This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Guest Post: Obamacare - The Neutron Bomb That Will Decimate The U.S. Economy
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
ObamaCare will act as a neutron bomb on the U.S. economy for systemic reasons.
Longtime readers know I have repeatedly explained why healthcare, i.e. sickcare, will bankrupt the nation. ObamaCare simply speeds up the coming collapse. Here are two of the dozens of entries I've written on sickcare:
America's Hidden 8% VAT: Sickcare (May 10, 2012)
Can Chronic Ill-Health Bring Down Great Nations? Yes It Can, Yes It Will (November 23, 2011)
I have also explained why ObamaCare's "fixes" are simulacra reforms that don't even address the systemic costs arising from the cartel-fiefdom structure of sickcare:
Why "Healthcare Reform" Is Not Reform, Part I (December 28, 2009)
Why "Healthcare Reform" Is Not Reform, Part II (December 29, 2009)
Sickcare is unsustainable for a number of interlocking reasons: defensive medicine in response to a broken malpractice system; opaque pricing; quasi-monopolies/cartels; systemic disconnect of health from food, diet and fitness; fraud and paperwork consume at least 40% of all sickcare funds; fee-for-service in a cartel system; employers being responsible for healthcare, and a fundamental absence of competition and transparency.
Please glance at these charts to see how the U.S. healthcare costs are double those of competing nations on a per capita basis. Japan provides care for a mere 36% per person of what the U.S. spends--yet millions of Americans remain uninsured or underinsured.
If you set out to design a corrupt, inefficient, wasteful, unfair, deranged and unreformable system, you would arrive at U.S. healthcare/ObamaCare.
ObamaCare ignores the structural causes of our ill-health:
86% of Workers Are Obese or Have Other Health Issue Just 1 in 7 U.S. workers is of normal weight without a chronic health problem.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), i.e. ObamaCare, is a neutron bomb for employment. A neutron bomb is an enhanced-radiation thermonuclear weapon that famously leaves buildings, autos, etc. intact but kills all the people, even those inside buildings. vehicles, etc.
ObamaCare will act as a neutron bomb on the U.S. economy for these systemic reasons:
1. It is immensely complex, and already-marginalized small business owners will shed employees or simply close rather than have to figure out what all those thousands of pages of regulations and statutes mean to the survival of their business.
2. ObamaCare's primary mechanisms of lowering costs, insurance exchanges and technocratic selection of "best care practices," do nothing to change the systemic flaws of sickcare.
Many other commentators have already outlined how ObamaCare is driving employers to replace fulltime workers with part-time workers to avoid having to pay outrageously expensive monthly healthcare insurance premiums.
I see this response as a Corporate-America strategy. Corporate America has the human resources infrastructure and financial heft to figure out compliance and exploit loopholes in the insanely complex law. Small business has neither the infrastructure nor the financial resources. Small business owners will rely on the same cartels that are currently providing insurance for guidance, and of course the ObamaCare offerings will suit the financial needs of sickcare cartels.
Once small business owners see the costs of their options, some may opt to pay the penalties and others may follow the corporate strategy of turning each fulltime job into two part-time jobs to avoid paying for coverage or penalties, but many will choose instead to call it quits: either downsize to a one-person/one-household business with no employees at all, or sell/close the enterprise and escape the burdens.
What the lobbyists and attorneys who wrote the Obamacare monstrosity do not understand (because they have no exposure to or experience in the real economy) is the fragility of most small businesses: costs keep rising but revenues are stagnant. The mental and financial stresses keep rising, and ObamaCare does nothing to mitigate either source of stress.
The inside-the-Beltway types who crafted this mess have no idea of the pressures facing legitimate (non-black-market) business in America, corporate and small business alike.
ObamaCare offers even more incentives for Corporate America to offshore operations, and it provides powerful incentives to millions of marginal small businesses to shut down or shed all employees.
I am not alone in simply not wanting to waste the time, money and energy required to understand the new law and its various impacts on my business. We will cling to our already insanely expensive private healthcare insurance, one of the few that has been grandfathered in: new self-employed entrepreneurs won't be able to buy the absurdly costly policy we have--they will be offered a range of even worse deals, with higher costs and less coverage.
3. Perhaps most cruelly, the bronze level of ObamaCare--the "affordable" care--is a mirage, a simulacra of insurance rather than actual insurance. Bronze level ObamaCare features deductables of around $6,000. In other words, you have to spend $6,000 before your insurance kicks in.
In an economy in which two-thirds of all households live paycheck to paycheck, this is the equivalent of no insurance. High-income sickcare lobbyists and millionaire politicos may look at $6,000 as no big deal, but for households with little savings or credit, that might as well be $60,000.
4. As many others have pointed out, the income levels that divide receiving a Federal subsidy from not receiving a subsidy are begging to be gamed. If $62,000 is the line in the sand that qualifies your household for a hefty subsidy on health insurance, the incentives to adjust earnings to fall just below $62,000 (or whatever the number is for the locale and household size) are immense.
