Healthcare, Monopolies, Inflation and Government
What do healthcare, monopolies, inflation, and government all have in common? All are the result of single payer, universal healthcare. This article is partially in response to this one. I read, “Single payer Vs. Public Option” and thought well, that’s not all there is, right? Shouldn’t it be “Single payer Vs. Public Option Vs. Private insurance”? For me, this healthcare debate is something personal to me. I don’t have health insurance right now. However, I’m perfectly healthy and I will have it again within a month or two. I’m fine with choosing not to have it. That’s my freedom. I don’t want that freedom taken away. Anyways, let me spin a tale really quickly.
Company A makes a fantastic new product. Company B makes a similar product, but cheaper and of less quality. Company A markets much better than Company B and drives Company B out of existence. Company C-Z had designs for these products, but seeing the advantage Company A has decides not to make them. Company A notices that they’re the only people in the market with this product and decide to increase the cost of the product. They increase the price slowly so that people don’t panic and force another company to join in on the market. You would agree, that while this scenario is unlikely as in every market there are alternatives for almost any device it is what we call a monopoly. Boo! Hiss! We don’t like big corporation monopolies! Okay, so we have determined that if there are no other competing products, the sole producer of the product will increase the cost of their product.
Okay, well healthcare is a market, believe it or not. Currently, there is competition. If you provide very bad service, you don’t get paid, you die out in the current market. Now, let’s think of single payer, government provided health care. Sounds great and dandy, everybody banding together to help pay for everyone’s health! It sounds downright heroic! However, think back to our monopoly. Government becomes the only provider of healthcare. When there’s only one provider, costs increase as competition is strangled. Healthcare costs increase. As far back as 1993, Canada’s health care costs were increasing at a faster rate than costs here in the United States.
Canadians are proud of a system that generally provides good medical care to all its citizens at a lower cost than in the United States — averaging 1,915 American dollars per person in 1991, the latest year for which figures are available, compared with $2,868 in the United States. But spending in recent years has grown nearly as fast as in the United States, and is outstripping the ability of the public sector to pay.
Despite new efforts to control costs, from cutbacks in covered services to caps on doctors’ fees and hospital budgets, “revenues in the public sector are not increasing fast enough,” said Bill Tholl, director of health policy at the Canadian Medical Association.
Aggravating the financial distress has been Canada’s most painful recession since the Great Depression, which has compressed tax receipts and cut federal transfer payments to the 10 provinces and 2 territories, which actually run the health system for 27 million Canadians.
Source: New York Times
If the Canadians were having trouble with funds as far back as 1993, how can the United States in 2009 hope to aggregate enough tax revenue to pay for healthcare for all?
Another country hailed as having supposedly the best healthcare in the world is France. This week I heard of a pregnant French woman who had to get the local fire brigade to take her to a hospital in a town thirty miles from her village because the hospital in her village was shut down to help control skyrocketing costs in France’s Universal Health Care System. Sadly, I do not have a source for this. For once, Google has failed me. I digress.
As Michael Moore and the World Health Organization were heralding French healthcare, one professor, a Frenchman by the name of Alice Teil claimed that ” the French system is “not sustainable anymore,” but copying parts of America’s could save it.” (Source: NewsBusters)
“It’s true we really have good access, but what if the system is not sustainable anymore?” says Teil. “It’s going to break. It’s going to blow. And then no more accessibility for anybody.”
…
Tiel says the cost of France’s socialized healthcare is growing faster than its economy. Workers pay about fifty percent of their paycheck each month into healthcare, retirement and unemployment and more companies are outsourcing jobs to avoid those costs. Quality of care also suffers in France, says Teil, because hospitals and doctors resist government requirements to report their success and failures.
Source: NewsBusters
Say what you may about me, but I would be appalled at having to pay about fifty percent of my paycheck each month into healthcare. I wouldn’t be able to live! I wouldn’t be able to pay for an apartment, nor electricity, nor food. I guess the way to fix that would be to tax more and have the government provide all that. Excuse me while I go wash my mouth out with soap.
One other country has gotten applause for its Universal Healthcare System. This country has many names; you know it by at least two names: England and Great Britain. Now, Great Britain has one of the oldest systems if memory serves correctly. Now, if you have cancer in Great Britain, do you stay in Great Britain or do you come to the United States for treatment? Capitalism Magazine explains:
Among women with breast cancer, for example, there’s a 46 percent chance of dying from it in Britain, versus a 25 percent chance in the United States. “Britain has one of worst survival rates in the advanced world,” writes Bartholomew, “and America has the best.”
