Welcome back, Bob!

I'll be honest, I can't quite tell if you're actually correcting me or not or using question as a springboard.  To be precise $300 to $400 billion saved in administrative waste is good, but would only bring our cost per person down to about $6,700 -- still thousands of dollars more than any other country.  More needs be done in addition to tackling administrative waste.  For instance, we also know from a Dartmouth College study that an estimated $700 billion in our health care is spent on treatments and procedures that are outright wasteful or at least do not improve health outcomes more than cheaper alternatives.  That's a weighty question that we would still need to tackle if we could make all administative costs disappear.

Luckily, both gentlemen have some good answers to that question.

Tim, You've helped me realize a point that I unfortunately often forget to make about how straightforward the elimination of excessive administrative waste is.

First of all, that's interesting that you mentioned the Dartmouth study guessing a $700 billion savings per year. I'm sure the politicians love that study, as they probably think that it helps them attempt to deflect the increasing criticism that is coming their way about what the U.S. Congress has done to us for decades by not participating in the world-wide movement to efficiency in health care financing, as seen at this web page:
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/World_View#worldactivity

That topic of treatment decisions is certainly a "weighty question." You used appropriate words. It's weighty in part because it is complex involving physician decision-making. I am sure that they worked hard to make the guestimate, but ... read on.

Most, perhaps all, ideas (other than the simplification of how the money flows) are associated with guesses and wishes, not solid estimates of savings. The simplification of the financing is the most concrete savings one can determine. That's why we're losing so many businesses and jobs to other countries. Companies want cost-efficient operations. They can clearly see the excessive cost of health care, because it impacts their bottom line of their financial books. They do not like it, so they move their operations and our jobs out of the country. Within the last several years some have encouraged employees who are in the U.S. to consider medical tourism to hold down costs. People take their needs for procedures to India and Thailand and other countries. Therefore, we even lose some health care business! Is this crazy or what?

Companies are impacted in so many ways. Just one obvious example, as highlighted clearly to Barack Obama (in his own health care meeting with citizens on 4/5/2007) by business people, is that they have to pay salaries to people to manage the health care benefits and that it's a challenging, costly function.

Anyway, back to the high level. Other ideas are fine. Citizens sincerely hope that they work out. But even some of those other ideas' savings will be maximized after we make the entire system of payments simplest with non-profit single-payer national health insurance. The doctors will have lower malpractice insurance premiums. The doctors will have much lower costs for operating their private practices. They will be spending significantly more time and more quality time on patient care. As a result, they will be happier docs (did you see that recent study about our troubles on that subject! wow!). Therefore, they can and will be more productive on and provide more consideration of such things as the topic of that Dartmouth study! Otherwise, that topic that "might" save that money could be just one more burden on our already burdened physicians.

We want the most obvious and clear-cut and clear savings to be the highest priority. We want the elimination of health insurance company bureaucracy, the government bureaucracy and the related supporting bureaucracy. A list of some examples of each are accessible here:
http://www.ninenineohnine.org/pages/Bureaucracy

We want this as the highest priority activity.

And we want it now. That's why I look forward to hundreds of thousands joining what could very "easily" become one of the largest grassroots campaigns this country has ever seen.

Of course, it might seem "easy" on the surface, but it will involve much citizen effort using a straightforward set of "tools" that will be provided.

The bottom line objective is that Americans get what we and the country as a whole both want and need.

Regards,   Bob Haiducek

Oops. I was a bit vague about the campaign, but people can put it onto their calendar to go to the following web page on April 1:
http://www.medicareforall.org/pages/Home