People respond to the incentives and disincentives they are presented with, perverse or otherwise. The lobbyists, toadies and apparatchiks who wrote and passed ObamaCare could not have stuffed the bill with more perverse incentives if they had set out with that as their primary goal.
The neutron bomb has gone off, unseen by politicos and the Elites who wrote the bill. It is already undercutting fulltime employment, and it will soon add momentum to the free-fall erosion of small business growth and employment.
The strip malls and office parks will still be standing; there just won't be many employees in them.
Of related interest:
About Your $3.16 a Day Healthcare Insurance Plan... (February 21, 2013) MirageCare
What If ObamaCare, Too Big To Fail Banks and the State Are All the Wrong Sized Unit?(February 25, 2013)
»
- 28393 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
insurance is a ponzi --- obama care is a ponzi-- govt spending on anything is a ponsi--- if you're trying to tell us that insurance (what it actually is) isn't a ponzi then you're selling it. It's the same shit--- bullshit on you.
You want a non-ponzi system-- then save for health costs down the road-- but first get rid of insurance (and gov't also because it forces you to buy insurance) both are obsolete concepts.
Risk-pooling is not the definition of a Ponzi scheme. If you actually believe that risk shouldn’t be measured and priced then this probably isn’t the best corner of the internet for you.
First, there are doctors who are going private and cash only and in the United States that might work out in the long run, unless the government makes it illegal to run your own medical practice.
Second, ACA is a tax and it will collapse the existing medical system and seriously hobble the economy.
Since we still have free elections maybe the new laws can be eliminated.
If the collapse comes then any discussions are moot and hopefully we return to constitutional goverenment without the taxation without representation, and without complexity.
Most docs I’ve spent time with in the last year are saying that they’ll go the concierge route first chance they get…often while their wives are praising Obama at the other end of the table.
Medical care was unbelievably screwed up and complex before Obama and now he’s squared that whole formula.
It’s a miracle that the US still has some of the best medical institutions, R&D and practitioners in the world –foreigners paying top $ helps- but this can’t last without a massive unwind or a complete bifurcation into a have/have-not delivery system.
HardlyZero...
What makes you think that we have "Free Elections"? We DO NOT.
When, not if but when, collapse comes, for what reason will you want "...to return to constitutional goverenment without the taxation without representation, and without complexity."?
It is utter insanity to return to a Model of Governance that DOES NOT WORK. If it had worked then we would not be in this PREDICAMENT in the first place. Repeating an Experiment and expecting a different result is INSANITY. It is a DENIAL OF REALITY.
Einstein was a very smart man. You ought to learn something from him...not the iconic E = mc2, which many will spout off, but very few actually understand.
I am sorry, but...THERE IS NO POLITICAL SOLUTION. NONE. NADA. ZIP. ZERO. Political Solutions do not exist. Predicaments have NO SOLUTIONS.
"Assuming this kind of insurance pays every penny of your bills over $6k if you get cancer, break you neck etc. - this is exactly what insurance is supposed to be: protection against rare, unexpected and expensive (in this case, medical) events."
No, because the insurance companies raise the premiums to match your medical costs even if you have cancer. Lots of people that had coverage that already had cancer or some other long term illness got their insurance premiums repriced to match their expenses. One Guy who had cancer saw his monthly premiums jump from about $1500 month to $23K a month ($276K per year). While ACA says they can't drop you, it doesn't say they have to freeze your premiums if you get sick. If you get sick they will simply increase the premiums. ACA is nothing more than gaurenteed profits for the insurance companies and removes all risk from them. You foot the entire bill of your medical costs. In additional virtually everyone in the nation will see premiums increase by 100% over the next two years. So its nothing more than a tax since ACA doesn't cover any risk. You pay the full price of all your medical expenses and the insurance premiums.
I know – it’s a shitshow- but in a properly regulated insurance market premium increase parameters would be explicit and binding in the original contract and not subject to the magic wand of Washington.
Some people lead high-risk lives and rarely get sick, others are born with serious health issues and are doomed (through no fault of their own) to either suffer/die or cost somebody/themselves a lot of money in medical bills their entire lives. Other people of sufficient means have never bothered with health insurance and then cry for mercy when they wish they had it. Regardless of what system you, me or anyone else thinks is best, society needs to honestly confront these kinds of issues and come to consensus on the right mix of personal responsibility, private charity and government welfare/control. Whatever happened in the run-up to/cram-down of Obamacare…that didn’t.
I don't think "society" needs to come to grips with it. Such complexity is not for the limited comprehension abilities of government. By that I'm not just calling government stupid, lthough they often are because there is little penalty for incompetence in government. No I mean what Hayek explained about the impossibility of any group of persons being able to grasp, process and develop policy in real time that would afford the best solutions. That isn't possible by the collective, only by the millions of relatively unfettered decision makers in the real world making choices. In other words, a free market. Givernment should only keep the rules understandable, nuetral, and enforced. But such a regime, while good for delivering treatment, is useless for fulfilling utopian ideas of personal redemption and power. Hence we get what we get.
Mercury, its not 100% coverage after the first $6K...try 70/30 after the $6k deductable is met.