If you’re a man diagnosed with prostate cancer, you have a 57 percent chance of it killing you in Britain. In the United States, the chance of dying drops to 19 percent. Again, reports Bartholomew, “Britain is at the bottom of the class and America is at the top.”
Explains Bartolomew: “That is why those who are rich enough often go to America, leaving behind even private British healthcare.” The reason isn’t that we sue more in America, and scare doctors into efficiency, or that our medical schools are better. It’s more simple than that. “In America, you are more likely to be treated,” writes Bartholomew, “and going back a stage further, you are more likely to get the diagnostic tests which lead to better treatment.”
What about medical equipment, how is that in Great Britain? Again Capitalism Magazine explains:
On the availability of equipment, explains Bartholomew, Britain has only half as many CT scanners per million people as the United States, and half as many MRI scanners. With lithotripsy units for treating kidney stones, the United States has more than seven times the availability per million of population than Britain.
Not only is the British equipment in short supply, but much of what’s there should be loaded up and carted off to the nearest scrap dump. An audit by the World Health Organization, for instance, found that over half of Britain’s x-ray machines were past their recommended safe time limit, and more than half the machines in anesthesiology required replacing. “Even the majority of operating tables were over 20 years old — double their life span,” reports Bartholomew.
What about those pesky wait times? Once again, Capitalism Magazine explains:
On how things worked in an individual case, Bartholomew writes of Peggy, an American radiologist, who went to Britain to meet her English boyfriend’s family. While she was there, her boyfriend’s father found blood in his urine and went to a local National Health Service hospital in which no CT scans or cystoscopy tests were done. The patient had asthma and laid in his hospital bed with breathing difficulties but still didn’t see a specialist. He was told it would take six weeks. Short of the six weeks, he was discharged from the hospital. Back home, before his appointment with a consultant came up, he died of an asthma attack.
Bartholomew reports that Peggy was “surprised at how ‘accepting’ her boyfriend’s family was.” What she saw was an unexpected passivity, a lethal submissiveness to systemic incompetence and tragedy, a reaction that seemed poles apart from how things happen in the United States. Explains Bartolomew: “She didn’t say too much because she did not want to come across as a pushy, arrogant American but she was thinking that ‘in America we’d go nuts if we were told we would have to wait six weeks to see a specialist. Expectations are so much higher.’”
I agree, I would become very upset if I had to wait six weeks to see a specialist.
Now for the so-called “Public Option”. Honestly, my opinion on it is that it’s like Company A in the monopoly story. It will push all others out of the market, much like the United States Postal Service has pushed all other letter carriers (we don’t send letters via UPS and FedEx, do we?) out of business. If we truly want to fix healthcare, push for tort reform. Make it harder for people to frivolously sue doctors. Think of the massive amount of people employed by private insurers. I also offer one more piece of advice. Stop reading here if the alternate word for donkey (ironic given what political party it represents) offends you.
“Stop asking the government to wipe your ass for you and learn to do it for yourself!”
27 Comments
The Go-To Guy | Chris Pirillo
August 12th, 2009
at 5:08pm
[...] What do healthcare, monopolies, inflation and the government have in common? [...]
Lisha Sterling
August 12th, 2009
at 5:19pm
First off, it seems that you can’t read very well. The quote from Newsbusters say that the French pay half of their pay check into healthcare, retirement and unemployment not just healthcare. And I’ll bet you are a young, single man, huh? Because if you were the head of a family, you would know that healthcare can easily cost a healthy family of three $900 a month, not including co-payments and deductibles in the United States. Add that to your retirement savings, and your contribution to unemployment insurance and see what percentage of your paycheck you just lost. Mind you, the French won’t be below the poverty line if they reach retirement age and have nothing left but their pension. They get paid maternity leave, too, and other little conveniences like that.
I currently live in Israel, and I like the healthcare system here. It’s not single-payer, but it is universal. There are four health insurance companies that everyone can choose from. You pay social security payments each month, and social security pays for your basic health insurance, with a guaranteed “basket” of health services. Companies compete on quality of care, facilities, and the availability of supplementary insurance for things like dental care or alternative medicine options.
