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Obama's "Single-Payer" Monopoly Looms As Healthcare Merger-Mania Heats Up
It would appear, whether by plan or unintended consequence, Obama's dream of a single-payer socialized healthcare is getting closer by the day, and as WSJ reports, drastically increasing the risk that ObamaCare is creating oligopolies, with the predictable results of higher costs, lower quality and less innovation. The five largest commercial health insurers in the U.S. have contracted merger fever, and if the logic of ObamaCare prevails, this exercise will conclude with all five fusing into one monster conglomerate.
As The Wall Street Journal reports,
This multibillion-dollar M&A boom is notable even amid the current corporate-financial deal-making binge, yet insurance is only the latest health-care industry to be swept by consolidation. The danger is that ObamaCare is creating oligopolies, with the predictable results of higher costs, lower quality and less innovation.
The business case for the insurance tie-ups among the big five commercial payers, which will likely leave merely three, is straightforward. Credit is historically cheap, and the insurers have built franchises in different areas that could be complementary. As for antitrust, selling coverage to employers doesn’t overlap with, say, managing Medicaid for states.
More important, the economics of ObamaCare reward scale over competition. Benefits are standardized and premiums are de facto price-controlled. With margins compressed to commodity levels, buying more consumers via mergers is simpler than appealing to them with better products, to the extent the latter is still legal. Synergies across insurer combinations to reduce administrative overhead and other expenses also look better for shareholders.
Why is this happening?
The mergers reflect the reality that government—Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage and the ObamaCare exchanges—is now the artery of insurance profits, not the private economy. The feds “happen to be, for most of us now, our largest customer,” Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said this month at a Goldman Sachs conference.
Mr. Bertolini added: “So there is a relationship you need to figure out there if you’re going to have a sustained positive relationship with your biggest customer. And we can all take our own political point of view of whether it’s right or wrong, but in the end-analysis, they’re paying us a lot of money and they have a right to give us some insight into how they think we should run our business.” Such domestication is part of ObamaCare’s goal of political control, and it may well be that only fewer, larger and more centralized insurers can survive financially.
A healthier market would have many new competitive entrants given the transformative pace of technological and biomedical discovery. But as, The WSJ concludes perfectly - and ominously...
Health care has been consolidating since the 1990s, but ObamaCare has accelerated the trend. Insurer and especially hospital transactions will come under increasing regulatory scrutiny, but the antitrust cops are irrelevant when government’s overwhelming priority is to create and entrench cartels.
So five years into the glories of “health-care reform,” the same antiquated incumbents dominate as they did before, only with less accountability to patients. Cartels don’t care about quality, safety or costs to consumers.
* * *
Sooner or later you run out of things to buy, and if America does converge into a single monster “insurer” or “health system,” it will be the federal government.
* * *
Mission (Almost) Accomplished.
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But its free right?
last time I went to a doctor it looked like "the people of Wal mart". pretty sure I was only one there with a job
Single payer has always been the end game in all of this. It's going to happen, the band-aid should just be ripped off and and do it already. The time and resources that have been wasted already is crazy. We already have Medicare, Medicaid, SSDI, the VA and any number of other socialized healthcare. Do away with all of them and have one and be done with it already. It like Greece getting "saved" every week.... Let's just get it over with.
What is the difference if there are five business controlling a monopoly or just one? Its already a single-payer system under the covers. If you shop between provider its the same pricing, with the same deductiables and the same crappy service.
In the long term, it doesn't really matter, As cost continue to rise, few and fewer people are going to be able to afford health insurance. This is probably why they want to merge so they can accomidate a shrinking number of people able to pay, much as the airlines did over the past decade.
"We already have Medicare, Medicaid, SSDI, the VA and any number of other socialized healthcare."
The gov't is reducing payouts for all these. the VA is basically a joke as they delay procedures to the end of time, and turn away veterans. Medicare is cutting pay for medical services, and Medicaid has been replaced by the state exchanges. I think we are going to skip the single payer system and go for the ZERO PAYER SYSTEM as the system collapses. Best option is to get any health issues taken care of soon, and adobe a very very healthy lifestyle.
But the Supreme Court might "kill" Obamacare with their next decision to be announced later this month! (Yeah, and monkeys might fly out my butt, too.)
We are on an unavoidable path to single-payer. Not just in healthcare, but in almost everything. Good thing the government has plenty of money to pay for all this.
Boy, are you right when you say we are on an unavoidable path to single-source in almost everything. Example: I wanted to buy a handset cord for an old-fashioned wired POTS telephone. I went to three "different" stores: Walmart/Target, HomeDepot/Lowes, and Staples/OfficeDepot. In each I was presented with exactly four choices: Either a short (~3-foot) cord or a long (~10-foot) curly cord, in either black or white. I can't remember the exact lengths, but they were identical in all three places.
What the fuck is this, Soviet Russia?
