New Ideas
Privatizing Public Hospitals

By Chad Adams

November 16, 2005

Bureaucracy, red tape, and outdated medical reporting and accounting systems not only inflate costs, but can also jeopardize lives. By one estimate, shoddy quality control costs Americans $500 billion per year in avoidable medical costs, or roughly 30 percent of all health care spending.

Of course lives lost are more important than money lost. Medical errors claim anywhere from 44,000 to 98,000 American lives every year. This new study examines how privatization, combined with subsidized medical savings account vouchers, can improve healthcare and lower costs.

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