And the truth is...if someone gets really sick and has to fork over the $6K plus 30%, they're actually covering the entire cost of delivering that healthcare.
I predict a massive increase in personal BK's before this problem is solved.
"Assuming this kind of insurance pays every penny of your bills over $6k (separate issue)..."
Looks like another exponential equation. Not going to end well.
Not sure I would call it a neutron bomb, as our economy has been juiced by credit for the last 30 years or so. Not like this is the cause of collapse.
We have built our own matrix on debt, credit an pulled forward demand. Majority of people today do nothing but move paper around or skim off the creation of credit and debt.
pods
< I produce.
< I move paper, skim, or idle (FIRE, .gov, retired, unemployed, disabled, trader, leech, student, etc)
"Just 1 in 7 U.S. workers is of normal weight without a chronic health problem."
Ho Lee Fuk. Sum Ting Wong.
That's terrifying.
We Tu Phat.
Bristol Myers Squibb is bedding with Sino Pharmaceuticals and they're pushing metformin like candy.
Oh wait! It pushes up insulin levels, just like candy. It must be candy!
No seriously, they're telling ALL of these skinny Chinese people that they're diobese. It's hysterical. They have like, one obese person out of a thousand.
This is precisely what we have been planning here for now for two full years.
The middle class in the West is being systematically destoyed by corruption and cronyism and it is not about to stop.
It cannot stop, as far as the deviants are in power are concerned, because to attempt to try to do will destroy many of them. They truly believe it can last as long as the middle classes an the SME's have to make a living, then they will forever be under their control.
After all, they surmise, whats your alternative.
Well we do have an alternative for SME's.
We offshore into a private corporation owned by the directors and owners on the US SME, whereby they can effectively outsource to thier own captive private outsourcing company.
It is and never wll be accounatble to the US authoritys in any way as it is entirely under a foreign jurisdiction.
This is where you can outsourse to your own private outsource company all the back office jobs, the non customer facing jobs and save an average of between 65 and 75 % of US costs.
Thats an average of $700,000 pa just to offshore 25 jobs. or another way if you believe your SME has a value of 5x P / E then it can add $3.5 million to valuation.
It effectivley removes the need to downsize to get under the obummer limit, it effectively helps you from needing to cut hours as much as you may do. It helps you retain the best staff to keep ypour business growing. and it saves you from bankruptcy if you are close to the wire.
It cuts cots dramaticaly and it provides a sheter and an offshor store of wealth.
Please see www.ukasiagroup.biz for more imformation.
Contact point is also there
This is serious, those SME's who fail to take action now will get truly hammered and only those making serious plansds now could survive if you already find business depressing.
We are also looking for smart people who can understand this and talk to SME's and in the process earn a very very high income.
Its time to take the fight to them
so ACA is boon to business---your business ---got it---sell that ACA with a work-a-round.
"8% VAT: Sickcare"
Why are you shooting so low? Are you a shill for Obamacare?!
Over.
The final nail in the middle class coffin. Has absolutely profound effects on housing, retail sales, and every other metric that drives and sustains an economy.
What will happen is people will drop their insurance....can´t afford it or do not want to....but they will still have accidents..and the government will force the Hospitals to treat them..soon Doctors will quit...no pay..and Hospitals will close...no profits....then millions with no healthcare..and people dying that should not die...they will try to fix it ...but it will be so far gone..it will be gone....we will no longer be the leaders in research as those doctors will have to go back to seeing patients and sewing up cuts and splinting broken arms as there will be a serious shortage of Doctors.....watch third world countries snap up Doctors leaving the practice and opening up clinics in foreign countries with better deals...Like Colombia....Health Tourism will become the norm...your Hip replacement will be done in Colombia now....pay cash..and walk away....with new hips of course...same with cancer treatments...sad to see the Democrats destroying the great healthcare we had...but they want it that way...they will still have their private hospitals to go to ...at our expense no less...the Elite do not play on our field...they have the posh private suites......caterred and all...
"Hospitals will close"
Perhaps. I think a lot of hospitals will close there ER's first since it will have the most negative drag on revenue. I would think that most hospitals probably have plans drafted to terminate ER services.
"watch third world countries snap up Doctors leaving the practice and opening up clinics...Like Colombia"
I don't think that will happen. Colombia and other third world nations are dangerous places to live and work especial for americans seen as easy prey for kidnapping-random or home invasions.
Some doctors will switch to private groups that don't accept insurance or the set up their practice as a group membership where you play a few thousand of year for membership. Others will quit the profession and do something else. Some will retire early.
bingo---you cant push rope--tell it to a gov't shill and they faint away.
For medical tourism, I prefer Greece. They came up with the Hippocratic Oath and I think they're still cheap now?
For medical tourism, I prefer Greece. They came up with the Hippocratic Oath and I think they're still cheap now?
The effects on our economy:
ObamaCare = Neutron bomb
TPP = Poison gas
QE+Taper = biological warfare
Drug war = concentration camps
Czars = drones
Holder = napalm
Pelosi = propaganda
...
All out war if you ask me.
