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Why The US Consumer Is About To be Crushed: The Obamacare Inflationary Deluge Arrives
For the past three years, the biggest argument supporters of Obamacare would trot out every single time when faced with opposition to the mandatory tax, would be that despite widespread predictions of soaring prices, US medical care service costs had remained low and even, on occasion, declined (we leave aside the lack of discussion about soaring deductibles which are recurring "one-time" charges incurred whenever anyone does need medical care, and whose weighted impact on overall medical outlays is dramatic).
A big reason for this delayed increase in prices is that many insurers were unable to gauge the full base-effect impact of Obamacare on their P&L: after all, effective implementation of Obamacare had been materially delayed thus preventing an apples to apples comparison of incurred fees versus revenues.
All that changed moments ago when core US inflation finally spiked the most since 2013 driven by a 0.7% monthly surge in medical care service costs: the highest since 2007!
What's far worse for the troubled US consumer, this is just the beginning. Because after finally digesting the true cost of Obamacare, any recent insurance prime hikes will seem like a walk in the park compared to what is coming.
According to the WSJ, key insurers in some states are proposing hefty rate boosts for plans sold under the federal health law.
Case in point:
- In New Mexico, market leader Health Care Service Corp. is asking for an average jump of 51.6% in premiums for 2016.
- In Tennessee, the biggest insurer BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, has requested an average 36.3% increase.
- In Maryland, market leader CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield wants to raise rates 30.4% across its products.
- In Oregon, the largest insurer Moda Health seeks an average boost of around 25%.
All of them cite high medical costs incurred by people newly enrolled under the Affordable Care Act.
The irony is that while the Obama administration "can ask insurers seeking increases of 10% or more to explain themselves, but cannot force them to cut rates. Rates will become final by the fall."
Why the explosion in costs? Simple: take on look at the IBB or any other biotech index, all of which have exploded in recent years as a result of one key thing: pushing prices of medicines ever higher. Now, finally, these soaring prices which have likewise resulted in soaring stock prices, are about to be funded by everyone else.
Insurers say their proposed rates reflect the revenue they need to pay claims, now that they have had time to analyze their experience with the law’s requirement that they offer the same rates to everyone—regardless of medical history.
Health-cost growth has slowed to historic lows in recent years, a fact consumer groups are expected to bring up during rate-review debates. Insurers say they face significant pent-up demand for health care from the newly enrolled, including for expensive drugs.
“This year, health plans have a full year of claims data to understand the health needs of the [health insurance] exchange population, and these enrollees are generally older and often managing multiple chronic conditions,” said Clare Krusing, a spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group. “Premiums reflect the rising cost of providing care to individuals and families, and the explosion in prescription and specialty drug prices is a significant factor.”
David Axene, a fellow at the Society of Actuaries, said some insurers were trying to catch up with the impact of drugs such as Sovaldi, a pricey pill that is first in a new generation of hepatitis C therapies.
Now Sovaldi has been great news for one group of consumers: those who were long the stock of drug maker Gilead. Alas, now the time has come to pay the piper. And while Sovaldi's cost at $1,000 per pill and $84,000 for a typical 12-week course of treatment, has been a goldmine for GILD, the piper's invoice will be massive.
Who pays it? Why everyone dear America. That's the magic of socialized medicine the Obamcare tax, which means everyone has to chip in for the healthcare of the few. Meanwhile, GILD shareholders are laughing all the way to the bank.
As a result, expect Obamacare premiums, which are about to spike across the board virtually everywhere, to become a key talking point:
Insurance premiums have become a top issue for consumers and politicians as they evaluate how well the law is working. Obama administration officials weathered a storm as some younger, healthier consumers saw their premiums jump when the law rolled out, but were also able to point to modest premiums overall as insurers focused on other ways to keep costs down, such as narrow provider networks.
For 2015 insurance plans, when insurers had only a little information about the health of their new customers, big insurers tended to make increases of less than 10%, while smaller insurers tried offering lower rates to build market share.
Since the insurers have now had a chance to evaluate the impact of Obama's landmark tax on the top- and bottom-line, they have decided that they will need to charge the mandatorily insured Americans more. Much more. After all, it's not like Americans have much of a choice to say no to a "mandatory" tax.
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, CareFirst in Maryland and Moda in Oregon all said high medical claims from plans they sold over insurance exchanges spurred their rate-increase requests.
The Tennessee insurer said it lost $141 million from exchange-sold plans, stemming largely from a small number of sick enrollees. “Our filing is planned to allow us to operate on at least a break-even basis for these plans, meaning that the rate would cover only medical services and expenses—with no profit margin for 2016,” said spokeswoman Mary Danielson. The plan’s lowest monthly premium for a midrange, or “silver,” plan for a 40-year-old nonsmoker in Nashville would rise to $287 in 2016 from $220.
* * *
Moda Health said that with more than 100,000 individual members, it had the best data “on the care actually being received by these Oregonians. Our proposed rates reflect that.”
Under Moda’s proposal, a 40-year-old nonsmoker in Salem would pay $296 a month in 2016 for a silver plan, up from $245 a month this year. “It is a balance,” said Oregon Insurance Commissioner Laura Cali of her rate-review process.
But wasn't the Affordable Care Act supposed to make healthcare prices more, well, a?. Well no, as we have explained time and again, most recently last summer.
But the biggest irony: just as Obamacare was the primary reason for the US Q3 GDP surge to 5%, as we explained last December, fooling many pundits into believing the US economy was finally in a self-sustaining liftoff mode...
