The Commonwealth Fund recently released a study that I have spent the last few days looking through, and I was astonished to learn how much we spend on administering healthcare. According to the report, the US spends about 7.5% of every healthcare dollar on administrative costs, while countries such as Switzerland and Germany spend about 5% on the same thing. If we were to bring our administrative costs down to the 5% level, it would result in annual savings of roughly $50 billion.

Just imagine how an extra $50 billion in annual spending could improve our healthcare system!

Although the United States spends more than twice as much as any other industrialized nation on healthcare, in certain areas the quality of care provided is severely lacking, according to this study. The study, which judges the U.S. healthcare system on 37 measures, did not find any significant improvement over the previous year. Another striking issue was access to care, which has gotten worse. With healthcare costs continually rising, it is estimated that 75 million are underinsured or totally lack healthcare coverage.

There are some bright spots on this otherwise dismal report card, including the reduction in deaths from heart disease and childhood cancers, but these achievements have not kept pace with advancements throughout the industrialized world. There's no doubt about it, if we're going to reform our healthcare system, we need to begin by squaring off with the issues of cost and access.

Read the complete article and study: 

• New York Times piece
  
• Commowealth Fund study

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