Oh that Pelosi, she's so funny. Her STD prevention program in GAY San Francisco ended up with a RISE in STDs.
I think that ann barnhardts assessment is correct. He is essentially a dope addled imbecile. He's not a solitary intellectual, he's an imbecile who is kept from scrutiny by his handlers.
You know what occurred to me? I'll bet he doesn't even know his employers! I'll certainly bet he has never met David Rockefeller, and never will. I think this man actually believes that he is the "president of the United States."
He is certainly no intellectual - intellectuals don't need scripts. Yeah, he's an unwitting actor/performer, and he thinks there's an Oscar following his Nobel. His presidency is the strangest of spectacles, simultaneously fascinating and appalling.
Chauncey Gardener.
Obama set out to take Ameica down... Obamacare will do it...
What is the big surprise here. Pass a bill without reading it. Bribes and payoffs to pass it, cronys and supporters exempted or delayed participation (open ended invite to pay more bribes for more delay).. Billions of funds to be spent on coops to sell it and set up organizations to "sell" it. $634 million in a crony contract for a friend of Michelle's which is only half done and doesn't work and no one is going to jail? 5 million now lose insurance, 50-100 million more to follow... This was designed from day one to destroy the economy. repeal the law and impeach obama.. and get back to business...
it will bring the gov't down---that is not America---
Only an idiot could describe this grand fraud in such detail while claiming it is unseen to the elite. Would you PLEASE step away from the Kool-Aid and make the obvious connection?
Yea you wish you were a elite---looking up into the face of a anesthesiologist about to put you under in your special hospital suite for that plastic whatever who is not in the elete plan?? I don't thnk so--
the elite are clueless--
Auto_Centric? did a 19 year old write this? How stupid this has all become. Unregulate the insurance industry. Turn the justice departmnet loose on frivolus lawsuits and start jailing lawyers. Create a govt. sponsered policy for catastrophic ilness and we have a solution. Everything else is just BS
And screen all those that are disabled and working under the table. Institute a reward system for turning in the fakers.
jeez--more gov't layers of lawyers and cops-- why don't we all get gov't jobs--then the problem as most see it would be solved--right??
Naw despite the promises of equality, all totalitarian regimes are hyper fastidious about who is more powerful than whom. The Nazis and Soviets had jockeying departments led by underling scum that had various degrees of access and persuasion over the figurehead despot, so too did the Ottoman Viziers,etc. Usually the ideological murderers carry a lot of weight, plus those who understand and can manipulate Dear Leader (a very dangerous job, consider Beria in Soviet Russia, or Cranmer under Henry VIII). The almost daily squirmings of these toadies jockeying for power is itself an entire drama. The spoils, such as access to healthcare and being able to avoid having your wife raped, are doled out as commodities to those who have status. Nobodies are just that, trying to escape notice and can be destroyed at the pleasure of the masters.
From what I keep seeing about the deductibles in new policies, it appears most people are now being offered a government sponsored policy effectively for catastrophic illness, except the buyers are being charged for full coverage policies.
I have my Zerocare in the cart. When I crash into a 10 ton truck, I will just hit send from my iPhone as the Jaws of Life are ripping open the roof of my BMW.
But the Jews have the most educated doctors and best healthcare in the world!
E - thumb.
It is a bomb alright. But it is not intended to take down the economy per se. It is intended to take down the middle class. It is tax. It is progressively redistributive by design.
What it is to the economy is deflationary. So the FED will continue to pump, the wealth gap will widen further, and the equity markets will continue to rise in defiance of what most people feel is logical.
Something to be said about a society where infifrmity has become a jubilent source of profit.
Karl D over at Market Ticker is a trumped up little Hitler for sure. However, he's long been arguing that health care costs will doom the US economy. Folks, it's that old EXPONENTIAL at work again and we all know the famous quotef Albert Bartlett -
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function."
One KDs main points is how can it cost about 10 times as much today to have a baby in a Hospital as it did 30 years ago (inflation adjusted). It can't unless many many people are creaming it off.
Karl D is not a little Hitler, he is just very angry at the same things we are angry about.
When the Pentagon repays the 8.5 TRILLION thay can't account for its free sick care and a beer for each! and because the Pentagon will probably ramp up Opium production to pay off their debt, free herion for all too.
We're all living in a AhMerika... Coke-a-Cola, sometimes WAR. http://youtu.be/6unDcYBQSpQ
Fundamental change is upon us.
The mob demands to eat the foods that kill. They vote with their dollars and the food industry responds to their demands. People do not want to change their state of affairs. They actually enjoy the attention they get from the medical community regarding their chronic diseases. Their afflictions are their primary topics of conversation. Just like they want more debt they also want more drugs and operations. If they didn’t there would be a groundswell movement for change. I’ll bet 99+% of Zerohedge readers eat foods that kill. And what are they doing about it? Nothing.
The Atomic Bomb of the American Food System: http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/the_atomic_bomb_of_american_food.htm
Food Addictions: http://texasgrassfedbeef.com/food_addictions.htm
but, but, it's just so bland without a nice crust of MSG on the GMO wheat filler to enhance the flavor!