I would certainly love for my daughter, son, daughter-in-law and grandson, who all live in the US, to have better, less expensive, access to healthcare. I hope that reforms that move in that direction get passed in the US soon.
Healthcare, Monopolies, Inflation and Government ~ Destiny in … | France Today
August 12th, 2009
at 5:27pm
[...] the original post: Healthcare, Monopolies, Inflation and Government ~ Destiny in … Share and [...]
Matt Harris
August 12th, 2009
at 6:38pm
We need to stick with what he have right now. We can’t afford to make these changes at the moment, with all the national debt,ect. We have medicare and ect… isn’t that enough?. I personally go to work and have healthcare provided for me becuase I work so hard and do such a good job and it’s part of my benefits. My parrents provided me with as much health care as possible when I was growing up and that’s all I can ask for, and all they can ask for, they worked hard for everything they have, that doesn’t give us an excuse to turn into a socialist nation so they have to pay more on top of what they have, which is with a good company, and we got great service and great doctors. This will turn into a quality war eventually, and it will be quanity over care quality. Imagine the swarm of people trying to get nationlized health care. Were already close enough and handing out cash and rebates and tax breaks, were stressed out enough last thing we need is more and more taxes to pay for what? And I know for a fact that Sword can read, so I dont’ think we need to resort to critization, just a simple opinion, which he is entitled to.
the oracle
August 12th, 2009
at 6:47pm
As someone who can twist facts with the best of them, I can’t see anywhere that you have proved, in a complete way, anything you put forth. The old maxim is “Figures don’t lie, but any liar can figure”, and that is what is happening in the conversation today.
For each study you proffer, I can show you one that disputes the figures that you give. Part of the problem is that no one has all the facts.
Here is one fact for you – from a national newscast (The News Hour on PBS) America pays more per capita than any other country for health care, even when compared with countries that offer full care for all. (I have heard the same idea on CBS as well.)
If you don’t find that fact sobering, I believe you might not be able to look past your preconceived ideas.
Also, your bright picture painted of the free market system doesn’t quite wash, because of a term you seem to not be familiar with – collusion. If we could get rid of the collusion between the health care providers and the insurance companies, we might be able to stomach a free market system. Because all efforts to do so have met with dismal failure, many of us are turning to government control – not because we like it, but because other plans have not proven the least bit efficacious.
swordofdestiny
August 12th, 2009
at 7:12pm
@Lisha Sterling:
I’m sorry, I saw the bold part of the quote. However, my point is still valid, I wouldn’t be able to live paying that much into those three things. Right now making minimum wage, I wouldn’t be able to put things away for retirement, but I could if I wanted to, that’s my freedom. However, do not take from my post that I think our current system is perfect. The reason healthcare costs that much is because of frivolous lawsuits and malpractice insurance. No, I am not the head of the household, but up until a few months ago, I’ve had insurance my entire life through three different providers. Until my father passed away from cancer in December of 2005 I was on Aetna. It was fine, I really didn’t know enough about it to say whether it was expensive, but my father made enough money to pay for it. Then when he passed away, I joined my mother on Blue Cross Blue Shield. Blue Cross Blue Shield was great as well, didn’t have to wait for service. The most expensive thing we ever had to pay for was $700 for a colonoscopy (while the insurance put $1500 towards it). No one questions that we need some kind of reform to our system. No other insurance is tied to our current job. We don’t have unemployment insurance. The percentages taken out of my check.. okay. So, my gross pay per week will be $168.00. Federal Withholding tax takes out $2.99, Social Security (which is spent by the government for purposes other than the people whom draw on it) takes out $10.42 and Medicare takes out $2.44. I’m already paying for other people’s healthcare. Medicare is already bankrupt. So, the amount of money the government takes out of my check already is: $15.85. My state doesn’t have income tax so I don’t have anything taken out by my state. So my net pay is $152.15. So, the percentage the government takes out for income tax, “retirement” (it’s estimated that social security will run completely out of money well before I can draw upon it), and other people’s healthcare is already 9.43%. Now, I did some number crunching last night to see if I could possibly replace my truck with a higher mileage car. (I got a quote of $11075 for a brand new Pontiac G5 [off brand Chevy Cobalt, drove like a dream, I really wanted it].) Anyways, the number crunching for a month:
+$608.48 – Monthly Net Pay ($152.15 * 4)
+$200.00 – From certificate (not giving myself the entire cert at once)
-$350.00 – Rent (Estimated $700 for 2bed/2bath split with a friend)
-$200.00 – Groceries ($400 is probably how much for groceries a month split between me and friend)
-$100.00 – Electricity (Est $200/mo split again)
-$80.00 – Gas (Est filling up twice a month, which is going to be hard not to fill up more)
-$27.50 – Internet, Phone & Cable ($55 split with roommate)
-$10.00 – Water, Trash Utilities (Est $20/mo split with roommate)
—————
$40.98
I will have $40.98 left for me to use how I want per month. So, if I was instead paying 50% of my check into that above, I would be pulling in $84.00 a week. Let’s do the number crunch again.