... so this year it will be up to Obamacare to single-handedly pump up core CPI inflation - that biggest missing link from the Fed's "successful monetary policy" checklist.
As for US consumers? Why, they are about to get the short end of the stick again, as any and all "gas savings" now and in the future, will be once again spent on, you guessed it, health insurance.
The problem with that being that unless oil crashes again, there are no gas-savings to be had. Which means one thing: the only thing crushed yet again will be the US consumer, that 70% component of US GDP.
But don't worry: when the US economy slows down to a crawl once more, and posts a negative GDP print this time during the summer, there will be a double seasonal adjustment for that.
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Bah! It's be fine. You'll see.
...It's all free if you have an EBT card or an illegal alien.
Real democracy at work.
When the ultimate plan was always single payer federal system, the plan is right on track. Hopefully, the plan pulls an Amtrak (too soon?) before reaching its destination.
Obamacare: The Hidden Agenda | SOTN: Alternative News & Commentary
You didn't think it was just going to be "the tip" did you?
lololool.
Karl Denniger had this up recently:
http://www.newsweek.com/how-keep-down-sky-high-hospital-bills-dont-pay-3...
Basically a service that writes down hospital bills and appears to be very successful doing it - because the hospitals, in order to challenge, would have to go to court and prove out their costs.
That said, after getting charged 1k for a routine physical, I quit going to the doctor for anything other than emergiences (e.g. I cut my hand wide open a year or two ago). They can kiss my ass! If I die, then fuck it, I die.
Regards,
Cooter
Wait we actually have to pay for all of the new services the ACA provides?! This was not part of the deal Obama!
This is exactly why I urge congress to mandate an extra 20 days' public holiday per year. This will increase the leisure time of all permanent employees without lowering their incomes or damaging their career prospects. Studies show that employees are far more productive when they are well rested, so this bill should have a positive effect on worker productivity. Many Americans will also use this time to go shopping and spend their hard-earned wages, thereby boosting the economy. It's a win-win for everybody. Economics doesn't have to be complicated - simple policies like this can solve our problems. We just have to have the courage to implement them.
Sounds good to me. Where do I sign the petition? Can we suggest 30 extra days though? I ususally like to rest after a vacation. You know how exhausting they can be. better than 30, lets make it 40. No need to be so conservative.
Why half ass at 30 days? I want 90.
No MORE CLINTONS
No MORE BUSHs
16 moar years! 16 moar years!
FSA, 365 1/4 days off w free everything (no need to list the programs if one is disadvantaged).
WTf MDB, free everything distributed fairly of course, just transfere the money or equiv monthly.
like being wealthy with no labor output cept to get the things that are free. i would go so far as to say free delivery, food and all. nurses make house calls - right?
How about one week on and one week off
MDB is a conservative ?
Now the world is really messed up! Squirrels chasing dogs et al.
Well, we're not quite sure what he is, but if you think of him as being a conservative who pretends to be a liberal, you're in the ballpark. He's the most down-voted funny-ass troll on the board. Most people don't "get" him and assume he's serious.
If you don't like his stuff please realize the alternative trolls are guys like Satoshi. So, like, think carefully before answering.
It's always cracked me up, especially in the early days of the Hedge, how many people MDB would suck in. I could practically see them frothing at their mouth as they pounded out a response on their keyboard.
Hey great idea!! While everybody is at home on their extra 20 days off they can make like $7000 / month working part-time over the internet!!! Holey Fruck buddy they should make you a Congressman, I think you are made of the right stuff.
sarc? All the extra drinking and partying will clog the hospitals.
So basically everything Obozocare is not,
"guided by principles of transaparent pricing, objectivity, and fair reimbursement practices"
I tend to agree Cooter. I have had some issues in the last few months that required things like MRI and ultrasound proceedures. I have been paying cash at the time of service and it is amazing how much less it costs than the full bore insured price is. For instance an MRI that would bill at $3200 cost me only (cough cough) $1250. Obviously the provider is still making a profit at that price so the difference is attributable to the expense of dealing with the insurance companies. Savings for paying cash seem to range from 20-60% with the larger discounts coming with the more expensive procedures. I'm in about $5000 total out of pocket which is still less than the $6k deductable that I had with my last policy. I lost my insurance last November and about the time I was going to replace it with a catastophic policy Anthem, who I had previously got hacked so I didn't go ahead with a purchase of a new policy. So bottom line is, with the deductable and the cost of yearly premiums I'm ahead of the game unless the bills get over $20k or so. And there is always the "On a long enough timeline..." thing. So screw 'em. I guess I gamble that I won't have the disaster health problem that cleans me out instead of being bled out over time.
This is one of those things that looks very different with longer timelines. Modern medicine isn't really good at much other than prescribing pills and surgery. And once they start you on the pills, there are always side effects, which leads to more pills - it becomes circular. It wasn't log ago that anit-biotics were discovered and these ass hats were lobotomizing people.
No one lives forever, so to me the game is simply staying as healthy as possible, while enjoying life, and hope for the best. If I had a serious problem, I would take care of it, but I feel docs today just go fishing for a reason to write scripts. They run a huge panel of tests, say "OMG, your XYZ is out of tolerance. You need ABC." This is on the back of the lack of conversation about booze, smoking, physical activity, eating habits, and pretty much everything else that has MORE influence on health.
A perfect example is that my wife has fibroids. I have no doubt if the gyno got ahold of her they would have scripted tons of meds and ended up with surgery. Instead we did a bit of reading and found out that some foods have "fake estrogen" which when dosed up, starves the fibroid tissue of the estrogen it needs to grow/maintain its size. We bought huge bulk bags of organic soybean and make our own soy milk now. Wife goes through half a quart every day. It took the better part of a year, but she is basically normal now. No meds. No surgery. And she has had this problem for a decade. Now it's gone!