And don't you go cutting into Liberty Medicals profits. They're "Good People" and all, but you're liable to have Wilford Brimley show up and bust a cap in yo ass. Diabeetus or not.
Real capitalism (not crony-capitalism)
private business VS government
The private business provides better quality goods and service at a lower cost and still makes a profit.
So the consumer WINS because they pay less and get more and the business owner WINS because they make a profit.
NOT saying this is our current system - but (mostly) free market capitalism would in fact lower cost and improve care.
If you think medical care costs a lot now - just wait and see how much more it will be when the government makes it free.
Disposable income for the masses plummets. Small businesses close as a result.
The ACA is neither affordable or caring.
and obamacare is pushing deflation, (maybe Bernanke doesn't like Obama much either, (2% inflation target, not a chance in hell, and employment benchmarks for interest rates, no help there either) all the fed can do this time around is slow the deflationary crash. the real advice is to let the chips fall, wash out the excess and find a new starting point, [this is worrisome] but there is no starting point there is no economic recovery even if the fed did the right thing. its like heroin for the pain of a terminal disease, it will kill you too. there is no hope, thats the message, thanks Obama for reminding us
Yes, the ACA wil destroy small business in this country, along with the middle class and especially any donations to the opposing political parties. It may also have a component much more sinister. Once ALL political power is in the hands of the few laws and rights can be changed at will. No more Constitutional burdens. This is scary stuff.
Americans are stupid (the voting majority anyway). The gullible sheep are all wrapping chains around their own feet on the deck of a giant ship and getting the rest of us tangled in the mess. As soon as we hit some bad weather and a few sheep fall in, we are all going to get dragged in by the tangled chains.
Sickcare is unsustainable for a number of interlocking reasons: defensive medicine in response to a broken malpractice system;
Care to elaborate Charles? I hear this all the time, but yet no one wants to provide meaningful statistics nor any reasonable arguments for why the system is broken... this is nothing more than regurgitating MSM headlines.
Further, you're believing medical professionals over common sense. Ask yourself this question and see if you can figure out where this is leading... if a doctor "has" to practice defensive medicine, then does he make any money from the "additional" or "unnecessary" tests and procedures?
Aside from the fact that doctors have been lead astray from insurance providers... believing the lie that their med mal premiums are due to trigger happy plaintiffs' attorneys... nope, just part of all the other increasing expenses and the insurance companies know that medical professionals actually have the scratch to pay for the premiums... it's that simple.
Malpractice is an incredibly difficult standard to prove in court and any "tie" is going to go to the medical practitioner. If the case is not per se liability, e.g. the surgeon left a pair of gloves, scalpel, and kitchen sink in you after sewing you up that caused you untold problems before other medical professionals figured out what happened, then it's probably not going to be brought... this is because the standard to prove malpractice against a medical professional is VERY difficult...
Tort reform has been around for centuries (if not millenia)... For example, check out your state's constitution. There's probably a provision in there dealing with prohibiting the state legislature from putting limits to the award of damages. You want to know why this is in there? Well, I can say for Pennsylvania anyway (which in turn caused my state to do the same thing), which is that in the late 1800s, the railroads were sick of paying awards to people who were injured from rail cars. So, in all their infinite wisdom, they sought to limit the amount of damages that could be awarded for rail accidents and, with enough money, purchased the legislation. What happened? Rail accidents increased... the yokels got pissed the hell off... and the state decided to create a constitutional provision prohibiting the legislature from being bought again. Medical tort reform is no different. Again, this debate has been going on for centuries and the law has already accounted for not only the concept of compensatory damages, but punitive damages as well (SCOTUS, BMW). The only regulation that could possibly be left is a complete immunity for doctors from lawsuit... which is what they're really after.
People operate in the world of the lady that spilled mcdonalds coffee on her lap and the headlines of the large verdict, but fail to understand that the award was significantly reduced as well as the incentive it provided to the businesses to curb dangerous behavior (which was undeniably proven in that case).
I'll also posit a very simple theory to reduce medical costs... self pay. Businesses of all types are boxed in with capital/fixed costs to the old paradigm, previously supported by wages and production. If the revenue stream is threatened, then everyone fails due to debt. This is what they're fighting against... and it's like trying to push back the tide. They've been declared too big to fail and will be bailed out until a contrary determination is made or the currency dies.
..sad to see the Democrats destroying the great healthcare we had...
I made it that far into the comments before I realized how retarded average Americans are. Exactly what great healthcare did we have? Ranked about 30 in the world. Ten times as expensive per capita as the top five countries. Just fuck off and die.
When is the big collapse coming?... please give me a date.
Almost everyday the phony paper markets go up, up, up... and the tangible value, hard asset items go down, down, down.
Costs spiral if it is a rigged market so I think you have a rigged market myself. Now if you would open it up to free enterprise, no more protectionism the pressure would be on costs to fall. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
The cost base and cartel needed to be broken up before you attempted Obamacare what you did is gave those who could the ability to legislate a gravy train of income.
The medical racket is exempt from all anti trust, anti monopoly and anti gouging laws. Maybe what they need is more regulation, or at least more honest regulation.
