US Wastes Billions More On Health Care Than Entire Pentagon Budget

by Tim Brown

A new study that is out shows that the United States wastes more money each year providing health care that is does paying for the entire Department of Defense budget!

The Christian Science Monitor reports,

The U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year — roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar — through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste, the influential Institute of Medicine said Thursday in a report that ties directly into the presidential campaign.

President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are accusing each other of trying to slash Medicare and put seniors at risk. But the counter-intuitive finding from the report is that deep cuts are possible without rationing, and a leaner system may even produce better quality.

For fiscal year 2012, the Pentagon spent about $646 billion.

So where was the biggest area of waste? Unneeded services. According to the study these services use up to $210 billion each year. Administrative costs take in another $190 billion while $75 billion is consumed by fraud. Nearly $100 billion disappears into thin air due to inflation.

The report states,

“If banking worked like health care, ATM transactions would take not seconds but perhaps days or longer. If home building were like health care, carpenters, electricians and plumbers would work from different blueprints, with very little coordination. If shopping were like health care, product prices would not be posted, and the price charged would vary widely within the same store, depending on the source of payment.”

Now if you think those costs are going down because the federal government gets involved you are sadly mistaken. The reason for all of the “unneeded services” is policies developed by insurance companies, who were behind the Obamacare legislation, in order to cover doctors for malpractice lawsuits. Government is on the side of health care insurers, which is part of the reason why federal legislation is being pushed down our throats.

The U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year — roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar — through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste, the influential Institute of Medicine said Thursday in a report that ties directly into the presidential campaign.

President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are accusing each other of trying to slash Medicare and put seniors at risk. But the counter-intuitive finding from the report is that deep cuts are possible without rationing, and a leaner system may even produce better quality.

For fiscal year 2012, the Pentagon spent about $646 billion.

So where was the biggest area of waste? Unneeded services. According to the study these services use up to $210 billion each year. Administrative costs take in another $190 billion while $75 billion is consumed by fraud. Nearly $100 billion disappears into thin air due to inflation.

The report states,

“If banking worked like health care, ATM transactions would take not seconds but perhaps days or longer. If home building were like health care, carpenters, electricians and plumbers would work from different blueprints, with very little coordination. If shopping were like health care, product prices would not be posted, and the price charged would vary widely within the same store, depending on the source of payment.”

Now if you think those costs are going down because the federal government gets involved you are sadly mistaken. The reason for all of the “unneeded services” is policies developed by insurance companies, who were behind the Obamacare legislation, in order to cover doctors for malpractice lawsuits. Government is on the side of health care insurers, which is part of the reason why federal legislation is being pushed down our throats.
Tim Brown: Husband to my wife. Father of 10. Jack of All Trades. Christian and lover of liberty. Follow Tim on Twitter.