Can't turn a profit on that shit - so no sense in mentioning it, right?
This is one of a million examples of (1) eat a good, balanced diet, (2) get some exercise, and (3) live in a relatively clean environment where those three items fix most health problems in so far as they are fixable.
Regards,
Cooter
Exactly! We seem to be on the same page. I was turned on to this book by a friend and by changing only my diet I have lost ~25 lbs over the last 10 months. I feel great.
http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Health-Diet-Regain-Weight/dp/1451699158/re...
I find there are so many diet books, I have a hard time sorting them out. Common sense dictates they can't all be right. Often times I think they are just monetizing the desire of people to be healthier (so I don't trust any of them). It may be written by an MD, but they never put their GPA on there either do they?
Hi, I am Dr Crazy Cooter, M.D. GPA 2.2, you should write me a big check for my advice (and buy my book). There are a lot of docs out there that barely graduated.
Anyway, I gave up trying to get an inside track with nutrious by reading diet books. Diet implies temporary, so I settled on lifestyle instead. I still like my beer, but I eat very high quality foods and we do almost all our own cooking at home. We don't have chickens, but I hope to make a solid run at stocking all our fish for a year this season. I figure if I eat like my ancestors, then I am probably donig the best I can, since that is what my genes survived on/were selected. No guarantee, since there is enough random through procreation, but it is likely the best odds I got! :-)
Regards,
Cooter
I agree with that but this book doesn't advocate a "diet" so much as a lifestyle change. You are what you eat so to speak. It is basically changing from a high carb diet that most Americans eat to more of a paleo diet that aligns with simpler foods. Stay away from sugar and cereal grains that change to sugar after consumption which spikes insulin levels. Eat more meat and vegetables. It isn't a deprivation diet as much as just getting back to what humans used to eat before the agricultural industrial revolution.
We still eat carbs (wife makes bread at home usually - and I love potatoes and rice) it isn't the center of anything we eat. Most of our meals are a wide range of veggies, chicken, and salmon. Wife uses tofu a lot more often now too. We work very hard to avoid processed anything!
Based on your comments, I agree with the premise of the book.
Tegards,
Cooter
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/170-scientific-reasons-to-lose-th...
Decades ago, my mom went to a brand new money hungry doctor who was hell bent on pegging everyone who walked thru his door with cancer. She was also a nurse who occassionally worked in the same office. He examined her, made mention of her enlarged uterus and wanted to cut it out. She said no. His reply was, "But, what if it's caaaancer?" She said,"I've had 5 kids so, of course, it's enlarged." That same doctor is now the regional director of the Hospice (death industry). Mom never did get caaaancer and she never returned to that schmuck. That BS scare tactic probably worked on 9 out 10 of his female patients.
Supplements are cheap and they work. Doctors are greedy and dangerous.
Based upon my reading of the standard contracts between service providers and the insurance companies, negotiating cash prices cheaper than the rate you charge insurance may be prohibited. The wording is generally something like, "you may charge insurance the lesser of what you charge patients without insurance or our stated allowed amount for any billing code." There are a few exceptions, the most notable being a sliding fee scale based upon income (to help ensure that medical services are available to all) and, although not an exception, you can effectively charge people less if you make a good faith attempt to collect and the patient fails to pay, then offer a discount.
What you are describing doesn't appear to fit any exception, but I believe it is still incredibly common. Essentially, every service provider makes their "standard rate" just above the highest reimbursement rate for insurance... so as to not leave any money on the table. The problem with this rate is that very few could ever pay it out of pocket.
Despite widespread use, there really isn't a practical way the insurance companies can prove your standard rate for a service without first suing you and conducting discovery... where HIPPA will pose an initial hurdle, but then you'll be required to redact all the patient identifying information and supply it anyway. Then recoupment! Given it's a breach of contract case, the fear of losing attorneys fees in this scenario keeps insurance companies from suing in the dark.
But, this goes back to my general thesis, which is that there is widespread fraud in the medical services industry... I dare say even worse than wallstreet.
It pretty much boils down to the fact that the medical industry lobby outnumbers congress by 5 to 1. They are buying them with campaign contributions and they write laws that grant monopoly priviledges. So much for representative government.
If one can't negotiate lower bills, then stay away from them altogether(my only exceptions would be stitches or bone set). Even if you survive, they will take everything, by design. Better to take your chances than to become homeless or to make the family homeless.
Why the angst over astronomic rates?
Hey, it's only money.
We'll just print some more.
Rama Rama Ding Dong.
Perhaps some can explain to me:
ACA forces high deductables and already had higher premiums. I would believe that the combination of these two high costs would reduce the number of people seeking treatment (Just like CrazyCooter). Therefore I would presume that Insurance outlays would have decreased since fewer people would be seeking medical treatment. I also see that Hospitals and Clinics have been cutting staff as the number of people seeking treatment has declined. My question is how is that insurance companies are experiencing rising costs? Or this this really just to increase profits and has nothing to do with actual rising insurance outlays?
Thanks in advance
I am not as well read on this subject as I should be ... but ...
People have a choice (1) pay a fine, or (2) get insurance. If the fine is less than the cheapest insurance (someone got numbers for your area/state/market?), folks will just pay the fine and go on a cash basis. If you are healthy, but need routine type stuff, the deductibles keep you from actually claiming a benefit. However, if you are completely fubar, you blow through the deductible in a month and suck the teat for the next eleven.