Thx machoman, you make great points that tort is not the real problem. Several poster were claiming that law suits would be ACA's undiong. I have no legal background but I don't think its very easy to sue the federal gov. Do you have any info about that subject?
The doctor is always the target. Not insurance or the government. Yes fear of lawsuits is a driver of about 20 percent of care, greed about thirty percent, and only about 50 percent of the resources we use could provide medically sufficient care.
I may be willing to take a 1 out of a thousand chance something is cancer and ignore it, but doctors who see 2000 lung masses a year cannot take that chance. They would generate 3 or more lawsuits in five years, become uninsurable, and then be unable to work. Your malpractice insurance company will cancel youR coverage after 3 major claims in five years.
And the biggest contributors to the Democrat party are the lawyers. They know where their interest lies.
As a doctor I know that
Half the biopsies are unnecessary
Half or more of imaging studies are unnecessary
Half the lab tests are unnecessary.
At least a third of surgical procedures provide no real benefit and are thus unnecessary.
When i developed a nodule in my lung I consulted a pathologist not a dumbass primary care doctor or the equally dumbass surgeon type. Due to the type and location and my age she said leave it alone. In 15 years she has never seen one of those turn out cancerous but she examines and bills for three of them a week. She laughed and said clearly demarcated small lung masses in the 40 something age range have never been cancer in her 15 years as a pathologist. It is a granuloma of some kind. Surgeons prey on people's fear of cancer in order to profit from a lung biopsy when absolutely unnecessary
As a patient, I found out the hard way. When you do the right things, it works in your favor and shows up on that blood work too.
This is a prime blog.
I had to go to a primary doctor for a "recommendation". Primary care I go to knows he's only able to do so much- they're all pill pushers out in SoCal, but some are malicious pill pushers who leave you in pain without treatment. Others GOUGE. I call it a "mugging". Leave people in a lot of pain, take their money and don't fix them. So you can take their money again. That's a "mugging". No different than putting a knife to someone's neck and taking their wallet.
I'm actually going after the American Medical Association about it, just verbally now. As in "poisoning the well".
I'm a patient with no financial incentives, my hands are clean.
I also have a business model blue print ready to go in case healthcare fit hits the shan, boomers are aging and the demand for health isn't going to go away.
I don't understand why two different professionals wouldn't diagnose me with something I had, that showed up during the first exam unless I got a 2nd exam.
I'm a struggling young adult and I don't have deep pockets? I filed a complaint with the State of Califoria and one office told me never to go back there for treatment.
Diet and exercise is right. Also be very vigilante about the chemicals they're putting into our food. I ended up clearing a lot of my issue with vitamins and avoiding certain chemicals- my body needed them anyways.
The "Healthcare" system preys on fear. They also prey on pain. THEN they fuck WAY up.
Why is a mammogram $300? Why do women get seen at stage 4 breast cancer at a certain hospital?
Do these experts tell women how too much insulin (from xenoestrogens and other toxins) is the cause of their weight gain AND cancer risk?
NO.
THey blame the patients for being fat then make it their fault.
I know differently. After my experience, I only suggested that a sufferer of autoimmune disease clean out her diet to see what happens (there's NO side effects to cleaing out your diet).... guess what? She got rid of her pain entirely and she looks like a million bucks. AFter hearing of another one who died of Lupus in her 30's - sorry. The autoimmune business is valued at $100 BILLION! $100 billion won't bring a patient back from the grave.
The patients are quite the meal ticket. Meal tickets need an advocate. BEFORE we discuss socialized healthcare because I'm not paying for Bristol Myers squibb and Pfeizer's welfare.
There are not enough people willing to be advocates, or if there are they're being shushed. I found out my own issue, I wish more people would so we can have the answer (Vs. the problem) in the limelight.
"fROM THE WEBSITE:
In B.C., premiums are payable for MSP coverage and are based on family size and income.
From January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2012 monthly rates are $64.00 for one person, $116.00 for a family of two and $128.00 for a family of three or more. Effective January 1, 2013, monthly rates are $66.50 for one person, $120.50 for a family of two and $133.00 for a family of three or more."
Regular Premium Assistance offers five levels of subsidies. This is based on an individual's net income (or a couple's combined net income) for the preceding tax year, less deductions for age, family size, disability and any reported Universal Child Care Benefit and Registered Disability Savings Plan Income. The resulting amount is referred to as "adjusted net income". See the Monthly Premium Rates chart below for details of Regular Premium Assistance rates.
to me Obamacare is like a volkswagen, while everyone wanted to drive a muscle car in the 1960's, and there were miles of open highway. now everything is smaller and more crowded, and the cops watch you driving 7/24. you can keep your old GTO. right
murder by injection a great book oldie but goodie.
it deconstructs and shows the interlock connections between banking, government,insurance,hospitals and big corp pharma.
you are a cash cow you are fed shit you get ill you go too your doctor.
you are a rockerfella skank and rothschild whore.
a medical history lesson from eustace mullins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWkqSncY3fg
I still say the basic problem is the average American.......many of whom still consider Health Insurance to be a BENEFIT (ie. part of their wage package)....instead of INSURANCE. We've had decade after decade, of folks expecting to pay a small monthly fee for insurance....(with their employer picking up the rest of the tab)...and they get virtually all medical care for the cost of a copay.
