Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

This week's Time magazine has a cover story that has been the topic of some of our most active threads. This is probably the longest article I have ever seen in Time magazine, and explains the issue very well.

"Put simply, with Obamacare we’ve changed the rules related to who pays for what, but we haven’t done much to change the prices we pay." But I don't regret voting for Obama because I know the Republicans would have only made it even worse.

healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/

Over the past few decades, we’ve enriched the labs, drug companies, medical device makers, hospital administrators and purveyors of CT scans, MRIs, canes and wheelchairs. Meanwhile, we’ve squeezed the doctors who don’t own their own clinics, don’t work as drug or device consultants or don’t otherwise game a system that is so gameable. And of course, we’ve squeezed everyone outside the system who gets stuck with the bills.

We’ve created a secure, prosperous island in an economy that is suffering under the weight of the riches those on the island extract.

And we’ve allowed those on the island and their lobbyists and allies to control the debate, diverting us from what Gerard Anderson, a health care economist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says is the obvious and only issue: “All the prices are too darn high.”

I just ordered some drugs from out of the country for less than I'd buy drugs here with insurance.

because 73% of America approves of her, and the Oscar's are getting a bit desperate.

she is free to go where she wants ... whats your point?

... and it does not sound too good to say you never voted. I hope there is a good reason.

Babeinthewoods said...
If I were a more spiritually developed person then I wouldn't need to say "I told you so".

Just because Time magazine has an opinion on something doesn't make it so.

So the way to fix a program that has about twenty four thousand billion dollar shortage of projected payouts to current erollees based on projected revenues is to add more enrollees?

Here's an interesting list of 50 reasons why our healthcare system is about to collapse on a liberatrian/conservative economic site that people of any political persuasion would find interesting (IMO, of course.)

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-02-27/guest-post-50-signs-us-health-care-system-about-collapse

Hmm..link doesn't go to the specified article...here are a few of the better ones:

#3 The United States spends more on health care than Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia combined.

#4 If the U.S. health care system was a country, it would be the 6th largest economy on the entire planet.

#5 Back in 1960, an average of $147 was spent per person on health care in the United States. By 2009, that number had skyrocketed to $8,086.

#38 According to OECD statistics, Americans are twice as obese as Canadians are.

#44 It is not uncommon for insurance companies to get hospitals to knock their bills down by up to 95 percent, but if you are uninsured or you don’t know how the system works then you are out of luck.

#47 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#49 When Medicare was first established by Congress, it was estimated that it would cost the federal government $12 billion a year by the time 1990 rolled around. Instead, it cost the federal government $110 billion in 1990, and it will cost the federal government close to $600 billion this year.

Post Edited (Levi) : 2/28/2013 9:24:39 AM (GMT-7)

Wow Levi, that is eye opening!
B

Interesting. I imagine different areas of the country have different takes on it. Florida is known to be a retirement state so I can see that if doctors didn't take Medicare patients there then they probably wouldn't have any patients. I don't know how the government pays it's bills but I do know that private insurers can give doctors and providers a lot of guff (is that a word?), forcing them to dot every i and cross every t before issuing payments. I also want to say that with Medicare, the government is the "middleman", really no different than insurance companies are the middleman.

here in the states Canasa 1000mg 30 count = $574.00

Solofalk 1000mg 30 count that i just ordered form Canada = $77.00

PRICELESS

The problem is Obamacare doesn't reform anything. It just pushes more people into a broken system and subsidizes it with taxpayers money. What a recipe for disaster.

Just one example of what needs to be done, if Americans want a Canadian style health care system, then one thing they are going to have to do is kick the ambulance chasing lawyers out of the system. What's the chance the Democrats would ever agree to that?

Let's just say with the re-election of Obama, it has brought out people on the far left side of the political spectrum trumpeting ideas that would have been laughed at before, like saying that lowering the age of medicare eligibility will save money. Take what you hear from these kind of people with a grain of salt.

My wife is a nurse practitioner at a big hospital in Phoenix. They are on the verge of bankruptcy. Probably a quarter of their patients are illegal aliens who don't pay. That's another thing that Obamacare doesn't fix that drives up what hospitals have to charge paying customers.