+336.00 – Net Pay (taking 50% for the healthcare, retirement, unemployment whatever the government decides they can use my money better than I can for)
+$200.00 – From certificate (not giving myself the entire cert at once)
-$350.00 – Rent (Estimated $700 for 2bed/2bath split with a friend)
-$200.00 – Groceries ($400 is probably how much for groceries a month split between me and friend)
-$100.00 – Electricity (Est $200/mo split again)
-$80.00 – Gas (Est filling up twice a month, which is going to be hard not to fill up more)
-$27.50 – Internet, Phone & Cable ($55 split with roommate)
-$10.00 – Water, Trash Utilities (Est $20/mo split with roommate)
—————
-$231.50
I’ll need $231.50 coming from somewhere a month to be able to SPLIT an apartment with a friend. No, I can’t get anymore from the certificate per month because my mother controls it. I wouldn’t be able to afford to go to college this fall. I’m glad you’re happy with your coverage in Israel, that works for you, your system is nothing at all like the one being rammed through Congress at the moment. Name one thing that my government has done that has been cost effective. Thank you for your opinions!
@Matt Harris – Thanks for your opinions!
@the oracle
Yes, and every book proves its thesis. I can show studies that dispute the studies that you show to dispute etc. I have heard that fact before. Let’s investigate why. Okay you’re a malpractice insurer. The people you cover are becoming more and more of a risk of being the victims of frivolous lawsuits. The more the liability, the more the insurance costs. Note that some people make their money using these frivolous suits. Males under 25 are at more of a risk to have a crash and are therefore more of a liability. Auto insurers charge more for males under 25 years of age. So, more of the doctor’s paycheck is going to malpractice insurance. The doctor is still paying off a mountain of college debt and can’t have anymore strain on his/her budget so he/she charges more for service. The medical insurance companies have to pay more to doctors for the same service, so they pass on the costs to the consumer. That’s why your “America pays more per capita than any other country for health care” does not surprise or alarm me. It makes sense, given what’s happening.
Collusion is illegal, so prove that it is happening and get the people who do it sent to jail. Criminals go to jail. Go stimulate the economy by hiring a private investigator to investigate them and get the authorities on it!
swordofdestiny
August 12th, 2009
at 7:13pm
@the oracle
Thanks for your opinions!
Joe Fabeetz
August 12th, 2009
at 7:17pm
Matt: You say we can’t AFFORD to make changes right now? We can’t afford NOT to. Have you looked at the cost of health insurance compared to the cost of living since 2000? How nice that your employer pays for your insurance. You are in a
very small (or at least dwindling) group. Get back to me after you shop around for private insurance, and god forbid you have a pre-existing condition. Rates are going thru the ROOF. Insurance companies are drowning in profits while millions of Americans are going backrupt while drowning in health care debt. Ask the millions of people who have lost good jobs (like yours) if they like the current system. Follow the money that is paying to promote opposition to health care reform… guess where it’s coming from? The health care industry. We can do better as a nation.
swordofdestiny
August 12th, 2009
at 7:44pm
@Joe Fabeetz
Thanks for your opinions!
I’m not Matt, but I did want to comment upon your comment. I took a look at Aetna’s finances via yahoo finances. Well, out of a $32.67 Billion revenue, they only have $8.221 B in profit. That’s not an obscene profit in my opinion. They also put some of that profit to good use by funding medical research. Now compare that to the profits of say the oil industry. The insurance companies are paying people to oppose this? Well then! Where can I get my check? I’m sure opposing it and I’m not getting paid for it. Also Joe, maybe you should look into becoming employed by Jack in the Box. I saw when I was applying that they supply benefits for their hourly workers.
bob3160
August 12th, 2009
at 8:20pm
If you secure our borders we might be able to pay for this plan.