So, healthy people are bailing out of the system or not using benefits (despite paying for them), but the sick people are sucking up all the resources (and then some).
Think of it as going into an auto insurance car pool where everyone but you bought their insurance when the bar closed at 2am. You have a perfect 20 year driving record. What do you think your rates look like?
If our demographics were not so jacked up, I would say that HEALTH CARE is a bubble. But there may come a time when the systems by which the bloated prices are paid breaks down and that may force a very serious crash in rates that docs and hospitals can actually COLLECT.
One last comment.
Health "insurance" is not really insurance. That is new speak. Insurance is calculating the risk of an event across a pool of actors, valuing the loss associated with that risk. and distributing the loss (plus a small profit) across the pool of actors. Auto insurance is a great example of insurance.
Health insurance isn't insurance when EVERYONE gets sick (which they eventually do in old age). It is a different model. Mentally think of it as "health care wealth redistribution" and you will have a better anchor when thinking about its associated problems.
Regards,
Cooter
Here is the thing, I believe the majority of sick people are covered under Medicare/Medicaid not ACA. So Unless Insurance Companies are now paying for Medicare/Medicaid expenses, I don't see where the money they are collecting in Premiums is going to.
"Health "insurance" is not really insurance"
Yes I know it's now a tax. As soon as your yearly medical expenses exceed the deductable+premium collected, they raise your premiums to match your medical costs. So since there are still a very number of people paying the Health insurance TAX, and those that are sick, are forced to pay for their total medical expendures, I still fail to understand were the money is going.
Well, before O'Care, the money was going to the con artists in the cancer treatment and drug industry. So, I imagine they will engineer price increases to take a majority of that money. The Ins. Co's should show some very profitable quarters during the lag time. HUM is up 9X's since the anointed one went into his puppetship.
Insurance generally dictates the reimbursement rates for services... so, the costs for a particular service are not experiencing any material increase. If there are increases in reimbursement outlays, I suspect it would have to be from the number of services provided, not the cost per service increasing.
No kidding. They just add expenses on your way out. Like a restaurant refusing to let you leave until you've purchased a $100 desert from them, too. I see umpteen local obits with the phrase "after a 'X number of years' courageous battle with cancer". People are more than happy to spend someone else's cash on their useless chemo. Insurance was already a fraud, before Obama's tax scheme started. O'care is just like the late 90's tech bubble. Pouring gas on the fire of fraud.
Obamacare: The Hidden Agenda
Open immigration in a welfare state.
Brace for impact.
OBAMACARE: Regulators in some states to raise their rates by more than 50 percent next year.
The operation is a success!
The patient died as expected.
Bonus time!
Seriously - We all just voted for a pay increase. We can afford this now. Everything is good.
The signature itself is very frightening; it's the mark of the deeply in-secure, hopeless, non-producer; a person reduced to saying "hey, look at me, I'm special". It's the very modern signature of a Trayon La Jones; a useless eater, a non-member of the adult social contract. It made me shudder to be reminded that this creature is our "President". Go look up John Hancock's signature; it used to appear in insurance company advertisements; one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, it became a name for a signature in modern American Language, "put your john hancock right there"; what you'll find is copper plate; hand-writting; a simple statement of the person's name; their deeds do the talking not the decoration. Of course, here there's nothing but decoration. What a tradgedy.
Hopey McChange rides again.
"All that changed moments ago when core US inflation finally spiked the most since 2013 driven by a 0.7% monthly surge in medical care service costs: the highest since 2007!"
Highest since Lehman.
Lehman was 2008
That would make them still around in 2007 would it not? Therefore the statement holds true.
Reminds me of the conversation between Fletch and the doctor.
"Oh, so you know he died?"
"Yes, his death was very sudden."
"But he had cancer for years, he spent the last 6 months of his life in the hospital."
"Yes, but I mean at the end. At the very end. When he actually died. It was very sudden."
Two Bs? No just one, B-A-B-A-R. But that's two. I thought you meant right next to each other.
You using the whole fist, Doc?
CPI as an accurate gauge on rising health care costs and inflation in general?
Really? I thought that propaganda tool was smashed to bits 5 or 6 years ago?
You people will always complain about free health care.
It's like the free item you get when you ORDER NOW! (s&h not included)
What do you mean, YOU PEOPLE?!
Hmmm, something seems out of whack with this story, the inflation trend seems to be on a downward path since 2011
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
We inflated some folks.
Yep, nooooooobody saw this coming.
I, for one, an shocked. My last three years of comments on the subject here notwithstanding.
Hey, look on the bright side. It may be a financial disaster, but at least everyone is insured and receiving much higher quality heathcare than they were before Obamacare.
These things used to drive me insane. Now that I have arrived life is much better.
just shocking
The corporatocracy must be fed! They need your blood money and now!
Surely you can afford a $400/month premium and a $6,000 deductible?
Keep driving that 1995 Chevy Impala, your mechanic needs to make a living too!
Better yet, do what .gov does and go into massive debt! Escape velocity almost here!
Can you feel it!?!?
Really, all you have to do is get a government job, and problem is solved. You get great pay, awesome benfits, and get to look down upon the plebs and tell them what to do. And with a little luck and some good positioning, you end up making a fortune shaking people down, taking bribes, and influence peddling.
The slow down in the economy will be blamed on hot summer weather... ^^ . . .
then
Cold winter days
then
a high pollen spring season
then
an asteroid hitting the planet.