Side note- I find it amusing that on the boxes of those phones it states "Does not need to be plugged in to wall outlet."
I wonder how many phone calls it took before the manufacturers decided they should print that on the box.
lol
Buckaroo - No not quite but we are well on our way...
They better, because FUCK OBAMACARE!!! (There I said it...)
It's purely corporate extortion & only hurts the poor & middle class further, end of discussion.
SUCKER! j/k, of course...
Unintended consequence? Please...
Poundsand,
You just reminded me of my fovorite book! I can't recommend it highly enough.
Here's a summary. "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unintended_Consequences_%28novel%29
Hell, even the cover art is spot on.
LOL...
My doctor's office too...which is another incentive to continue to stay away from the sickcare system.
Yep. Deductibles are now even higher than when I had insurance. Only a welfare recipient can afford a visit. Taxpayers be damned!
AP refuses to apologize for image of Ted Cruz with gun pointed at his head:
http://tinyurl.com/neslob5
This is a prime exmaple of what I call "Organic" Fascism. Instead of planned fascism by diktat from on high, the rules on the ground through duly elected legislators create a petri dish full of fascistic growth media by which Fascism grows "organically".
And the sheep get sheered with nary a bleet....the frog gets slowly boiled with nary a croak.
All going according to plan.....
Not exactly what liberals had in mind?
Kind of like JPM taking over all of the Social Security payments.
In the words of Gomer, "Shame, shame, shame".
What liberals? There are no liberals here.
double post somehow. cannot delete
Most states were already under a healthcare monopoly (or near so) before ObamaCare was enacted.
ONE RING TO RULE THEM AND ONE RING TO BIND THEM ALL.
The American joke continues to destroy the country and the liberal media continues to lie for this man. Watch for $50,000 deductibles per year and you pay for doctors’ visits. This is what happens when you elect an angry puppet who is bought and paid for by big business. This is where the case for Trump starts to make sense.
Trump is a shoe-in hack. There is no way in hell he will even make it thru the primaries. Get your priorities straight man!
I like Trump better than the Jonathan Pollard Zio-conservatives darling over at Free Republic - Ted Cruz. Cruz wife works for Goldman Sachs and he has already said he is on her healthcare. The Democrats are totally for this and the Z-Republican RINOs are no better.
Read our collective lips: "They all suck". The one that sucks the least is Rand Paul. That said the ones that when the nominations will be the ones that suck the most because they are the ones that get support from the media, bankers, wall, street, etc. US elections have become the classic "Three card monte". You simply can't win: it is a scam!
Trump is just on yet another ego trip.
For those who don't see him for who he really is, watch the following clip. It will be well worth your time. (fwd to 2:40 if you're in a hurry)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9rRjTkDREM
Wow...thanks for that. What an asshat.
I live under similar conditions to that man....and I'm happy as can be. I like my "junk" piles. I do not like the way Trump lives, and would never live that way myself, even if I had a billion dollars. To me it's ostentatious and wasteful. Not impressive.
Others call it junk because they have different priorities. They call it junk because they don't understand the uses it can and will be put to. They call it junk because they like things "neat and tidy and spic and span and orderly", without realizing that theirs is only one way of organizing things...and a particularly wasteful one at that.
You can't say I'm a pig. I'm a descendent of kings. My ancestry chart reads like a Who's Who list of pre-1600s Europe...just before my ancestors (ALL of them) got on the FIRST boats out of their respective European shitholes to come here...to live in freedom. Plus at least two Cherokee who were not marched west on any damn Trail of Tears, despite all attempts to make them do so.
So Trump wants to go into that area in a country that isn't even his, and buy this land all around a guy and tell him he's a disgrace and needs to leave? And he's righteous in this because a few other unnamed like-minded asshats happen to agree? Fuck this classist prick. That video speaks for itself...which you can see in the newscasters' eyes. What an ass. I still like the guy, because his advice has helped me considerably and I enjoy his show, but I'd call him an ass to his face over this video.
Trump's motto, Jeb by plurality!
there hasn't been anything even remotely resembling "liberal media" in this country in more than 40 years. WTF you talking about, Willis?
"f the logic of ObamaCare prevails, this exercise will conclude with all five fusing into one monster conglomerate."
Of course it will, who out there could not see corporate consolidation as the end game??????
If you thought that those five health care entities were under separate control to begin with, then you haven't been paying close attention.
If your the right people the outcome is assured. However, if your not, be sure and die quietly.....
new entrants require new products and that is conveniently against the law.
Single-payer to Single company coming soon! That means the costs go down, right?
Thank you, Dear Leader!
FORWARD COMRADES!
All by design. They'll use the utility company analogy; you'll get reliable efficient service with a monopoly.
Cost? Well, if you aren't perfectly healthy it's your own damn fault. Fear/guilt/shame and "patriotism".
All hail Caesar! All hail the New Rome!
