health care “pie” will create an intense “feeding frenzy” from special interest groups seeking their piece of that pie.

    http://pjmedia.com/blog/in-top-journal-obamacare-boosters-push-global-spending-target/

12. 

    #16 September 9, 2012 at 6:02 am

    Limousine Barry commented:

    Let me be clear, it takes a lot of money to spend other people’s money. You belong to the government! And, you did not build it!

    I am not making any excuses but I caused the Biggest Depression since the great Depression.

    I maxed out the Taxpayer’s credit card. I spent billions on 0bamacare and then I handed out a fist full of waivers to my cronies. My cronies needed to be paid off.

    No, my cronies and I will not be joining the crappy 0bamaCare. We have our lush government health care. 0bamaCare is for the little people. It stinks!

    If you like the way I make your economic lives a mess then vote for me. And, this is important! Send me $3.00 before midnight. My campaign is going broke!

    My campaign may be in the toilet but once I bankrupt my donors it will be in flush down the toilet. Send me your money! Good day.

13. 

    #18 September 9, 2012 at 9:50 am

    chuck in st paul commented:

    Let’s be clear, the only ‘cost control’ that can work and has worked is a clearly competitive market with zero outside interferrence supported by clear and rational contract law.

    When buyers are able to freely purchase a service or product that has multiple vendors who are only constrained by contract law and the will of the buyers, then prices will find their lowest possible level.

    1) remove ALL mandates from the entire healthcare/insurance arena
    2) stop the lawsuit lottery
    A) reinstitute the ‘prudent man’ principle
    B) reinstitute ‘loser pays’ in lawsuits
    C) cap all ‘pain and suffering’ awards
    3) remove all restrictions to cross-state selling of health insurance

14. 

    #19 September 9, 2012 at 11:52 am

    GP Fan commented:

    Riddle me this. If they already know how much $$ goes to “fraud”, “waste” and “abuse”, then they must have already identified it. So why then, don’t they STOP IT already? Why does it continue, if they already know where it comes from? Why aren’t the fraud-ers already in handcuffs? Huh?