"Health care" SIC costs and Tuition at colleges BOTH skyrocketed the last couple of decades. And what is so interesting is that the overwhelming majority of those 2 entities who gained so much from this are ALL hardcore Demonrat voters. Now granted, the GOP is a FAKE OPPOSITION, but for IN YOUR FACE Democratic agenda I find it so ironic that these MONEY MAKERS all are on the team that DESTROYED America. They are not the ARCHITECTS of the destruction but MORE than willing tools.
This is a free PDF download that explains the American economic situation and capitalism's interest on loans, THE SUMERIAN SWINDLE, best book I've ever read on the subject:
http://www.bamboo-delight.com/download/Sumerian_Swindle_v1.pdf
Meanwhile the People's Republic of Kalifornia is putting limits on prescription coverage because they are blowing up their plans....
The Republic of Kalifornia is a dying state. But hey we have $15 minimum wage in SF and LA. (funny and yet we are being told the local economy is doing great, so why the need to bump wages?)
The Republic of Kalifornia is a dying state. But hey we have $15 minimum wage in SF and LA. (funny and yet we are being told the local economy is doing great, so why the need to bump wages?)
really wish nail gun dreams to every human involved with passing that unACA
I was thinking guillotines, but the end result is the same.
It's been pointed out that Obama's signature looks like an ejaculating penis. You be the judge:
http://ak-hdl.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2010/6/17/11/obama...
When you're in the process of getting bukkake'd by the criminal oligarchy, everything looks like an ejaculating penis
The man cannot put pen to paper without drawing the shape of a penis.
https://youtu.be/ikaqYpGZT64
Obama's signature...
What stands out to me are the only legible letters B and O. Wasn't Right Guard supposed to control that offensive odor?
Hai Karate
Obongo is a puppet, here are the puppet masters:
Christopher Bollyn, 06 November 2008
Great piece. Welcome to the cabal.
We need a government-sponsored enterprise to provide low interest loans to people so they can afford to buy health insurance and fund deductibles and co-pays.
Sort of a Sallie Mae for medical related stuff. They can do it as a private - public partnership by teaming up with the Cash Advance & Title Loan companies.
You can set up the repayment schedule based on income, that for many will be ZERO per month. Also allow people to borrow more than they need for medical stuff so they can cover the cost of non medical things like spring break, food, rent, car payments and liquor.
This directly affects me. Increases in the cost of the premiums my employer pays has lead to sub-inflation average salary increases for going on 5 years now, and it looks like it will continue forever.
So let me get this straight:"The hepatitis C virus is a bloodborne virus and the most common modes of infection are through unsafe injection practices; inadequate sterilization of medical equipment in some health-care settings; and unscreened blood and blood products."
and therefore my low to no risk co-workers and I pick up part of the tab for an $85K per cycle cure? As I take my nauseating fist full of anti-oxidants and nutraceuticals every day (I pay for myself), and work out to near exhaustion to minimize, with the goal of eliminating, my interaction with the sick care industry, I pull a wagon full of sickos. This pisses me off and acts to harden my libertarian views.
You would feel MUCH sicker if you really knew where your hard-earned tax dollars went...
I'm pretty sure the miracle cure for Hep-C is being sold to State prison systems, California for sure.. after all most houses have a pretty high rate due to non authorized activities like tattooing and questionable sexual practices.
..how many people are choosing a short stay in the pen to get some nagging med issues cleaned up?
We have health insurance, but we might as well not since we basically pay everything now plus hundreds every paycheck. Max out of pocket is enormous... I think after we reach a dollar amt the insurance kicks in 50% or so up to the max...its all shit. Its catastrophic in my opinion. If i need open heart surgery, sure..but i'll still need to come up with a large chunk of change. I wish i lived closer to Mexico or Cuba.
Yeah, the next time I hear somebody say USSA has "the best health care in the world" somebosy is gonna land in a hospital. We've had Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Delta Dental practically our whole lives. I avoid the dr. office like the plague with years before any type of visit. A fucking tick bit me so I went in and got ABX. Fucking generic Doryx, (doxycicline with a time release coating) is $1100 for 2 weeks worth. WTF is that? I said no way and got some w/o the coating and it was still $275!
Before it went generic you could buy the EXACT same stuff for aquarium FISH @$25 per 100! What a rip off. I told this calmly to the pharmacist and everybody in line with me starting sharing ripoff stories.
My grandmother's motto was the last place you want to be, especially if you're sick, is a hospital. She lived to be almost 100. I hope all these ripoff motherfuckers burn in hell because nobody EVER get's punished on this earth.
Going to a self pay system will work miracles for the price of medical services and prescriptions. The numbers are astronomical because the person receiving them is never the person who is supposed to pay. I suspect the new higher deductible plans are changing that a bit, but the reality is that most people are fucking idiots and don't even contemplate voting with their feet.
PS, the fact that it may be costly has nothing to do with whether we have the best health care in the world...
My 26 year daughter had a major medical issue - she almost died - but has since made a full recovery.
She spent 21 days in the hospital - 18 of which were in ICU.
The hospital bill was $540,000. Other bills not included in the hospital bill added another $50K.
Her insurance has a $6K max out of pocket - she had never come close to exceeding this amount before.
She has always been a saver - has a nice nest egg built up - especially considering her age.
If she did not have insurance she would have lost it all.
The reason you have health insurance is to protect what you already have -
If you have nothing - and get a $600K medical bill you tell them you can't pay -
If you have a few hundred thousand of net worth you get creamed.
That's why I carry a second ID with the name Miguel Ramirez.
