LACK OF NATIONAL HEALTHCARE COSTING U.S. OVER $150 BILLION JUST IN EXCESS PAPERWORK

PHYSICIANS FOR A NATIONAL HEALTH PROGRAM - Billing and insurance paperwork consumes at least one-fifth of California's privately-insured health spending (currently estimated $26 billion), according to a new study published n Health Affairs. If the state adopted a universal single-payer insurance system, the state would save from $18 to $21 billion per year by eliminating this paperwork, the author estimates. Projected nationally, these figures indicate that approximately $230 billion of health spending was devoted to insurance administration in 2005, with estimated savings of between $161 billion and $184 billion from reduced billing, marketing and other insurance paperwork tasks. The study provides strong validation of a controversial New England Journal of Medicine study by Harvard researchers Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler. That 2003 study found that health care bureaucracy accounted for 31 percent of U.S. health spending - about $400 billion - vs. 16.7 percent in Canada. The Harvard group's figures included several categories of administrative overhead costs that were not assessed in the California study, e.g. administrative spending by nursing homes, private employers and home health agencies, as well as health industry profits. The Harvard researchers estimated that national health insurance could streamline the health payment system, saving $286 billion in 2003, $6940 for each uninsured American.