Which factor is most responsible for health care inflation in the USA?

[andym]

After all of the debate and informative articles on the web and in the media, as well as on DU, what is the consensus on the primary cause of the rising health care costs that far exceed inflation?

Try to justify your answer with a link, if possible.
If you want, you can explain how your solution will work best to solve the problem (for example, single-payer).

[saltpoint]

1. Raw greed on the part of insurance companies.

[jtrockville]

21. It's not just the overhead (including gigantic exec. salaries), it's profit too.

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. All of the above

and don't forget that there is a strong arguemnt to be made that there are not enough medical personnel in the US to provide healthcare to everyone - which gets back to our educational institutions and their admission practices and the high costs of medical training.

[JVS]

3. Free Market Fundamentalism.

[ingac70]

4. You left off hospital CEOs....

Their salaries go up and up, while staffs in hospital departments get smaller.

Couple that with crooked private insurance.

[andym]

8. Thanks. I added it to the hospital link. nt.

[Wapsie B]

12. Administrative costs in general are killing the system.

Hospitals pinch their pennies hiring those at the bottom of the wage food chain but hire white-collar admins without hesitation. It's gotten so than an MBA or MSN is an entitlement program in healthcare. Many hospitals in this country are top-heavy. Vicious turf battles wage over prime hospital real estate every day. That fact would be good on the surface except a good portion of the shiny new buildings on hospital campuses are office space, and not for physicians either.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

15. Have you ever noticed that for every Administrative position there

is also an Assistant? Can't they do anything for themselves? :shrug: I have noticed that some Assistants have an Assistant. :wtf:

[Wapsie B]

17. That's right.

In medium-sized to larger hospitals that is a big problem. A former employer was laying off 70+ people but behind the scenes was hiring 8 director level people at nearly 100k a pop in base salary.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

24. heh. I wonder how much their Assistants will be paid...

Because you know they all will "need" one.

[Wapsie B]

25. Having worked in this industry for so long there are things healthcare public relations people are

deafeningly silent on and this is a big one. Huge issue for me. I've always wondered how the average hospital in Canada or France compares with regards to sheer numbers of administrative employees as well as administrative overhead?

[Individualist]

5. Corporate greed

[cyclezealot]

6. Health insurance are monopolies.

And by their own design.. Never do monopolies work on a competitive basis. Their monopolistic status only makes them greedier.

[patrice]

7. HC Ins Co is one arm of the biggest institutional gambler in Wall Street DERIVATIVE driven markets

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100220/BUSINESS01/2200311/Health+insurers++outlook+uncertain

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

9. Costs are rising at the same rate globally, but from different baselines.

The poll doesn't capture this very well.

The rate of growth is caused primarily by an increase in medical technology, hence why it is affecting all industrialized countries (and veterinary medicine).

The baseline costs are relatively high in the US because of a completely broken insurance model (which really isn't insurance) and grotesquely byzantine regulation that is defective.

[andym]

13. This explanation is supported by most studies. nt.

[patrice]

10. Can you say BAILOUT 2.0 . . . ?

[berni_mccoy]

11. Lack of competition in the Insurance Industry. Health Insurance is one of TWO industries exempt

from the Anti-Trust laws. If this weren't the case, things would be quite different now.

[Edweird]

14. Artificially high health care costs due to collusion between for-profit providers and ins. cos.

Cutting off the head of insurance companies is an important first step.

[my2sense]

16. All of the above n/t

[dkf]

18. Lack of previewing and comparison of costs.

If you were told a towelette will cost you 18 bucks would you sign off on that?

[sharesunited]

19. The cumulative effect of cost shifting.

When a provider is required to care for someone who cannot pay or on whose behalf reimbursement does not cover the fair cost, that uncollectible portion is rolled into the next bill in pursuit of somehow being recovered.

[liberal N proud]

20. Combination of Greed and uninsured

You have to cover everyone and you have to reign in the insurance industry.

[Donnachaidh]

22. where is the *all of the above* button? m/t

[andym]

28. It was purposely not included

because almost everyone would have selected it. I thought it would be interesting to see what Du'ers thought to be the most signicant problem.

[melm00se]

23. believing that it's only one of the above

or that the entire list (bar the "other" option) is all encompassing is naive.

additional issues are:

1) the aging of the population (as people age their medical costs creep upward)
2) the limitations of the education system in creating an increasing number of health care providers
3) price inflation can also be driven by the amount of money made available to the system. currently you see this not only in the healthcare industry but also the area of higher education. Historically you need only look at the massive inflation driven in areas that were impacted by the "gold rushes" of the 19th century.

and I am certain that there are many others that have not been elaborated here.

[Lifelong Protester]

26. I am sure it is a very complex issue, made up of all of the above

or at least most of the items on the poll. Of course, it has to be partly due to increased technology. And what is driving the need for every hospital to have the same equipment, even if a hospital less than a mile away has the same? It must be because medicine is a competitive, driven by profit, enterprise. That and, of course, your insurance tells you which provider is in your 'network' so hospitals ALL must have the same very expensive devices.

And WHENEVER I hear any talk on MSM about how "profits were up" at any of the insurance companies, my blood boils.
This is not to be a money making for profit scheme! Period. Cover the costs is one thing. Profit taking is quite another.

[DailyGrind51]

27. Eliminate insurance profits and we will save as much as 30% of average costs.

[Greyhound]

29. I'm surprised you got any answers beyond the first. n/t

[tabbycat31]

30. all of the above and then some

you did not mention the TV commercials by Big Pharma trying to convince everyone something's wrong and there's a magic pill for it.

[SimonPhoenix]

31. I like the fact that there's no poll option for:

government-created HMO boondoggle, which is very much a part of the real reason that we're in the shit that we're in.

[harun]

32. Feb. 17th, 1971 Nixon's guy Ehrlichman knew EXACTLY what the issue was.

"All the incentives are toward less medical care, because the less medical care they give them, the more profit they make."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QkgUkM0o6Q

And Nixon felt it was fine and here we sit today reaping the fruits of their decision.

[old mark]

33. Insaurance companies = absolute greed. nt

[stillwaiting]

34. All of 'em contribute to the insane prices we have to pay to receive health care.

[upi402]

35. all of the above, but MOST responsible

Insurance company gouging and profiteering of our need for health.