Mine says Edward Snowden, hospitals provide topnotch care free of charge in anticipation of millions in reward $$$.
"Market leader" == statewide monopoly.
remember hillary care would put doctors in jail for accepting any payments other than from the federal government. she is still an idiot.
Medicaid never looked so good...!!
And the perverse (dis)incentive parade marches on.
I have never been so disinclined to make an honest living before...
Before you thrash me with downvotes, please keep in mind that I have spent 20 years of my life as a tax donkey, paying well over $1mln over the past 10 years or so.
I am just saying that the system is so broken that it just isn't worth the hassle at some point.
Joe, 2014 was the first year since I was 13 that my reported net income was negative.
I'm in your camp...I've paid more than $1.7M in taxes since 2001.
Granted I've saved plenty, but I've never been less motivated to contribute.
Everything is awesome !
A healthcare system designed by medical insurance companies works fine for whom? Take a guess. It ain't you and me.
question is: if you had the choice between this corporatocratic solution and let's say the British National Solution...
(careful, loaded question, may contain... gasp!... socialism. or national conservativism) / (careful, loaded question, the second is way cheaper then the first)
Oh really? How do you know it's cheaper? Performing accurate cost accounting (do you know the first thing about it?) is difficult enough to do in a free-enterprise business. Given that Government budgets are impenetrable, and government "accounting" is nonexistent, there's no way to know. One thing we CAN measure is taxation and income levels, and we know for a fact that British pay checks (non banker of course) are notoriously limp, and British taxes are absurdly high.
Take your socialist bullshit and shove it up your ass.
Most of the savings is from letting sick people die instead of treating them.
I actually think in some cases this is a good idea -
My mom died from bone cancer - the last few months of her life was mostly in and out of the hospital fighting a battle that everyone knew was not possible to win.
I bet in the last 6 months of her life - more was spent on medical care than the other 68 years.
My wife and i kid(?) that when we get really old we're going to dispose of our own bodies and fling ourselves down the ditch at Coker Creek so the bears eat us. At that point you're just considered a jackpot commodity by the sick care leeches. Quality of life does not matter, it's just an inhumane final insult for obsene profit.
Ah, yes...the old "AIDS is better than cancer" defense.
The healthcare system before Obamacare was designed by the medical insurance companies too and, while not perfect, was a lot better -- and cheaper -- than this abomination. Let's put blame where it truly belongs: Without .gov to enable it and set it into motion, Obamacare would not exist.
Socialism, communism, fascism, I don't know what the fuck to call it but there's a definite symbiosis going on. The giant companies turn everything into MAX ripoff and the gov scums make it a crime if you don't give them all your money.
It's global elite Technocracy, been in the works for nearly a century. China is the first prototype, uber techno 1984. Can't put lipstick on it, it's plain ugly.
Scientific society (H.G. Well, Huxley, et al) ---- Technocracy (Scott and Hubbert) ---- Technotronic Era (Brzezinski) --- ETC.
Cloward Piven bitchez...
deadbeats don't have to pay jack and that's who gits all the free bammy phones too
You can thank Obama for higher medical costs, but don't forget to thank Bush for making $0.02 worth of medication fetch $100 at your local pharmacy.
The counterfeiting monopoly at the Fed wanted inflation to make it look like the economy was actually growing, so it's all good news.
You know frankly I'm not sure who is more arrogant:
The government for foisting this disaster of socialized medicine on the people (without even reading the law first).
Excuse: The people asked for it (even though they were lied to about what they were getting).
The insurance companies, for using Obamacare as an excuse to raise premiums at will while not pushing back on costs, because it is cheaper in the short run.
Excuse: We have to guard the interests of our stockholders, even though the profits all get skimmed off in executive salaries - executives that are often hired on a who-you-know basis, rather than merit.
The hospitals for gaming the system by pushing unnecessary procedures and thereby engaging in Medicare and Medicaid fraud.
Excuse: If we don't do these procedures we could get sued by patients if something goes wrong.
The malpractice attorneys for taking frivolous cases and driving the cost of health care up.
Excuse: If we don't do this there will be no check on malpractice in the medical profession.
The doctors who would rather play golf and "specialize at twice the rate", allowing third world incompetent doctors to cover the emergency room and off-hours services.
Excuse: We're special, we're doctors - and don't forget all the tuition we paid for medical education - most of which was heavily subsidized by the taxpayer anyway.
Have you ever seen such a daisy-chain of fraud, finger pointing and blame transfer?
With this level of incompetence and fraud in the health care industry at all levels, no wonder the consumer is being screwed.
It is to the point where this system will collapse; it is only a matter of time.
If this happens, everyone associated with this industry will be at fault, and they will deserve what they get!
Or maybe, someone could realize that to control a man's health (and thus health "insurance") is so complex and rife with unintended consequences, that the only option is -- as Reagan warned -- to control EVERY ASPECT OF LIFE.
The system will NOT collapse. See: the United Kingdom. Their socialized medical system is a house of cards that can be knocked over with a mouse fart, but everyone wants to continue to prop it up with higher taxes and more social control. It's the United States in about 10 years. The only thing that will stop it is large-scale war.
There is looting to be done! Don't hate the player, hate the game...hmmm...I see the game is what you hate...nevermind.
That's a description of the lower tier of N-dimensional chess. At the top it's still Problem, Reaction, Solution.
Most problems are not truly organic. It's creative destruction, collapse and chaos were designed as eventual outcomes.
That's a description of the lower tier of N-dimensional chess. At the top it's still Problem, Reaction, Solution.
