There has been a lot written about the state of healthcare in America. And if you’ve been paying attention, you know that a lot of money gets spent. A lot by the federal government in medicare and legislation. A lot by state agencies. A lot by employeers. And even more by employees themselves.
But how much is really being spent? And where does all that “spending” go? To test your healthcare spending IQ, take the Healthcare Spending Quiz. Then you decide if all those dollars make GOOD sense.
1. How much is spent on healthcare each year in the US?
a. $1.5 billion
b. $2 Billion
c. $5 Billion
d. $2 Trillion
Answer: The answer is “d”. According to Modern Healthcare Online, overall spending on US healthcare was $2 TRILLION in 2005 and is projected to increase 20% by 2015.
2. How many personal bankruptcies are caused by illness or medical bills?
a. 10%
b. 50%
c. 33%
d. 75%
Answer: The answer is “c”. Half of all personal bankruptcies are caused by illness or medical bills, a number that increased 2200% between 1981 and 2006 (according to Health Affairs Journal, “Medical Bankruptcy: Myth v. Fact”, David Dranove and Michael L. Millenson, March/April 2006; 25(2): w74-w83).
3. How much of every dollar do private insurance companies spend on administrative overhead?
a. 10 – 20%
b. 20 – 25%
c. 25 – 30%
d. 30% or more
Answer: The answer is “d”. More than 30% of every healthcare dollar is spent on administrative overhead in private insurance and services that don’t appear to improve health or the quality of care for patients. That is approximately $650 billion per year. “More than is being spent on the war in Iraq,” says John Abramson in his column for Harvard Medical School (Los Angeles Times, Nov. 3, 2006).
4. From 2000 to 2005, how much did health benefits program fees rise?
a. 25%
b. 38%
c. 73%
d. 100%
Answer: The answer is “c”. From 2000 to 2005, health benefits fees increased 73%, compared to an aggregate increase in workers’ income of just 15%. (Chicago Tribune, Jan. 31, 2006) or 3X faster than wages and inflation combined (UC Berkeley Center for Labor research and Education, Dec. 2006).
5. By how much has the average U.S. employee’s contribution to “employer-sponsored” health benefits plans increased since 2000?
a. 33%
b. 75%
c. 100%
d. More than 100%
Answer: The answer is “d”. According to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, between 2000 and 2004 the average cost of employer-sponsored health care plans was $3695 for an individual and $9950 for a family. The employee’s average contribution to those plans was $2261, an increase of more than a 160%! While those numbers were tracked from 2000 to 2004, employee contributions have continued to rise, so it is safe to say that employees have seen well above 160% increase in their own pay outs for their “employer-sponsored” health packages in just seven years.
That is the “Healthcare Spending Quiz”. Unlike other quizzes, a higher score, doesn’t make you feel like a winner. It simply makes you better informed about the downward spiral traditional U.S. healthcare is in. The only thing that can make you or me or Joe down the street a winner is working together to make a positive change in healthcare choices.
Pass this quiz along and give a friend the power of knowledge.
About the author
Jim Martinez is a National Sales Director with Ameriplan USA ®. Offering discount dental and health plans for individuals or households. Any age or preexisting conditions are accepted and plans start at only $19.95 per month. Be sure to visit the section on health articles for more quality information. You are free to reproduce this article as long as you reprint the entire article including this resource box and all links.
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Having practiced medicine for over 30 years, Congressman Paul gives his perspective on the past and future of medicine in this country, and the effects of government and special interests on quality, costs and access.
Help answer the question
How does universal healthcare in Europe work?
My professor today mentioned that most European countries have universal healthcare. This means that everyones healthcare is provided by the state, correct? How much more money do people pay in taxes in Europe than in the U.S.? It would have to be more since their healthcare is covered, right?
healthcare
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Tags: care, free, health, medicine, paul, ron, socialized, universal
those dumb hunters from the USA SAVED YOUR SORRY ASS!!! , YOU WOULD BE SPEAKING GERMAN RIGHT NOW IF IT WAS NOT FOR THEM, AND IF YOU LIKE GOVERMENT HEALTH CARE SO MUCH WHY DON’T YOU GO BACK TO THE U.K.!!!!
First, I doubt that healthcare will become universal.
Second, I see no reason why you as a X-ray technician should lose pay…ompare it to salaries in France & other places where they have universal health care.
If you are business saavy you may consider being on the administrative side of healthcare. Physicians are required to bill with special codes called CPT-4 codes that describe services that they provide to patients. There are also codes to describe every diagnosis.
In order for the physicians to obtain payment for services these codes must be submitted in a timely fashion to insurance companies and they must be within the scope of usual practices.
Insurance companies also deny payment to the physicians more often than not and they need people to fight for their money.
Administrators allow physicians to concentrate of helping patients without the nagging concern of redtape and paperwork.
There are also budgeting, managerial and operational issues in healthcare offices or other settings that are handled by these professionals.
You may consider obtaining a masters in heatlh administration. Please refer to http://www.ache.org.
Why can’t we Americans shit can prez’s that are Anti-American immediately??? Why do we have to wait ’til the next time to vote his sorry ass out??? This guy is trashing everything America stands for sooooo damn fast. He’s a communist and OUR President??? GIVE ME A BREAK…Send him, his family and all Demrats that wanna socialize these United States to KENYA. Home of the prez the demrats bought and paid to be the prez of these United States. Demo’s get a life. Make sure the life ain’t in states
That would probably be private information. HMO's have fee schedules that list what they allow for certain procedures, but that's probably not available except to providers. They don't "look at information" – they have set schedules, for the most part.
Why would that be important to you in looking for a possible career??