Yes...the system is 'opaque' and true costs are hidden/not available to the patient..
Yes....Big Pharma and Diagnostic folks drive insane costs into the system.
but until we somehow get people to change their attitude towards what insurance is actually suposed to do...(protect against extreme losses)....as opposed to what they have grown up EXPECTING it to do....(cover virtually all medical costs).....this disucssion will continue to go in circles.
Charles keeps saying 'the people that crafted O'care don't understand'. Well Charles I don't think you understand that they INTENDED to crash the system so they understood very well.
It's strange that most people don't get this.
This whole thing is going to go down the tubes. From non participation. For the same reason why the government makes believe that they want to be humane and pass some sort of illegal immigration policy, they really are doing it because they know they can't deal with 20 million illegal immigrants. Laws become unenforceable when they require overwhelming resources. I think that most young people are going to flip a bird at Unkie Sam and it will mushroom because the gov. can only get the fine if there's any tax refund due. When people of all ages realize that nothing bad is happening to those ignoring the law (as the illegals have), they too will ignore it. Pass the popcorn.
Lysander Spooner argues thusly:
The payment of taxes, being compulsory, of course furnishes no evidence that any one voluntarily supports the Constitution.
It is true that the theory of our Constitution is, that all taxes are paid voluntarily; that our government is a mutual insurance company, voluntarily entered into by the people with each other; that each man makes a free and purely voluntary contract with all others who are parties to the Constitution, to pay so much money for so much protection, the same as he does with any other insurance company; and that he is just as free not to be protected, and not to pay any tax, as he is to pay a tax, and be protected.
But this theory of our government is wholly different from the practical fact. The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: Your money, or your life. And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat.
The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the road side, and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful.
The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He has not acquired impudence enough to profess to be merely a “protector,” and that he takes men’s money against their will, merely to enable him to “protect” those infatuated travellers, who feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his peculiar system of protection. He is too sensible a man to make such professions as these. Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful “sovereign,” on account of the “protection” he affords you. He does not keep “protecting” you, by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that; by robbing you of more money as often as he finds it for his interest or pleasure to do so; and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor, and an enemy to your country, and shooting you down without mercy, if you dispute his authority, or resist his demands. He is too much of a gentleman to be guilty of such impostures, and insults, and villanies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave.
The proceedings of those robbers and murderers, who call themselves “the government,” are directly the opposite of these of the single highwayman.
In the first place, they do not, like him, make themselves individually known; or, consequently, take upon themselves personally the responsibility of their acts. On the contrary, they secretly (by secret ballot) designate some one of their number to commit the robbery in their behalf, while they keep themselves practically concealed. They say to the person thus designated:
Go to A— B—, and say to him that “the government” has need of money to meet the expenses of protecting him and his property. If he presumes to say that he has never contracted with us to protect him, and that he wants none of our protection, say to him that that is our business, and not his; that we choose to protect him, whether he desires us to do so or not; and that we demand pay, too, for protecting him. If he dares to inquire who the individuals are, who have thus taken upon themselves the title of “the government,” and who assume to protect him, and demand payment of him, without his having ever made any contract with them, say to him that that, too, is our business, and not his; that we do not choose to make ourselves individually known to him; that we have secretly (by secret ballot) appointed you our agent to give him notice of our demands, and, if he complies with them, to give him, in our name, a receipt that will protect him against any similar demand for the present year. If he refuses to comply, seize and sell enough of his property to pay not only our demands, but all your own expenses and trouble beside. If he resists the seizure of his property, call upon the bystanders to help you (doubtless some of them will prove to be members of our band). If, in defending his property, he should kill any of our band who are assisting you, capture him at all hazards; charge him (in one of our courts) with murder, convict him, and hang him. If he should call upon his neighbors, or any others who, like him, may be disposed to resist our demands, and they should come in large numbers to his assistance, cry out that they are all rebels and traitors; that “our country” is in danger; call upon the commander of our hired murderers; tell him to quell the rebellion and “save the country,” cost what it may. Tell him to kill all who resist, though they should be hundreds of thousands; and thus strike terror into all others similarly disposed. See that the work of murder is thoroughly done, that we may have no further trouble of this kind hereafter. When these traitors shall have thus been taught our strength and our determination, they will be good loyal citizens for many years, and pay their taxes without a why or a wherefore.
It is under such compulsion as this that taxes, so called, are paid. And how much proof the payment of taxes affords, that the people consent to support “the government,” it needs no further argument to show.
Much of the concept of 'preventative care' is false. Doctors do not get 'annual exams'. Diet does not really influence much, except for excess caloric intake. Most alternative products remain unproven remedies as the cost of proving risk and benefit is too high for food supplements to bear.