Most problems are not truly organic. It's creative destruction, collapse and chaos were designed as eventual outcomes.
You mean that when Obama made financial rape by insurance companies the law of the land, they raped even harder? Who would have thought? At least all those premiums they are collecting are being invested into the stock bubble.
This is the stupid naïveté of Obama. He thought the insurance companies would be grateful for the new customers and play nice
The end result of these premium hikes wil be that people will just pay the punitive tax and not be covered
Obama and his Harvard fools. No one could be this dumb.
Plus TPP increases patent length for this very reason. Medical profitability
In Hebrew, Gilead can mean a memorial site, and is used to name boys, while "Gil" means joy in Hebrew and "ad" means forever, or eternity. Further, the word "Gil" in Hebrew can also be derived from the word for a "round" (stone); therefore, Gilead can also mean a round (memorial) for eternity.
Enjoy this FOREVER.
"Bending the cost curve"
US needs to go the single payer like every other western country in which all their medical costs are lower and people live longer.
This would save the medical system 30% and get the bloodsucking medical insurance companies off the back of the populace.
I know I will get downticked for these comments.
LOL, yeah, it's just the insurance companies that are the problem, that'll fix it!
YES. w/ age limits on procedures or YOU PAY. This is common sense for the common good.
$300 bucks a month for 40 year old non-smoker? 'Muricans are suckers for sure. They should expatriate, lots of places with solid healthcare where the same 40 yr old would have trouble spending $300 a year.
"I am Niggerbama
I'm a communist man
I will make Amerika into A Communist land!
Aliens by millions will pour into your shores,
Amerika will be Commie Evermore!"
Private companies? Run by sheep!
The State will own Everything while you are asleep!
Nigger, niggerbama, Nigger, niggerbama
All a you Yts have to die
I must make the USA a multicultural pie!
YT is the enemy as Jerry Wright explained tio me
Amerika must be free of YT from sea to shining sea!
But wait...all the Dems have been touting the steady SLOWING in health care inflation over the past few years???
Obama has INSTITUTIONALIZED for-profit healthcare, NEVER TO BE GOTTEN RID OF ! Worst liar Pres. in all of US history, the most DECEITFUL LIAR !
"George, we must appoint a president who Hates America. A guy who Will Take It Down."
"I have just the guy in mind...I have been grooming him in Chicago. He's married to a tranny."
"Can you hide that?"
"Yes, of course."
__The Talmud Chronicles, Ch. 77.
The Chosenites strike back. Downvote Kikes.
Nigercare, Niggercare, you'll have no money here nor there!
I Have it all, Me an' Mooch
Reggie gets some, it's a hoot!
Hey there, here comes Niggercare!
In the still of the night we'll take your health care card!
You'll get sick, what the frick
We have your dough and it's a thick
Pile of Niggercare!
Wait, I saw this on "30 Rock" - Obama gave us all free healthcare. Free! In the mean time, I see the Fidelity Healthcare fund is up 96% since Obamacare was passed, more or less. Barry really put the screws to the healthcare industry, made sure they didn't take advantage of the little people any more, etc etc etc (ad nauseum). Free is very profitable, is the lesson here.
It seems to me that health care delivery systems, including the HMOs-those whose business is the actual delivery of health care- are a doomed business model.
Health insurance companies, i.e., those whose sole business is to collect insurance premiums but not deliver any health care, will benefit in the short time until the middle class consumer has been completely wiped out through the relentless squeezing of health insurance premiums. The government is behind the giant insurance companies and not the providers. They both want to limit the delivery and expense of providing health care.
The politicians are not going to come out and tell the voters we have to cut Medicare expenditures 25% to control costs, which means people older than 65 can't get bypass surgery, stents, total hip replacments etc. No. The politicians are not going to do that. They are going to go through the back door and throw up so many obstacles to the health care providers that they can't collect for the work they do.
Ahhggrhhh! My leg is broke.
Sorry, YT, here are two aspirin/
I disagree. How can it be doomed as a business model when it is becoming the monopoly business model? The medicare Opt in/opt out is the coupe d' gras, forcing the remaining private practitioners into working for the man.
Good news for us docs, tho. When we all become employees, we can join the SEIU and go on strike.
What a wonderful idea to cull the "herd" As they will be less apt to take care of their standard medical needs. /sarc I am so sick of this BS. Long rope companies.
Bath House and his Tranny, Mooch, along with Reggie, were discovered hanging from a streetlamp in Georgetown today.
Joe Biden has assumed Command.
"lookit the size of that! Mooch should have that preserved in the Smithsonian!"
Wait, that's nothing - Biotech is up 250% in about the same period. Big money in BarryCarey.
Premium increases Sept. 2016 ought to be the stake in Hillrary's blackheart
did you happen to read yahoo's propaganda piece on her brilliance for small business? They should however use the picture with the golden highlights and the airbrushed bags with the smile(maybe she's seen Tom Cruise's or Joan River's doc for a touch up on the lift)--we do vote on looks.
do Americans have the ability to figure out the grifters? do their votes even matter (thanks to the diebold)? do they buy this shit?
There are no "Votes." It is all an illusion.
Viva TPP!
Carry on.
The liberal media can turd polish all they want, after 8 years of Obama no Democrat is going back to the White House for 20 years
TPP great for Obama. Death for Hillary
Pharmacy robberies and physician kidnappings have greatly increased under NiggerCareTM.
The Cloward-Piven Plan under Bath House Barry has left Amerika hanging by a thread, threatened by Jade Helm and 1,500,000 Chinese Troops.