As long as the benefits are available to every one including Illegals, it will always be totally unaffordable.
APHughes
August 12th, 2009
at 8:34pm
Well said Chris. I think I can spend my money better than the government can.
the oracle
August 12th, 2009
at 10:14pm
If you don’t think 25% profit margin is obscene, there’s a job for you on Wall Street. I have never had, nor worked for,any business that shows a 25% net profit. To me, it is most amazing and dismaying, for a company that is supposed to be ‘helping’ humanity, not quite,, but almost a public trust.
That is part of the problem with doctors today, instead of becoming a doctor to serve his fellow man, the average doctor takes up the profession to make scads of money, and have a great golf game.
People in healthcare should not be there to profit from the misery of others – you may think the view naive, but I think that if we are to progress as a species, we need to have people thinking about more than the profit motive. I don’t begrudge anyone a good living, but insane greed should be weeded out of our society like crabgrass. They are both ruinous to the overall picture.
swordofdestiny
August 13th, 2009
at 4:54am
@the oracle
I would, if they actually had a 25% profit margin. Take a look at the key statistics on Yahoo! Finances for Aetna (AET) and their profit margin is actually 3.85%. Compare that to say… Microsoft (MSFT) who has a profit margin of 24.93%. That $8 Billion figure is gross profit, while you compute the profit margin from the net profit. So, using that profit margin, Aetna’s net profit is actually $12,577,950. Which is a far cry from the $8 Billion. Why is it so low? I did a quick consultation of Wikipedia which described Gross profit as: In accounting, gross profit or sales profit is the difference between revenue and the cost of making a product or providing a service, before deducting overhead, payroll, taxation, and interest payments.
So are the greedy executives taking all the money? Nope, taking a look at the company profile on Yahoo! Finance shows the CEO making $3.04 M a year which includes bonuses. I also have never met a doctor that was motivated to do his/her job for profit. Maybe I’m just lucky or maybe you’re making a gross generalization about a lot of people who spend a lot of money on the training for their job. Those many years of schooling are not cheap. I don’t see Aetna as being insanely greedy.
Healthcare, Monopolies, Inflation and Government ~ Destiny in … | AlternativeInsuranceGuide
August 13th, 2009
at 8:41am
[...] Read more from the original source: Healthcare, Monopolies, Inflation and Government ~ Destiny in … [...]
HarryH
August 13th, 2009
at 12:01pm
There are those that buy into the ‘insurance companies are evil’ myth. Truth is that profit margins are in the 2-8% range, like a grocery store. Further, most states require the companies to pay 80-85% of premiums in benefits; that leaves very little for operating reserves. And insurance companies don’t pay outrageous salaries either.
Then there is malpractice insurance. When investment returns decrease the companies must charge more. Also the rates vary wildly from State-to-State based on whether the State limits claims. The malpractice companies must have higher reserves than typical because there have been remarkably high judgments in some States; those claims must be paid.
Notice that when you compare countries and insurance costs it gets very complex. Except for the UK which is socialized medicine, most go from single payer to a variety of insurance blends. In the UK the government employs all health workers resulting in the 2nd largest workforce in the world (Walmart is first). And the notion of malpractice is nearly impossible. Most other countries have schemes that allow for private providers. Canada is a good example of single payer where rationing and delay is a norm helped by a severe shortage of doctors – maybe they moved to the US. Other countries using an insurance blend provide better service. They range from Germany’s non-profit insurers to most other countries using for profit insurers. And in most of the countries there are real limits on malpractice claims.
We are faced with a difficult set of decisions. The most successful health care systems are multi-for profit insurers. Successful means high public satisfaction and longevity. Few have a government option but most have a government subsidized option for insurance.
We hear stories about our government’s medicare ’success’. Sure it is. We provide more benefits than the premiums ought to allow; that will be obvious soon when something must bend. Also, along with low administrative costs, there are instances of outrageous abuse and fraud.
