- 03 Jan 2019 20:16
#14977262
I have been ranting here and there about the sad state of health care in America and decided that a dedicated thread to the issue would solve the problem once and for all 
.
American health care IMO has morphed into one of the largest scam/con operations in history. It is really a perfect scam. When people are faced with a likelihood of pain, sickness and death, it becomes relatively easy to scare the shit and the money out of them. Fifty years ago I worked at a job that gave me full health insurance as a benefit. If I had a health issue, the insurance simply paid the bill. "Pre existing conditions" was not yet the legal term that consigned Americans to bankruptcy and/or death. Try to imagine full health insurance as a fringe benefit in today's atmosphere of abject greed ….. inconceivable. A ten minute search of the internet will quickly show how, in relation to other countries, Americans are being fleeced and sucked dry by the Medical Industrial Complex and their army of lobbyists paying off our "leaders" to craft laws/regulations designed to stack the deck in favor of medical corporations. Here are just a few examples:
Humira is an injectable medication used to treat multiple autoimmune diseases, that range from rheumatoid arthritis to psoriasis to ulcerative colitis — and one of the best-selling drugs in American history. In 2014 alone, millions of Americans spent a combined $6.5 billion on Humira prescriptions.
But we probably didn’t have to. While Americans paid an average price of $2,669 for Humira, the Swiss were able to buy the exact same drug for $822 — and in the United Kingdom, patients got it for $1,362. If the United States paid what the Swiss paid for the arthritis drug, we would have spent $2 billion on Humira in 2014 rather than $6.5 billion.
Harvoni cures hepatitis C. It also costs $10,000 more in the US than anywhere else.
Need to take the cancer drug Avastin? It will cost nine times more in the United States than in Britain.
A day in a hospital costs $5,220 here — versus $424 in Spain.
Bypass surgery costs $78,318 here, versus $24,059 in the UK.
Many thousands of people travel outside the U.S. for health care annually when they cannot afford similar care here. They are usually insured, but because of co-pays, deductibles, adverse decisions by claims adjusters, or any other groundless reason, their treatment is not covered. Many older Americans get dental treatment outside the U.S. because it isn't covered by Medicare.
In far too many cases, medical decision-making has been taken out of the hands of patients and doctors, where it belongs, and transferred to insurance companies. Providers now spend an inordinate amount of time on the phone with insurers, arguing that this or that test or procedure is necessary and should be covered, and every doctor and nurse knows this.
The civilized world may have affordable, decent healthcare, but America has something much more precious - an insatiable, sociopathic sense of selfish greed over people.
Even Medicare is very expensive. Part B does not cover prescriptions and only about 80% of medical bills, it does not cover dental care. In Europe, one premium covers all that no additional insurance is needed, there is a small copayment for prescriptions. American seniors need several policies and still pay hundreds of $$$ for prescriptions and co-payments. Almost 20% of GDP for health care and still a rotten system.
A solution? Obamacare is far from perfect but it tamed what is arguably he single largest killer/bankruptcy factor in the American "health care" system …… pre existing conditions. Republicans have fought tooth and nail to remove Obamacare and improve profits for the medical Industrial Complex by bringing back their favorite loophole ….pre existing conditions. In addition to improving profits for the Medical Industrial Complex, removing Obamacare will give another tax reduction to rich folks. Fuck them and their wall. Make decent health care election issue #1 and drain Republicans from the swamp.
.American health care IMO has morphed into one of the largest scam/con operations in history. It is really a perfect scam. When people are faced with a likelihood of pain, sickness and death, it becomes relatively easy to scare the shit and the money out of them. Fifty years ago I worked at a job that gave me full health insurance as a benefit. If I had a health issue, the insurance simply paid the bill. "Pre existing conditions" was not yet the legal term that consigned Americans to bankruptcy and/or death. Try to imagine full health insurance as a fringe benefit in today's atmosphere of abject greed ….. inconceivable. A ten minute search of the internet will quickly show how, in relation to other countries, Americans are being fleeced and sucked dry by the Medical Industrial Complex and their army of lobbyists paying off our "leaders" to craft laws/regulations designed to stack the deck in favor of medical corporations. Here are just a few examples:
Humira is an injectable medication used to treat multiple autoimmune diseases, that range from rheumatoid arthritis to psoriasis to ulcerative colitis — and one of the best-selling drugs in American history. In 2014 alone, millions of Americans spent a combined $6.5 billion on Humira prescriptions.
But we probably didn’t have to. While Americans paid an average price of $2,669 for Humira, the Swiss were able to buy the exact same drug for $822 — and in the United Kingdom, patients got it for $1,362. If the United States paid what the Swiss paid for the arthritis drug, we would have spent $2 billion on Humira in 2014 rather than $6.5 billion.
Harvoni cures hepatitis C. It also costs $10,000 more in the US than anywhere else.
Need to take the cancer drug Avastin? It will cost nine times more in the United States than in Britain.
A day in a hospital costs $5,220 here — versus $424 in Spain.
Bypass surgery costs $78,318 here, versus $24,059 in the UK.
Many thousands of people travel outside the U.S. for health care annually when they cannot afford similar care here. They are usually insured, but because of co-pays, deductibles, adverse decisions by claims adjusters, or any other groundless reason, their treatment is not covered. Many older Americans get dental treatment outside the U.S. because it isn't covered by Medicare.
In far too many cases, medical decision-making has been taken out of the hands of patients and doctors, where it belongs, and transferred to insurance companies. Providers now spend an inordinate amount of time on the phone with insurers, arguing that this or that test or procedure is necessary and should be covered, and every doctor and nurse knows this.
The civilized world may have affordable, decent healthcare, but America has something much more precious - an insatiable, sociopathic sense of selfish greed over people.
Even Medicare is very expensive. Part B does not cover prescriptions and only about 80% of medical bills, it does not cover dental care. In Europe, one premium covers all that no additional insurance is needed, there is a small copayment for prescriptions. American seniors need several policies and still pay hundreds of $$$ for prescriptions and co-payments. Almost 20% of GDP for health care and still a rotten system.
A solution? Obamacare is far from perfect but it tamed what is arguably he single largest killer/bankruptcy factor in the American "health care" system …… pre existing conditions. Republicans have fought tooth and nail to remove Obamacare and improve profits for the medical Industrial Complex by bringing back their favorite loophole ….pre existing conditions. In addition to improving profits for the Medical Industrial Complex, removing Obamacare will give another tax reduction to rich folks. Fuck them and their wall. Make decent health care election issue #1 and drain Republicans from the swamp.
"Society in those days was a perfectly competent, perfectly complacent, ruthless machine." Virginia Woolf 1897
- By late
- By starman2003