Natural-Born Americans have been rounded up and sent to FEMA camps; their homes taken over by illegal immigrants. Premier Bath House maintains all Natural Born Americans must be re-educated or liquidated. More details at 11."
Thanks to the NSA, I own the House and Senate. I am the Man (sort of). You have No Idea what my Secret Orders are, YT.
You Honkies are gonna think Hitler was a choir boy when I am through with You, hahahhhahaha!
Gotta go, Reggie is ready to shove one up my ass. See ya, don't wanna be ya."
Only an asteroid impact could solve this shit. My fingers are crossed
I recently had to have CT scans for a head injury including spine, the hospital billed the insurance company $33,000 with me responsible for $480. That does not include doctors fees. Keep in mind that I was ok and nothing else was done. I had to rub my eyes several times and have my wife look at it also to make sure what I was seeing was real. The country is being looted as we rocket toward national health care.
I think in Germany that would cost 2000-3000 Euros. I am not sure if Obamacare causes these extreme cost. The charges are obviously insane and the doctors must be all millonaires.
niggercareTM ls a payoff to Niggerbama's retirement fund.
And the hospital books it as $33k in revenue. And a $32k loss on reimbursement.
Hospital accounting is a gigantic fraud. The loss keeps they hold on the books as goodwill. And they magically show they're a non-profit.
Thank you, niggercareTM
Yep every kind of Fund or Trust Fund is a target. Medicare & Social Security are not sacred to Bankers just as War is not to be avoided by a Banker.
Federal Debt Held by Foreign & International Investors as Percent of Gross Domestic Product, 2014:Q4: 34.75940 Percent of GDP,
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/HBFIGDQ188S
Current Account Balance: Total Trade of Goods for the United States©, 2013: -703,911,000,000 US Dollars,
Sum Over Component Sub-periods (2013 was last data),
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/BPBLTD01USA637S
http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/international/intinv/iip_glance.htm (wow huge trend, $31 Trillion in Foreign Property in USA vs $24 Trillion)
Bank Private Credit to GDP for United States
2011: 55.47615 Percent (Data spans from 1961 to 2011, Bubble is clear in 2003)
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/DDDI01USA156NWDB
no thanks. i'm already crushed by soaring food, clothing, and household costs.
Obama will go work for one of the insurance companies in 2017
No shame in his game
What so called "health" insurance companies really represent is private tyranny, murderous mafia that's infused with government to impose private taxes on citizen that, similarly to royal British taxes, are tied not to representation or ability to pay since they are not attached to the transaction but the tax is the transaction (legal extortion) . Such systems created debt prisons in medieval times.
And the doctors. hospital and bio-medical. pharma research establishment bacame hit men for the mafia.
In few words, in US and unfortunately in some other countries, physicians’ true professional objective and purpose of education, even if they deny it, is to seriously to moderately injure their heavily insured patients to the degree that would still allow them to cover exuberant fees and enormous artificially high drug costs, through conspiracy with private insurance, government or by extorting desperate family of dying patient.
Dying poor are left in pain to die, thrown out on the street pavements like dogs according to doctors Hypocritical not Hippocratic oath as it was well documented in LA Skid Row few years ago.
Additionally these parasitic doctors lie to their rich patients about diagnosis, making it potentially worse, just to make experiments on humans to patent the procedure or push another useless drug. Those heavily insured patients are purposefully misdiagnosed with certain diseases such as cancer and offer surgical removal of whole organs, breasts, uterus, ovaries etc., just to make money.
Even worn out Hollywood starlets undergo televised self mutilation for commercial propaganda purposes to insidiously entice millions of potential victims of medical crimes to be maimed or disfigured without any shred of evidence of any disease. The transplantation industry is even worse, dealing with body parts obtained through mutilation or murder of poor and abandoned children of the streets or prisoners all over the world.
Unnecessary, painful testing which amounts to torture, highly addictive drug regiments are common examples of abuse of young and elderly unaware of the purpose of the procedures and often done against published research results condemning such tests, therapies or drugs as extremely harmful.
It’s that simple. Most doctors want you to be sick so he/she could suck up blood from you and your family. And after you dead they want your body sold for profit.
Cheap preventive medicine, with 95% success rate of early intervention is practically abandoned since there is no money in it. Entire commercial food industry and tobacco conspire with medical establishment, hospitals and insurance companies to destroy health of a nation. To make you sick. Such act would amount to treason during cold war years.
Few doctors who focus of homeostatic physiological balance of human organism and developed successful therapies which restore the balance no matter what disease they are dealing with are persecuted, threaten with jail or revoking medical license because they are threats to commercial interests.
However, this deceitful practice that doctors are often forced engaged by "insurance" companies, playing on people fear of pain, suffering and death by giving them false hope is not new.
Philosophers Kant and Voltaire in XVIII century being of very fragile health as children vow to stay away from doctors of their time and cured themselves using their own remedies in many occasions of serious diseases and live over 80, a quarter century longer then average people lifespan back then. What did they know?
We demand dismantling of blood sucking Wall Street run Health/death industry and instead promote preventive medicine all the way. The best cure is prevention.
First of all we should demand that we consume real food and not the poisonous shit that is being sold in supermarkets, we should insist to break up vertically integrated food cartels that aim to continuously make us sick.
But there is more that needs to be changed, namely brutal system of legal slavery and exploitation run by oligarchs since it is number one source of oppression and physically devastating stress that is killing us daily.
Fuck Ocare, and the fascist "health" care industry. Sick care is what it is. And government has been complicit for near 50 years.
If you had a brain you would've said " fuck all the doctors."