Posted on 07/19/2010 10:49:35 AM PDT by John Semmens
Donald Berwick, President Obama’s recess appointee to head up the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says he is “itching to take an axe to the nation’s medical bill.”
“The fact is, an inordinately large share of the cost of health care goes to treat a small percentage of the population,” Berwick pointed out. “Surgery, chemo, MRIs aren’t necessary for the vast majority of our health needs. If we can nip off the tail of the bell curve that requires them we’d save a bundle.”
“Bumps, bruises, and sniffles are, by far, the most common ailments for the vast majority of the population,” Berwick went on. “Yet many are denied the most basic of treatments for these ailments because they are uninsured. Sacrificing high-cost therapies for the few in order to serve the many promotes a broader, more egalitarian collective well-being for the whole country.”
Berwick said a target of 8% of GDP spent on health care (about half of what the nation currently spends) is a “reasonable goal. As the President so aptly stated, sometimes just giving a patient a pain pill may be more cost effective than trying to correct the underlying problem. After all, from a philosophic perspective, if a person can’t feel the pain does he really have a problem?”
(Excerpt) Read more at azconserv1.wordpress.com ...
Proud of myself ... I snapped in the first paragraph
I suspect I’m in that clip-able portion of the bell curve... :)
Good one, John.
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