Then there is the ‘wonderful’ Veterans system, fully socialized. The VA is only now getting ‘adequate’ funding, that many say isn’t anywhere near to being adequate. Only during wartime is the VA popular with Congress. After the war memories fade, those poor maimed troops will go back to being second class citizens, often denied care without legal help and what care is there involves long waits (rationing).
It’s a pity our President and Congress decided, in advance, that they wanted a ‘public option’ so they could combat those evil insurance companies. There are a lot of other countries (with fewer resources, BTW) that we might model and modify. Given the long sought goals of many for the inferior single payer system (ala Canada), the public option is a gateway to eliminate private insurers, IMHO. The better way involves multi private for profit insurance companies competing on a national stage. But there has been little to no discussion on such a plan.
lots of hybrid models
August 13th, 2009
at 2:09pm
“healthcare is a market” – not even close to one actually. The AMA controls the number of new doc’s each year, Medicare and medicaid decides which ones to pay to train (yes CMS pays 100k a year to train almost all residents and interns – single payer).
There are plenty of other options but most people are so US centric that they are unaware of models that are hybrid models of private public financing. Germany for example has regional insurance, France (which hates the socialized model in the EU) combines public private employer financing.
MrDragon
August 13th, 2009
at 2:18pm
I know better than to jump in to this conversation… but I am not the smartest person in the world or even on my block, so…
To ‘the oracle’, you seem to be dead on with your examples, and I praise your bravery. Not many in this country are willing to open their eyes to the corruption all around them as it would be too painful to live with.
To ’swordofdestiny’, I am glad that you have apparently lived a very sheltered life thus far, but as I have said for many years, “Perception is EVERYTHING!”. Your perception doesn’t line up with mine or that of ‘the oracle’. I am sure in part to our different life experiences.
Collusion and corruption are real and are in every aspect of mega corporations and governments that I have had any experience with. I’m convinced that it is impossible to become so big and powerful without some of both.
If you don’t believe me, ask yourself why it is illegal in nearly every state, if not all of them, to operate a vehicle without INSURANCE? Additionally, ask yourself why you no longer have the freedom to choose to wear or not wear your seat belt? The simple fact of the matter is that the government has not be a government by the people and for the people for a very long time. Those with enough money to pay lobbyists to manipulate policy and law have done so to their advantage. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have enough money to lobby for anything!
Furthermore, the house and senate isn’t made up of a bunch of working class/middle class citizens. It is made up of mostly the wealthy disconnected elite. The same people that ran some of the largest companies in this country and/or at the very least rub elbows with them regularly. My point is that we can’t let the coyotes run the chicken coop. ;-) And, yes that means I am in favor of firing the lot of them and starting over, as painful as it would be, I think we have reached that point. I am aware that this won’t happen, and while I am neither a republican nor a democrat, as both parties are so stupid on so many levels – fighting for the sake of fighting is just the tip of the iceberg, I do think that President Obama is trying to tip the scale in favor of the ‘People’ the only way he can. I don’t think he can do it as there is SO MUCH B.S. in all laws and programs in this country that it is impossible to navigate those waters successfully, and on purpose I might add.
Think about it for a moment… if you put 10 lawyers in a room and they all agree on something, then it must be how they can improve their position collectively (collusion?). Otherwise, at least one of them will find a way to spin a new perception on the topic at hand, otherwise they become obsolete. If we didn’t have room for negotiation then we don’t need lawyers/law makers. Right and wrong are negotiable in this country, and therefore right is right if you can persuade enough people to believe what you believe. And how do we do that? Throw a lot of money at it!
I am not a big conspiracy follower, but I do dislike the government, lawyers and insurance companies. The top 3 evils in my book. So, no I don’t want more government, but since it is the only entity big enough to enact needed change, then I am willing to support the changes being proposed, at least in part. I really don’t want to see government run health care become the only option, but I would like ALL Americans to have the same benefits that our leaders have. Again, this won’t happen, but maybe we can at least have another option provided by our government.
Have you ever wondered why individuals in this country can’t join together and negotiate with insurance companies for better rates? That’s right, there are laws at the state level preventing just such a thing, and I wonder why… not really, I know why… Insurance companies lobbied for such laws so as to not have to provide us with rates as good as what the large corporations have been able to negotiate. Not that I think that is good enough nowadays, considering the 20% plus annual rate increases I seen over the past handful of years.
