Journal damn_registrars's Journal: What Could You Do With $54B ? 11
People went bananas over the recent $2B powerball lottery. There is however an even larger number I'd like to share that is truly and completely wasted from our US economy every single year.
$54,000,000,000
Every. Single. Year.
Where does this number come from? This is actually a low estimate on what we spend just to bill insurance companies in the US for medical care. This is based on an older study that said clinics and offices averaged $60k per year per FTE provider (MD, DO, NP, PA, etc) just to bill insurance. These aren't the people who bill the customers, these are just the people who enter the claims to the insurance companies. Multiply that by approximately 900,000 practicing MDs in the US and you get a number around $54B per year.
It's worth noting that other studies have suggested much higher annual administrative costs from our system, upwards of $240B or more per year. $240B is itself more than the GDP of Scotland.
Regardless of which number you go from, this money is complete waste in the health care system. It does not improve health care in any way, shape, or form. Indeed in many cases it hinders delivery of health care as mis-entered information can disrupt billing and services. On top of that, these billions of dollars don't just materialize out of thin air, we the consumers pay it, every year.
Yet nobody seems the least bit concerned about this epic waste. We could spend this money to actually deliver health care - by shutting down this appallingly corrupt system and replacing it with an intelligent single-payer universal system - and come out way ahead in our economy on so many fronts. Yet instead we keep buttressing the broken system as if we the consumers owe something to it.
$54,000,000,000
Every. Single. Year.
Where does this number come from? This is actually a low estimate on what we spend just to bill insurance companies in the US for medical care. This is based on an older study that said clinics and offices averaged $60k per year per FTE provider (MD, DO, NP, PA, etc) just to bill insurance. These aren't the people who bill the customers, these are just the people who enter the claims to the insurance companies. Multiply that by approximately 900,000 practicing MDs in the US and you get a number around $54B per year.
It's worth noting that other studies have suggested much higher annual administrative costs from our system, upwards of $240B or more per year. $240B is itself more than the GDP of Scotland.
Regardless of which number you go from, this money is complete waste in the health care system. It does not improve health care in any way, shape, or form. Indeed in many cases it hinders delivery of health care as mis-entered information can disrupt billing and services. On top of that, these billions of dollars don't just materialize out of thin air, we the consumers pay it, every year.
Yet nobody seems the least bit concerned about this epic waste. We could spend this money to actually deliver health care - by shutting down this appallingly corrupt system and replacing it with an intelligent single-payer universal system - and come out way ahead in our economy on so many fronts. Yet instead we keep buttressing the broken system as if we the consumers owe something to it.
Well (Score:2)
"What Could You Do With $54B?"
Well, with $54B you could give a *shitload* of people some decent healthcare.
Or you could pretty much cure hunger in the US and probably homelessness as well for the most part.
$54B would buy every schoolkid in the US a good breakfast and lunch from kindergarten to college graduation.
Tell ya one thing, though: I sure as shit wouldn't spend it on giant-penis rockets or any hyper-loop horseshit either, that's for sure.
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Well, with $54B you could give a *shitload* of people some decent healthcare.
I'm confident we could get great health care to every uninsured / underinsured American for that $54B and have money left over. At the same time if we pooled up all the rest of the money that is mindlessly handed over to the Health Insurance industry every year (premiums, copays, and the rest) and spent it instead on single-payer for every American we'd still have many billions left over.
Or you could pretty much cure hunger in the US and probably homelessness as well for the most part.
You mean we could give them all boots, so they could pull themselves up by their bootstraps? (yes that was sarcasm) O
Yeah, yeah, yeah (Score:2)
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you'd be calling for public executions
Please. I'm not your capital punishment aficionado, sorry. Not even for your boy SBF.
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you'd be calling for public executions
Please. I'm not your capital punishment aficionado, sorry.
So we finally found one thing you disagree with your team on? Plenty of your teammates were involved in bringing gallows with to DC on January 6th. Plenty of your leaders love to brag about killing or maiming people.
Not even for your boy SBF.
I had not the slightest idea who those initials referred to until I searched for it after your post. His company's collapse has been newsworthy for sure. That said even if he spent every last penny of his company's wealth on hookers and blow, that total would be minuscule compared to how m
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Your complaints are way off target. You only give so much money to the Health Insurance Industry because you constantly reelect their puppets into office. This year? 94.5% (intrafactional)
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Your complaints are way off target.
No, they are not.
You only give so much money to the Health Insurance Industry because you constantly reelect their puppets into office.
In this election I was able to vote for my house member (of course) and zero US Senators. I did a quick search on opensecrets to see who contributed to my house member's campaign and they actually didn't have any data on his campaign one way or the other. Of course that doesn't include PAC activities on behalf of a candidate, but I couldn't find anything linking Health Insurance money to him so far.
More so, this is a legitimate application of the "my guy is different / my guy is not
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More so, this is a legitimate application of the "my guy is different / my guy is not part of the problem" mindset that so many people use.
That's funny. You're just in denial, making excuses for your little bubble.. You and "your guy" serve the Party, just like Mr. Smith and "his guy"
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More so, this is a legitimate application of the "my guy is different / my guy is not part of the problem" mindset that so many people use.
That's funny. You're just in denial, making excuses for your little bubble.. You and "your guy" serve the Party, just like Mr. Smith and "his guy"
You keep repeating variations on that mantra, and I don't doubt that you have convinced yourself of it to have some kind of connection to reality.
However in the reality that the rest of us live in we can't apply a purity test on the scope you suggest. If I'm going to wait for a candidate who I agree with on every issue that matters to me, I'll die long before I ever cast a vote. For nearly all people who don't base their judgements on what is popular with a party that is the case. Did my congressman
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I recognize your reality, and that of the other 98%. Your entire shtick is wrapped around partisan BS, you vote party line