Posted on December 4th, 2008 by Craig Maltby, Editor
Even immune balance can’t balance this: half of US health care dollars wasted
I was a sitting with a couple friends at a college football game last weekend. One had a teenage daughter 
who recently had back surgery and required 6 days to recover at University of Iowa Hospitals. ”Guess how much her hospital bill was” my friend said (and this was not including the bill for the actual surgery). Our other friend, a banking executive, guessed $30,000. I guessed $102,000.
We were both too low. The answer was $104,000. My guess, which was obviously real close, was based on a simple statistic I read a while back stating that the average bill for a one-night hospital stay in the U.S. is $17,000. At the time, I thought maybe I had read that wrong, or that this figure from more expensive health care regions, such as metro New York or Southern Cal. But no. That frighteningly high figure pertains to fly-over country as well. Throw in the surgeon’s bill of $40,000 and you can see why many who are uninsured face bankruptcy if they have a serious medical problem.
But here’s the real kicker. A Washington Post news story this week quotes a number of U.S. health care executives on the inefficiency of the American health care industry, including one who says that half of the U.S.’ $2.3 trillion in annual expenditures for health care are wasted dollars that could be saved. This goes beyond bureaucracy, fraud and arena sky boxes for hosptial CEOs. A major point emphasized in the story is that billions of dollars could be saved if we shifted medical focus from disease management to wellness and prevention.
One report I came upon several months ago estimated that $22 billion in lost productivity is sacrificed each year due to workplace absenteeism from colds and flu. Imagine if immune systems far and wide were in balance and operating at optimal efficiency. Research has shown immune balance attained through supplementation significantly lessened severity, duration and instances of cold and flu. A nice dent could be made in that enormous health care tab.
