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On Way Out, Medicare Boss Bashes 'Extreme' Waste

Donald Berwick says 20-30% of health care spending helps no one

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Dec 3, 2011 4:07 PM CST

(Newser) – Between 20% and 30% of all US health care spending is pure “waste,” according to departing Medicare and Medicaid chief Donald Berwick. “Much is done that does not help patients at all, and many physicians know it,” Berwick said in an interview with the New York Times on Thursday, his last day on the job. He cited overtreatment of patients, the failure to coordinate care, complex administrative systems, burdensome regulations, and fraud as the main reasons for the “extremely high level of waste.”

If his estimate is right, the government is flushing away up to $250 billion each year. Berwick expressed frustration with the slow-moving bureaucracy. “I came with an agenda. I wanted to try to change the agency to be a force for improvement,” he said. But “government is more complex than I had realized.” He also bashed Republicans that had depicted him as a proponent of health care rationing, saying the complaint was “purely political, a world of sound bites.”

In this April 12, 2011 file photo, Medicare Administrator Dr. Donald Berwick gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Washington.
In this April 12, 2011 file photo, Medicare Administrator Dr. Donald Berwick gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in Washington.   (AP Photo/J. David Ake)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 43 comments
fractal
Dec 4, 2011 3:35 PM CST
One of the biggest reasons for high medical cost, is the outrageous cost of equipment that corporations charge.  They hire big boobed 22 year olds to play sales rep, and lavish the buyer with dinners etc..., to hide the fact that somebody has to pay for this overpriced, already obsolete machine. When working in a lab in 1980, one broken needle from a machine that sucks up blood cost $70 to replace.  We would use duct tape to jimmy rig the machine to accept a regular needle used for drawing blood--20  cents. The system that encourages loyalty to stockholders and upper management is the same system that breeds this kind of gouging of the medical system. Like capitalism????        You got it.
toeser
Dec 4, 2011 12:32 PM CST
Surely if we massively expand government's role in health care, things will get much better.  Oh, and let's take more money from people who actually take care of themselves and give it to those who do not. That's a sure-fire plan for success.
trailmix
Dec 3, 2011 11:10 PM CST
President Obama Spoke of this waste and fraud in medicare and medicaid when he first took office. That is one of the main reasons of Health Reform Bill. 

 
health care • health care costs • Medicare • medical costs • Medicaid • health care reform • Government waste • Obama administration • Donald Berwick

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