A few days ago I was driving home late at night . As I was approaching an intersection the light went red . I looked around to see if there were any other cars and I was the only car as far as I could see. I thought to myself - what a waste of my brakes, gas and time. I was tempted to drive through the intersection but didn't.

As I was sitting there, I realized that the red light went on to prevent accidents and allow bi-directional traffic regardless of the time of day. What I considered waste of gas, brakes and my time was the "cost" I was forced to pay for the traffic safety and ability to cross the intersection.

In other words - the light was programmed to perform regardless of how busy the streets were - sometimes causing "waste" and in most cases helping with the flow of traffic.

The same principle works with our health care administrative costs. Medicare ( government ) always gets a "green light" and so the cost is always low, but when private companies engage in the market, they sometimes have a green light and sometimes red - causing administrative costs to go up quite substantially.

I hope I am not the only person thinking about health care costs as I am driving home....

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Health Care Administrator
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33305

FIPD - Health Care Cops ( Financing, Insurance, Payment, Delivery )