Don't expect the Democrats to do anything about this either.

The U.S. legislation mandating health insurance coverage is the Affordable Care Act, NOT "Obamacare" as rightwingers (mostly male) love to insist. You all conveniently ignore the fact that W. Bush pushed Medicare Part D Rx coverage without seeking adequate funding legislation to support it, also Advantage Plans (mainly HMO-run) that have proven to cost more than original Medicare. I agree with Imagardener that for-profit private insurance is concerned about PROFITS, NOT patient care-- the opposite of what ailing people need. Furthermore, the sequestration now promoted by Republicans in Congress will lead to further job losses by government workers in Medicare agencies, the FDA, Veterans' Affairs, etc. that harm thousands of needy people-- but, hey, the 1% does just fine so why should anyone care a fig about this ... etc., etc. Rightwing positions suck bigtime! / Old Hat (32 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)

It is both Republicans and Democrats who promoted sequestration, that's why we have it. Neither side wanted to give. Either side could have caved in but neither side did. They could have compromised somewhere in the middle but both sides felt that compromise means do it our way or the highway. Both sides are nothing but pieces of shiit and all should be thrown out, tarred and feathered, and let the moderates run the country. Trouble is there are very few moderates left because both Democrats and Republicans have been forcing the moderates out in the primaries.

InSoFla said...
If the darn republicans (today's breed anyway and even the old timers in today's world too) had it their way, there would be no medicare, no social security, no medicaid -- but by all means, they should retain all their perks that go with their office i.e. pensions, great health coverage, etc...

Please. If you believe this you're getting too much of your information from MSNBC, CNN, or Fox News and not what's actually happening. John Boner or bMitch McConnell would no more cut one cent of social security, medicare, or medicaid that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid would. They are the loyal opposition for show, nothing more, nothing less. As long as they both keep their power they'll keep monetizing us serfs into oblivion and snipe at each other for the cameras, for Blowhard O'Rielly and Chrissy Matthews to have a narrative to construct.

We don't need moderates, we need someone with enough courage to stand up and end this madness. If you are anywhere near my age you will never see one cent of return on the thousands of dollars you pour into social security every single year. The best plan for any young-middleish age folks would be to totally opt out of SS and pledge to never be eligble to receive one cent or whatever currency replaces the dollar.

I am sick to death at seeing that generation pillage the future so they can keep an unsustainable standard of living borne on my back and those yet to come and many others are increasingly getting sick of it too.

I think we need to send some of our nation's best Kindergarten teachers to the halls of the US house and senate as moderators as they would do a heck of a lot of good of slapping these idiotic congressmen and women into line and acting responsibly. I mean, at its essence, our legislators are acting like spoiled little children wanting to get 100% of their way, 100% of the time, or else they scream and complain. I know little Mitch McConnell wants all of the Oreo cookies to himself, and little Harry Reid wants all of the chocolate milk to himself even though they both have enough for everyone, and we need to make sure they both understand the basics of sharing so everyone can have milk and cookies together.

Our system is messed up on so many levels and I don't have a lot of faith that those who benefit so much from the current system will have any incentive to change it:

1.) Gerrymandering that only emboldens representatives (you win 60% or more of the votes in every election and the only threat is a primary challenge from somebody who is more conservative/liberal than you are). It only encourages the kind of extremism you end up seeing, and of course the 24/7 media machine rewards those with the loudest most idiotic claims, encouraging people to go to those extremes to make the news cycle.

2.) Career politicians who care more about themselves, and becoming speaker, president, then about what really is in the best interest of the country and their constituents. I'd like to see term limits. Give them one chance to go in there and make a difference -- no reelections. Think how much a politician would accomplish?

3.) The vast amount of money and lobbying corrupts individuals. That and the fact you have to be rich to run for office at the national level. This creates a huge disconnect with the average constituent who is struggling to pay for utility bills and food. I like the idea of make their health benefits like ours. State-level representatives in NH are paid $100 a year for their services plus mileage compensation. You don't get rich for representing your town at the capital building so you need to have a drive to make a difference.