The United States spends far more money annually on health care than any other country on the planet. Unfortunately, it also wastes more on health care than any other country.
Those wretched excesses have been well documented over the years, ranging from hundreds of billions of dollars of fraudulent charges to the Medicare and Medicaid programs to pricing scams by drug manufacturers to hospitals and doctors that overcharge their patients or unnecessarily order tests as a precaution against the possibility of a lawsuit.
Related: Why a Third of American Health Care Costs Are Considered Unnecessary
ProPublica, the editorially independent public interest news organization, cites experts who say that the U.S. may be squandering as much as a quarter of the money spent on health care every year, or a startling $765 billion. That’s a lot of money to be wasting on administrative red tape, soaring medical and drug prices and overuse of the system.
The Fiscal Times has published the first installment of a ProPublica series on this mounting financial crisis in the health care system, written by Marshall Allen. We also heartily endorse ProPublica’s call to readers within the health care industry or who have friends and relatives in the industry to share information on prime examples of waste, fraud and abuse. The publication is looking for the most outrageous and high profile examples they can find – with the understanding that the identity of participants would be protected.
We urge you to take part in ProPublica’s ambitious investigative effort, and we would be interested in hearing of some of your insights as well.
Please click here to learn more about how you can help.
