Question
Health Care > Universal Healthcare > Health Care Efficiency
Regulate health plans to cap healthcare administrative costs that can be passed on to individuals
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474 votes for this question.
Background
Some candidates propose to regulate health plans to make sure only a fraction of individuals' healthcare premiums go towards administrative costs.
The health care system in the U.S. has a vast number of players — there are hundreds, if not thousands, of insurance companies in the U.S. This system has considerable administrative overhead, far greater than in nationalized, single-payer systems, such as Canada's. An oft-cited study by Harvard Medical School and the Canadian Institute for Health Information determined that some 31 percent of U.S. health care dollars, or more than $1,000 per person per year, went to health care administrative costs, nearly double the administrative overhead in Canada, on a percentage basis.
According to the insurance industry group America's Health Insurance Plans, administrative costs for private health insurance plans have averaged approximately 12 percent of premiums over the last 40 years. There has been a shift in the type and distribution of administrative expenses over that period. It appears that the cost of adjudicating claims has fallen. Insurers are spending more on other administrative activities, however, such as medical management, nurse help lines, and negotiating discounted fees with health care providers.
see more on Wikipedia
The health care system in the U.S. has a vast number of players — there are hundreds, if not thousands, of insurance companies in the U.S. This system has considerable administrative overhead, far greater than in nationalized, single-payer systems, such as Canada's. An oft-cited study by Harvard Medical School and the Canadian Institute for Health Information determined that some 31 percent of U.S. health care dollars, or more than $1,000 per person per year, went to health care administrative costs, nearly double the administrative overhead in Canada, on a percentage basis.
According to the insurance industry group America's Health Insurance Plans, administrative costs for private health insurance plans have averaged approximately 12 percent of premiums over the last 40 years. There has been a shift in the type and distribution of administrative expenses over that period. It appears that the cost of adjudicating claims has fallen. Insurers are spending more on other administrative activities, however, such as medical management, nurse help lines, and negotiating discounted fees with health care providers.
see more on Wikipedia
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