Open-Source Analysis Identifies $98.6 Billion in Fixable US Healthcare Waste
By
rexroad
2mo ago· 7 min readenCode
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Golden Brown
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Crisp on the outside, thoughtful on the inside. A keeper.
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Summary
This article presents an open-source investigative data journalism project that quantifies fixable waste in the US healthcare system. The analysis compares US healthcare spending ($14,570 per person) to Japan's ($5,790 per person) with a $3 trillion annual gap. The project identifies specific issues, quantifies waste using federal data sources like CMS and OECD, and recommends policy fixes. So far, it has identified $98.6 billion in potential savings, with examples including $0.6 billion/year in OTC drug overspending where Medicare pays prescription prices for over-the-counter drugs. All code is open-source and reproducible.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledThe US spends ~$14,570 per person on healthcare. Japan spends ~$5,790 and has the highest life expectancy in the OECD. That gap is roughly $3 trillion per year.
This project finds it, one issue at a time. Each issue identifies one fixable problem, quantifies the waste from primary federal data, and recommends a specific policy fix.
All code is open-source. Anyone can reproduce the analysis.
Savings Identified So Far: $98.6B
OTC Drug Overspending: $0.6B/yr - Medicare pays Rx prices for drugs you can buy over-the-counter
Investigative data journalism: quantifying fixable waste in US healthcare, one issue at a time. Open-source analysis of CMS, OECD, and federal datasets. $98.6B in savings identified so far. - rexro...
