A PriceWaterhouseCoopers report, The price of excess: Identifying waste in healthcare spending is quite an amazing read. It says the United States wastes $1.2 trillion a year. Jesus, we could bail out Goldman Sachs with that amount of money!

While we see blame the person, in things like "hey you're fat" to "you did not follow my orders and that's why you're sick"! sort of stuff...

The report also outlines some real statistics in terms of inefficiencies.

Our research found that wasteful spending in the health system has been calculated at up to $1.2 trillion of the $2.2 trillion spent in the United States, more than half of all health spending.

Defensive medicine, such as redundant, inappropriate or unnecessary tests and procedures, was identified as the biggest area of excess, followed by inefficient healthcare administration and the cost of care necessitated by conditions such as obesity, which can be considered preventable by lifestyle changes.

CNN has some other highlights.

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Seems Doctors order too many tests because they get a kickback and are also trying to cover their ass. So that explains why my Doctor wants full bloodwork every 30 days to prescribe a pill with little side effects?

Who has not been snowed with paper work from their insurance company? Who does not have a 15lb, 3 inches thick, legal contract (referred to as a health plan), that one carries with them to the Doctor to see if they can afford whatever is being prescribed?

United Health can print out miles of useless crap, literally killing the Amazon forest, even remind me I can get a coupon if I use their online health monitoring to tell me ice cream is fattening...but set up any online bill pay or take credit cards? How about some home blood work kits to save a buck? Even tell me which Doctors are not idiots? No way in hell! That obviously would be too convenient!

Who has filled out their personal medical history over and over and over again then to sit in yet another room being asked the same questions while some MD (don't they have something better to do?) enter these facts in some database from the 1970's with two hunt -n- peck fingers?

And what about that handwriting? How many errors go on because no one can read the medical chart? Haven't these people heard of online devices, ya know, little servers and little databases which can actually be read by humans later?

I must laugh in a gallows humor way at people being afraid of government health care...as if the private sector has been just a model of productivity and even common sense?

PricewaterhouseCoopers has a host of detailed analysis reports on the U.S. health system on their site if you are interested in more research.