Medicare vs. Non-Government (Private) Health Insurance
Comparison of Administrative Costs
To help determine whether or not the federal government’s Medicare program is more cost efficient than non-government (private) health insurance, we’ve compared the administrative costs for both according to five different studies. The results are presented in summary chart form (I. below) and graph form (II. below) with links to the full studies themselves.
Some organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, argue that calculating administrative costs as a % of total expenses misleads people into thinking that Medicare is more efficient than non-government (private) health insurance. They believe that comparing the administrative costs per beneficiary (III. below) more accurately reflects the greater efficiency of private health insurance. Others point out that Medicare treats the elderly exclusively, and since they typically have more health problems than the general population, comparing costs per beneficiary is misleading and therefore percentage comparisons are more reliable.
An international comparison of the US and five other industrialized countries (IV. below) shows that the US spends at least twice as much administrating its health care system as countries with universal health coverage such as Germany and Canada.
Administrative costs, according to the Congressional Budget Office (V. below), “refer to any expenses insurers incur that are not payments for health care services, including the profits retained by private insurers and the taxes paid on those profits.”
I. Summary Chart of Administrative Costs: Medicare vs. Non-Government (Private) Health Insurance
Administrative costs as % of total expenses
Source of Information (in alphabetical order) by Year Studied
The total for administrative costs and health care costs shown in each bar graph below equals 100%
4. Heritage Foundation
Administrative Costs
Health Care Costs
2000
Medicare
6%
98%
Private Health Insurance
11.4%
88.6%
2005
Medicare
5.8%
94.2%
Private Health Insurance
13.2%
86.8%
[Editors Note:Calculations at the bottom of this page show administrative spending per benificiary. They were included because they were an integral part of the conclusion of the Heritage Foundation report. The other entries on this page did not make such comparisons between total percentages and spending per person.]
The total for administrative costs and health care costs shown in each bar graph below equals 100%
5. New England Journal of Medicine
Administrative Costs
Health Care Costs
2003
Medicare
3.6%
96.4%
Private Health Insurance
11.7%
88.3%
Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH, et al., “Costs of Health Care Administration in the United States and Canada,” New England Journal of Medicine,” Aug. 21, 2003
III. Health Insurance Administrative Spending per Beneficiary
IV. International Comparison of Health Insurance Administrative (Overhead) Costs
“In a single-payer national health insurance system, as demonstrated by Canada, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, health insurance is publicly administered and most physicians are in private practice.
Great Britain and Spain are among the OECD countries with national health services, in which salaried physicians predominate and hospitals are publicly owned and operated.
Highly regulated, universal, multi-payer health insurance systems are illustrated by countries like Germany and France, which have universal health insurance via sickness funds. The sickness funds pay physicians and hospitals uniform rates that are negotiated annually (also known as an “all-payer” system).”
Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP), “International Health Systems,” www.pnhp.org(accessed Nov. 3, 2010)
This chart used the term “overhead” to describe administrative costs.
Source: Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP), “PNHP Slide Show: Health Insurance Overhead Per Person,” masscare.org(accessed Oct. 29, 2010)
V. Definition of Health Insurance Administrative Spending by the Congressional Budget Office
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) stated the following in a Dec. 2008 report titled, “Key Issues in Analyzing Major Health Insurance Proposals,” available at www.cbo.gov:
“[A]dministrative costs refer to any expenses insurers incur that are not payments for health care services, including the profits retained by private insurers and the taxes paid on those profits…
Administrative costs can be divided into three categories:
Marketing costs include expenses for advertising, sales, enrollment processing, customer service, billing, and actuarial and underwriting activities. (Underwriting involves an assessment of an applicant’s health and expected use of health care in order to determine what premium to charge.)
Costs associated with medical activities include expenses for claims review and processing, medical management (such as utilization review, case management, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance), and provider and network management (contracting with doctors and hospitals and maintaining relations with providers).
General administrative costs are difficult to allocate to a specific function; they include expenses for information technology, general management overhead, profits, and taxes.”
ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order):
ProCon.org. (2010, November 5). Medicare vs. Non-Government (Private) Health Insurance. ProCon.org. https://healthcarereform.procon.org/medicare-vs-non-government-private-health-insurance
[Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries.]
Chicago (17th ed.):
ProCon.org, "Medicare vs. Non-Government (Private) Health Insurance," ProCon.org. last modified November 5, 2010. https://healthcarereform.procon.org/medicare-vs-non-government-private-health-insurance/.
MLA (9th ed.):
ProCon.org, "Medicare vs. Non-Government (Private) Health Insurance." ProCon.org. 5 Nov. 2010, healthcarereform.procon.org/medicare-vs-non-government-private-health-insurance
[Editor’s Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries.]
Turabian (9th ed.):
ProCon.org. "Medicare vs. Non-Government (Private) Health Insurance." ProCon.org. Last modified on November 5, 2010. Accessed August 18, 2023. https://healthcarereform.procon.org/medicare-vs-non-government-private-health-insurance/