I could ramble on with more examples for months as I am sure everyone could, but who has the time for it?
I am not suggesting that I think there are better places to live. I love the USA and still think it is the best country in the world. But I am tired of the government being on the side of big business. You said it yourselves, ’swordofdestiny’ and ‘the oracle’… “billions in profit” when they are cutting jobs and raising taxes is insane. Billions in profit for organizations that are supposed to be providing humanitarian services is INSANE. Billions in profit and/ or taxes on necessities is INSANE. To be clear, I do believe that oil has become a necessity in America, if not most of the world. I know that individually we will not die without it, but we can’t function as a nation without it, so it qualifies as a necessity in my book. Are there alternatives, YES, but not readily available enough (yet) to replace it.
WE MUST CHANGE! The government needs to be watching out for the ‘People’ not for big businesses. They have obviously figured out how to watch out for themselves.
So there you have it… the ramblings of a mad man. Crazy mad or mad as hell mad is up to your PERCEPTION. ;-)
Volt
August 13th, 2009
at 2:21pm
All I know is that when I didn’t have insurance I was never denied healthcare.
swordofdestiny
August 13th, 2009
at 2:24pm
@Mr Dragon
The thing is, they’re not making billions in profit. They’re not! The healthcare insurance companies, the highest salary I saw was $3.04 Million to the CEO of Unitedhealth Group Inc. I did a more indepth comparison at http://bit.ly/MfoGI Thank you for your opinion!
@lots of hybrid models
Thank you for your opinion! I may look into those and do some research on them. Again, no one is denying that something needs to be done, just whether it’s tort reform, public option or universal hc is up to debate.
@Volt
Thanks for the information. I just think it’s sad when people say “If you don’t have insurance you are denied healthcare” when there are laws on the books that make it illegal to deny treatment.
Alex
August 14th, 2009
at 10:39am
Some facts:
50% of insurance payments go to profits and administrative fees. Administrative fees include those hired to tell people the reasons they’re not covered for operations they need, etc.
America spends more money on health care than any country on Earth.
20,000 people die in the United States every year because they can’t afford health care. Half of that 20,000 has insurance.
Half a million people go bankrupt in the United States every year because of health care costs. That is half of all bankruptcies in the United States.
Medicare has a higher approval rating in the United States than private insurance.
Just about every industrialized nation in the world has a universal health care system, except the US. The US is 33rd in place of these nations in terms of life expectancy and infant mortality rates.
swordofdestiny
August 14th, 2009
at 11:14am
@Alex
Would you like to provide some sources to back up your claims? Again, it is illegal for someone to be denied life saving treatment. Take a look at my next article. 50% of insurance payments do not go to profits. Please back up your figures. Yes, we may spend more money on health care than any country on earth. Well, considering we are the third largest country in the world, that makes sense. In terms of population, only China and India beat us. However, unlike China and India, here people are paid at least minimum wage. We have more people who have health insurance than those countries and consequently, we pay more as a whole. I would really like to see you back up your “20,000 people die in the United States every year because they can’t afford health care. Half of that 20,000 has insurance.” claim. We have lower life expectancy because of our lifestyles. We have people who spend 40 years smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. It’s not like that in the rest of the world. There are still smokers, but it’s the most concentrated here. We’re also the most obese nation and that contributes to our life expectancy as well. Medicare is going bankrupt, if you haven’t noticed.
Outraged Radio Inflation ~ Windows Fanatics
August 14th, 2009
at 12:44pm
[...] What do healthcare, monopolies, inflation, and the government have in common? [...]
Alex
August 14th, 2009
at 1:24pm
@Swordofdest
It is illegal to deny people emergency treatment, but anything less than an emergency, and you don’t get any treatment at all. You can’t schedule checkups if you can’t afford it, and those are necessary for preventative treatment. Without checkups, you become aware of an ailment only when it is too late to prevent it, hence the high mortality. You also can’t get medications and major operations unless you can afford them.
I heard on the radio that 50% of insurance payments go to profits and administrative fees. Not just profits, but the huge bureaucracy of creating red tape to have loopholes to deny people coverage. People are hired to argue with the customers and doctors, because denying health coverage increases profits. However, I can’t find that 50% online, but I did find that 25% goes to administrative fees in California (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/33443.php). Whatever the case, the bureaucracy isn’t necessary if everyone is supposed to be covered, although I don’t know where my 50% statistic came from originally when I heard it on the radio.
