[IslaDeEncanta]

Physician pay (last I checked) only makes up about 20%, including the costs of them practicing. They see about half of it in the end. There is even more spent on administration, which makes up about 25% of spending. Compare that 25% to the 9% in Canada and it becomes pretty obvious where you can save money.

[ars]

> Physician pay (last I checked) only makes up about 20%

Does that number include specialists? Nurses? Lab technicians?

If not, why are you excluding them?

You basically have 4 expenses: Durable Equipment, Medication, Salary, Facilities.

I suspect that Salary is the largest one, and the hardest to reduce.

[parasubvert]

Costs across the board are higher due to structural and incentive factors - more intervention, more fee for service, etc. also, specialists' income has risen ridiculously vs. GPs .

http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2008/01/health-care-s-1-2/

http://www.vox.com/a/health-prices#chart/11

[r00fus]

The pharma and medical instrument pricing racket is unbelievable. Took a look at the cost for our last delivery - of the $36k+ cost billed, facilities, equipment and medication were way over the billed rate of the doctors/nurses/anesthesiologists.

[IslaDeEncanta]

That number includes specialists and lab techs. It doesn't include hospital care (i.e. nurses).

You are just ignoring the profiteering done by the drug and insurance companies and the savings due to streamlining administration that a single payer system would bring.