I hear time and time again that health care is no longer affordable. I don’t see it. Go back 100 years to 1913 did anyone complain about health care being unaffordable? What has changed over that time are the amount of different services that are now available that weren’t back then. The real truth to the matter is that today’s patient wants all of the services available but doesn’t have the means to pay for them all. You kind of have the ability to pay, if you are willing to do without something else that you usually consume. We are not discussing health care insurance, only the cost of general health care treatment.
Have you ever taken a pet to the vet for treatment? You get an itemized list of procedures that can be performed and the cost before anything is done. You choose the amount you are willing to spend first, pay it and the vet does what is requested of him. It is considered inhumane for our health institutions not to treat a patient because of a person’s lack of funds. You can see how such a philosophy preached as a business model would have a veterinary clinic facing bankruptcy their opening week.
Then we have 40 million people on food stamps and some Congress man stands up and says a family of 4 can’t feed themselves on a food stamp budget of $668 a month. So if we eliminate food stamps to 40 million people, will we have 40 million funerals in the following year from starvation? I think not. There might be a hell of a drop in cigarette, alcohol, drugs, cable TV and cell phone consumption. These food stamp allotment quota settings are kind of like a bill of entitlements to the poor. Have kids don’t get married and you are entitled to a bigger share. Dad can come home on the weekend and be with the kids if he isn’t starting another family on the other side of town.
Then on top of that the government claims the health insurance companies are gouging us and making huge profits. There wasn’t one peep about auto insurance premium prices being too high. And no one complains about the millions of people driving with no car insurance. When the health insurance companies go out of business, you’ll realize how bad a government plan can be run when there is no financial accountability (they don’t have to make a profit).
The real issues with government programs are not about affordability, it’s all about entitlements. Those that can afford to pay, will pay more and get less; those that can’t afford to pay, will get something for nothing.
I’d like to point out that my prediction that the health insurance companies would drop individual policies back in October 28, 2012 is now happening nationwide. An insurance company can’t make money insuring people with a preexisting condition.
I predict that Obamacare has less than 6 months before it is considered a hot potato by even the Democrats. We have created a Medicare monster of free health care entitlements for the poor and those gaming the system while at the same time this new tax will enrage the young voters of this nation. From the time I was 20 until the time I was 55 and got company health insurance, I probably spent about $800 on doctors, and most of it was for eye glass prescriptions. So I had 100K left over to spend on other goodies during those 25 years.
The real issue is, nobody in government is paid to think, if they were, they’d be out of a job. 40 million people on food stamps is beyond being absurd, and a health care system that is free to everyone pleading poverty? Has anyone figured out who is paying the bills? Maybe it’s about time we tarred and feathered a Congressman or two. Of course if we told them it was part of their Congressional health care plan, they'd probably all want the procedure performed.
I'm going to miss the Aflac duck commercials
8 comments:
I'd suggest, as before, tackling the "health" cartels, plus gobalisation. Jimmy Goldsmith warned what would happen when GATT was underway but there was so much money to be made by a tiny minority that the floodgates were opened. Now we have growing structural unemployment and so a growing benefit-dependent class that needs and breeds. If America wants to look for its enemies it will find them at home, at least until such time as they renounce their citizenship for tax reasons.
Any endeavour that the government takes on will fail. It is almost like natural law. What do you expect from a bunch of academics, career politicians, corporate shills, etc. who have never worked a day in their lives in the real economy?
The real TERRORISTS in this country are welfare recipients who are gaming the system, career politicians, lobbyists, lazy and incompetent government administrators and employees, and public unions.
Why isn't Homeland Security and the NSA hunting them down?
A propos healthcare racketeering:
http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/duct-tape-politics/
I read it. I believe it is wrong to blame the doctors. It's the system that is at fault: the AMA, insurance companies, corrupt hospital administrations, big pharma, etc.
It is almost inhuman or barbaric to look at healthcare as a pure profit center that continually works at improving the bottom line. Flys right in the face of The Hippocratic Oath, wouldn't you say?
In the right type of free market system, with government/corp out of the picture, the price of care, hospitalization, medical equipment, testing/diagnosis, and medicine would come down drastically to an affordable level.
Health related price discovery for all involved can never happen in this economy and country.
I'm going to look into international health insurance. My understanding is that it is a lot less expensive than what is available here in the US.
As long as it is not an emergency, an American could hop on a plane to Thailand, Costa Rica, Cuba, etc. and get the medical attention or procedure needed at 1/5th the price it would cost in the US. And the doctors and conditions are just as good as here. Most of the doctors were educated and trained here.
The most prosperous country in the world with the worst healthcare system in the world. That's what happens when big business and government go into collusion. We've elected politicians who do not have the interests of the country in mind; we've allowed career politicians; we've allowed lobbyists to corrupt our politicians; we've allowed a central bank to hold our currency hostage; we've allowed income tax; we've allowed buffoon presidents like Obama to dismantle our constitution and Bill of Rights; and we've allowed government to grow to a huge size that is beyond control.
Shame on us. We will now reap what we sow.
Jim - really appreciate your blog. As always, your comments are spot-on. Keep preaching...
Hi Tom
Thank you for your comments, they don't go unnoticed.
Take care
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