Most countries have both National and Private facilities, Bupa provides private insurance, but the hospitals belong to them also. So National and Privare exists together.
I hate the crystal ball shit that the Republican’ts keep coming up with. the US is bankrupt and the govt pays for Medicare, Medicaid, Ryan White, Chips, Victims of violent crimes and VA, they all get their money from the govt/tax payers. The govt CANNOT afford it, so it HAS to change, it’s not because they are bored
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By the way, I have absolutely no problem with people wanting socialism. My problem is when they want to drag me into it!!
Don't get sick!
why dont u read the health care bill then see how great it really is not …. there are so many liberties being infringed upon an ur 18 dollar a month insurance is a sham when u look at the coverage you get… i recieve both social medicine and private medicine imagine going to the dmv with a broken arm that is what will happen if the government takes over heath care
I am from Canada where medical coverage is free for everyone,regardless of whether you work or not.
I am English and now live in California. Like most people I thought that there was a huge tax burden in Britain, but after coming here I now think that's not the case.We pay two forms of tax from our wages:Income tax and National insurance. Your income tax is tax like everywhere else, national insurance pays for your pension and healthcare. I have lived in England all my life up till now and I will fiercely defend our healthcare system, the NHS (national health service). In thanks largely to the effort of our heroic doctors and nurses (and all other staff) the NHS survives….the healthcare is nothing like as bad as people make out, and there are no long waiting lists anymore (now if you're waiting more than six months for routine surgery they'll send you abroad to have it done, paid for of course). No-one pays anything for medical care and the one reason it's under stress (As a healthcare proffesional I know this from experience) is the fact that something built as a national health service is used as a world health service. People come to the UK from all over Europe to take advantage of the NHS and from all over the world. I would like to see treatment restricted to citizens/people who have paid at least 5 years national insurance contributions but at the same time I would never ever want to see anyone, citizen or not, turned away or denied medical care because of money. I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford health insurance in the US but the amount hospitals/doctors charge is disgusting and I don't really understand why people are so opposed to universal health care, can you really put a price on life?
By the way income tax is 20% of anything you earn over about 5 and a half thouse pounds ($11k) and national insurance is 11% of anything you earn over 84pounds a week ($160) And people have the option of private healthcare in england too if they want to pay for it
attack of the blank channels. Youtube assassins can’t be bother to fill in the blanks.
Like I have said before, INTERNET FAKES. The GOP can’t afford private advertisements, so BUSH TV is in the tube and GOPS live on youtube because it is FREE.
pathetic, it won’t get you votes. Obama internet Czars watch you, that’s all, so you pitiful arguements always get blown out be Obama on TV, he knows what bullshit you are spreading about. If all you do is scaremonger, give up politics.
Hospitals carry liability insurance for their nurses. It is unlikely that a nurse will get sued unless she/he does something very deliberate and intentional to harm a patient.
Obama never wants to enforce immigration laws so illegal immigrants can keep receiving welfare & healthcare benefits as in the case of Obama’s aunt Zeituni Onyango, an illegal immigrant from Kenya yet lived in taxpayer-funded public housing complex in Boston for many years and also contributed $260 to Obama’s presidential bid. In fact, Obama, with his immigration reform, wants to naturalize twelve million illegal immigrants so they can get healthcare insurance & vote for his Democratic Party.
An option to consider is traveling overseas for your dental work. I am originally from Los Angeles, but have been living in Monterrey, Mexico for about 2 years now. I have had regular dental visits and am VERY impressed with the quality of the facilities and the doctors. The best part is that dental work is about 50% less expensive here than it is in the U.S! Monterrey, Mexico is just two hours south of Texas, so it is very easy to get to wherever you are. And, you can always combine your visit with a vacation! If this is something that interests you, check out http://www.travelforcare.com a Medical Travel facilitator that will help you with all the details.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Thomas Jefferson
Since the drug companies became privatized, there have been far, far less cures than when it was government controlled. Drug companies only want symptom relievers, since they will be reused over and over, whereas cures are not needed once the problem is gone. No money in cures. Drug companies are more interested in Marketing. Obscene amounts go into marketing. At least thousands if not millions are spent on just pens, clocks, notepads, lunches, clipboards, and a ton of little practically useless stuff they give away for the sole purpose of having the name all around the dr. You should go in a dr's office and just look at the amount of stuff with a drug name on it. That is only a small fraction. The government should really take back the pharmaceutical industry, that would definitely lower regular health insurance prices.
If universal health care is brought in, it doesn't mean you can't get regular health insurance. Considering how very little the health insurances pay out ($0.67 on a $10 charge) I highly doubt that the doctors income would be impacted negatively.
I think universal health care would be a great thing. And this is coming from someone who would probably have to find a new job. You don't see the people who come in who don't have to money to get seen. People who are already sick, dying, and still getting harassed about payments. There are already tons of people who die because they just didn't have the money for a doctor. What is a couple of days wait to that?
6 months is quite far fetched. I was in the military, and the same type of system ran. Health care was FREE and there were no massive wait times.
The only valid complaint that I have heard is that you would not always be able to see the same doctor. Not exactly a big deal.
It could very well be that some doctors could choose to take more regular health insurance patients, and then you could have one of those for your regular doctor.
As atrocious as regular health insurance is, most doctors take most of them. Why? To boost the number of patients. Universal health care could work the same way.
Universal health care will certainly not stop the advancement of medicine. With a little less fear involved, it may even enhance it. Besides, that sounds an awful lot like you want to believe the US is the only place in the world who has helped medicine. Nope.
Would you give up your career to keep universal health care from coming?
That's how strongly I support it.