We spend more on health care per capita than any other country in the world, not because of population size. Go to the first paragraph of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States
I looked it up, and here’s the source for my 20,000 annual death toll from lack of health care:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/healthcare/2002-05-22-insurance-deaths.htm
As it turns out, only 18,000 die annually, but that is not a big difference.
Only 20% of Americans smoke. I’m hesitant to pick out case examples, but Japan has the third longest life expectancy in the wold (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Expectancy_by_Country), government health care, but 50% of adult males smoke there. America is one of the fattest nations in the world, however. However, also note that our infant mortality rate is 33rd in place of other countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate). Infant mortality rate is the proportion of children that die before age one. This certainly can’t be due to smoking, and I doubt one year olds are obese. Yet we’re still so far behind.
The Go-To Guy | dv8-designs
August 15th, 2009
at 12:44am
[...] What do healthcare, monopolies, inflation and the government have in common? [...]
Bill Messick
August 15th, 2009
at 3:24pm
Nice way to put it!
concertpianist
August 16th, 2009
at 10:23pm
Wow, wow, you guys are great talkers, i enjoyed this read very
much. Thank you for your energy & time. I am baffeled, have no
clue for any input.
My greatest delight was, to read:
“Stop asking the government to wipe your ass for you and learn to do it for yourself!”
By our great analyst swordofdestiny. I go with that one.
.
We have now the internet & we can search out our own ailments,
and there are plenty, abundant resources of knowledge from others, who went thru all kinds of illness & symptons etc. It is so
time for self responsibility, wake up time, cause we are financially
ruined.
I read a lot of stories about people, who did just that. Their doctor
s could not find a cure, so they researched vehemently & found
relief, cures, healing that way. Where there is a will, there is a
way…. and that is american ingenuity, hahaha, or maybe survival
instinct.
By the way, i think, it is only very sad for the people left behind,
to hurt from death, but the one dying, might just WANT to leave
this god forsaken place. Have you ever thought about that?
.
F…the healthcare, i don’t want it. I trust mother nature more than
beaurocrazy, who stole our joy of living. They are not cutting into
my body with their eager knives, hahaha. I’d rather go to the other
side & explore it, gladly. I can not win here anyway, because my
memory is wiped out at birth, parting me forcefully from the very
loving creator, my core, my source, my life-force.
tECmAN2000
August 18th, 2009
at 8:42pm
Being a normally healthy man I did have health insurance until I lost my job over 2 years ago. While COBRA kept me going for almost 3 times what I paid while on the job, I somehow managed to keep it til COBRA itself ran out on me. A few months later the rectal bleeding started. I paid full price to see a doctor who then wanted to run over $1000 of tests before we could go any further. The office visit having wiped out my savings the tests were not an option as well as further doctor visits. When I finally did get a job making $200/week I thought I would finally be able to get insurance but at $158/week for the insurance I found I would be better off spending the money frivolusly for food & rent. When the pain got to be unbearable I would go to what is touted as the US “Universal Health Care System” the Emergency Room at the nearest hospital, where for a cost of hundreds of dollars I was told I had everything from Chronic constapation to internal rectal hemmorids & instructed to see a doctor at my earliest convience. On my last visit to an emergency room it was discovered that 1 of my many attempts to get affordable health insurance had actually gone thru but no one had bothered to inform me. That was when I was finally able to see a real doctor who discovered I had colon cancer which had grown large enough to start to block my colon. I had the surgery to cut out the offending part of my colon but now the time spent in recuperation has kept me from being able to afford the insurance I had so now I am faced with the prospect of being unable to afford the followup treatments to keep the cancer under control. So now I am back from waiting months (in my case years) to see a health care professional to waiting to die because I can’t see one at all. And I know I’m better off than many in this country that have no access to health care at all. Al least I am lucky enough to live in a country where I have worked hard all my life to know what I will die from while folks I know personally who never worked an honest day in their lives get all kinds of welfare, food stamps & medicade because they are drug addicts, which qualifies them as “disabled” so that they can get their durgs while the state pays for everything else for them. All this while doctors can’t afford to stay in business because they simply can’t afford all the paperwork insurance companies require them to fill out so they can deny their claims. We have such a great system here in the US.