While getting people to eat less and excercies more is a valiant concept, I do not believe that the medical system is the best way to deliver the message. In 40 years of medical practice I really do not think I have caused many to change their ways even though I am in good shape. People simply want the easy and reject the hard. To ask medicine to change human nature is probably a waste of funds.
For efficiency sake I think speciality care is best especially for severe acute and significant chronic diseases. Younger folks could do well simply reporting illness when it occurs for older people have thecare of a specialist can be the most efficient form of care.
the number one thing screwing up the system is the disconnect between the buyer and seller. The patient only vaguely fits into that equation.
You have a point except for the diet thing. What you eat is as important as how much you eat. A striking example is the experience of Denmark during WW1. Under the direction of Dr. Hindehede they switched to a mainly vegetarian diet and the death rate dropped to the lowest ever recorded in a European country. There are many other examples of better diet leading to improved health and longevity.
Bah, more obamascare. Yankees love to be scared...
There's nothing like live news casters. Watch this live U-Stream now!
http://www.infowars.com/dallas-police-plan-to-kidnap-alex-jones/
Frankly, I don't see this as a negative. We knew the house of cards would come down, if Obammerscare hastens the re-set, all the better. With the asshats in jail, or at least out of power, opportunity will once again be on the horizon...
One reason the US system is so screwed up and expensive, is that the doctors, hospitals, drug companies etc are exempt from the anti trust laws and other laws that prevent monopolies, collusion and gouging in other businesses.
So much for the idea that less government regulation is the answer to everything.
What you said will be overlooked by everyone but is the most important issue. Obamacare ignores it and is the worst of the lunacy of crony capitalism.
If i see the word "neutron" one more time i will set off a neutron bomb.....oh hell
Dear nsa/fbi/cia/dhs/dod....this is satire. Nazi fucks.
... this is the NSA & our filters do not recognize "satire"
stand by for knock on door.
Thermonuclear Warhead. San Diego, Tucson, Radiological Poisoning of Food Supply, Destruction of Long Beach Oil Refineries. Shooting down aircraft on approach at Lindbergh Field....(At 50 Feet above your head...Who could miss?)
Hmmm....Anything else that I can think about? I am certain that it will come to me.
I have been writing crap like this online...for YEARS...the past DECADE.
I NEVER get a visit from the Feds...EVER. (They must not like me...)
It makes me believe that all of that NSA Spying Bullshit...IS BULLSHIT...PROPAGANDA to MANIPULATE YOU.
If they have not busted this admitted, bragging PEDOPHILE in the following Video then it is OBVIOUS that they do not have their eyes out and their ears on. This video has been online...FOR OVER FIVE YEARS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKb5NXWi_B4
(In case you are reading this NSA Military Ignorance Fuckers...Go autofellate you spineless pedophile, child raper fucks!!! That means...Go suck your own cocks.)
Note I will still be here tommorow.
Oh no...the Drones...egads...
Domestic surveillance exists to protect the regime. While it may cover everyone, it is only used to either target/attack/discredit those who look as though they will actually take action that threatens the regime, or to identify evidence that can be used to blackmail/coopt people in politically and economically influential roles.
Looks like they figure you're in neither category Tom.
Have you gone across borders? Just curious.
health care is a universal human right
And you project that 'right' into government, which, as Nietzsche said, is the 'coldest of cold monsters'.
i don't care if govt. is providing it or the private sector. somehow, people need to find a way to deliver health care to everyone that doesn't bankrupt someone for trying to save their life, have a baby, undergo cancer treatment, etc.
european govt. institutions along with private sector entities have been able to do this for decades already and at lower cost than the american health care system.
I don't think the Canadian/British or other national health care systems will work in the states.
In National Health Care systems one of the major underpinnings of the system is that Patient X will always get treated ahead of Patient Y if they are more of a medical necessity. Even if Patient Y is rich and Patient X lives on the street. People accept that this is the case and will even be outraged if it looks like public officials jump the health queue. People (mostly) accept that there will be long lines for elective surgery.
This attitude does not seem to play well in the states. There seems to be anger at the thought of sharing resources or at the thought of someone who is poor/uninsured having access to the same surgeries and medical care as someone who is rich/insured. There is also deep distrust of the government being able to provide service for less money. I don't think any other world governments are more capable than the governments in the states but they've been doing healthcare longer and they have developed methods of finding huge money wasters.
The current US system (before obamacare) is: those without insurance or underinsured die as the result of treatable serious illnesses. Breaking Bad is a reality because the US system does not believe that all people should have access to equal insurance.
you're right. it's a cultural thing.
quite interesting observing all of this as an american living overseas for the past decade.
The "Breaking Bad" scenario is in fact not reality at all. As a public-school unionized teacher, the chemist fellow would likely have had a gold-plated medical plan. In fact, the plot did not rely very much on making meth to pay for medical care but rather on leaving a large pot of money to support his family after he was gone in a year or so.
Okay, I haven't watched the show I was just reacting to a reddit post. But I think my point stands. There are so many people that go into serious debt/bankruptcy because they can't afford medical services for stuff that is treatable, and then there are many who die in want of those same services.
All fat people should be fed to the pigs.