Barack ObamaÂ’s health-care reform of 2010 had many virtues, especially its attempt to make health insurance universal. But it does little to reduce the systemÂ’s staggering and increasing complexity. Every hour spent treating a patient in America creates at least 30 minutes of paperwork, and often a whole hour. Next year the number of federally mandated categories of illness and injury for which hospitals may claim reimbursement will rise from 18,000 to 140,000. There are nine codes relating to injuries caused by parrots, and three relating to burns from flaming water-skis.
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