Spot on EB!!!
This has always been the plan. The sheeple are getting upset and boom Hillary will get elected and the single pay system will be implemented. The reason the VA system is so efficient is because you will wait until your on your death bed before you see someone.
Many of us stated back when this monster was a bill, single payer has always been the plan. You want to actually see a octr and not wait you will be buying a supplemental insurance plan, period.
People better start thinking about getting off the couch, exercising and quit stuffing themselves with shitty processed food. Give it time, if you do not adhere to the new government guidelines in the future you will not get medical care!
If you live longer then the normal life expectancy your fucked.
GCT - Yes. Get to the gym at least three times a week, have a low carb diet and eat 38 grams of fiber per day (one bowl of fiber one or beans.) Also, I like to supplement with Omega 3, soluble vitamins and pro-biotics. Learn to moderate habits (not easy but more success ratios with this approach then just quitting things).
I have a doctor I pay cash to that is good. It was $78 a visit but I made the mistake of telling him my business was going good when he asked and he upped it to $120 a visit.
Whatever comes be it a big pop or slow decent to become Mexico one will DEFINATELY need there health for any chance of a quality of life if your not one of the top ten to twenty percent of earners. Even so we all should be doing this anways for a more enjoyable life.
Keep up the good work RD. I do all the same things you do. The one thing that helped me even more was investing in a sauerkraut crock. I save the money from buying probiotic supps and it seems to be more effective than the supplements. I got the Nik Schmitt 5L crock. You can make all sorts of stuff in it, well worth the investment!
The federal government has long since destroyed free market pricing mechanisms in health care, and innovation has been strangled by regulation. The government will soon control all of it, by design. As bad as it is now, we will remember these days fondly in about five years.
Other options? One could, say, burn a mortgaged house down and confess. The banksters would make sure you payed for your sin by imprisonment. Bingo! Healthcare. Just call it the Br'er Rabbit approach. The thieves are essentially banking on people's inherent honesty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7tyhpWiZyM
Eat right do exactly the opposite oif what the FDA says is good for you, exercise and limit your drug and Alcohol usage ( I do neither ) and you don't need Healthcare. of course your mileage may vary shit happens, but if you can prevent problems from occurring well than I'm all for it.
I control me, not what some asshole .gov dude says is good for me.
I've been doing just that for 8 years. No booze, no drugs. Run and lift weights. Pay for medicine, physicals, and doctors with cash.
So far, I think I have saved 60k. Imagine what a healthy 21 one year old could save over the span of 50 years. Thinking half a million is not unobtainable.
We sold some folks down the river (for some measly campaign contributions).
Some folks need insurance to pay their deductible.
if America does converge into a single monster “insurer” or “health system,” it will be the federal government
We can only hope. We pay a larger percent of a larger GDP than other First World countries for the same, and often worse, outcomes. To wit, Canada spends literally half per capita what the US does for identical health outcomes. Save money and cover everyone: Medicaid for All.
And what makes you think turning to government-single-payer would change ANY of that?
Easy, because that's how it works in other First World nations. Your question is akin to saying, "I know it works in practice, but how does it work in theory?"
Free clue: all of these self-labelled "first world" nations have their own serious existential problems too....in significant part because of these many and varied "free shit" programs your ilk love.
I actually think he's right No Debt. That's how fucked up this is.
Yup. It's not a free market system, or anything like one. Instead, we have an interlocking system of coddled, subsidized cartels free to profit without limit on subsidies and captured markets. Nor will we ever have a free market system, or anything like one. The state will not close the FDA, repeal medical licensing, abolish patents, or throw 70 year-olds or poor children into unregulated insurance markets. Never happening. Since we have, and will always have, a heavily-regulated system with extensive government financing, we should have a good one.
LMAO
Since we have, and will always have, a heavily-regulated system with extensive government financing, we should have a good one.
Ya Comrade, ya! Like the USSR survived it's experiment. Let's follow them.
You keep hopin' because you will get the change for sure. Spend $1000.00 for a private system, vs. $1000.00 to the government. Here's what happens: When capitalism is allowed to work, with minimal interference, competition ensues among the health industry, resulting in greater efficiency and lower cost. Incompetent people who do not feed the bottom line are fired. Now let's to the Fed model: $1000.00 gets paid. Half of it pays government salaries to administrate, regulate, and monitor. Any bad actors watching porn on the computer all day don't get fired. The gov just hires more. Another two hundred goes to pensions for the government workers, leaving you with $300.00 to get used for your health care. Since the money is no longer in the system for as many interested parties to provide medical service and earn a reasonable return, the work goes to the cheapest bidder. The cheapest bidder is told what they can charge, and how much "profit" they are allowed to make. There is no longer any additional funds for R&D and investment in streamlining the system or providing additional training. Want a stellar example? There's one that's been around for quite a while. It's called the US Postal Service. Mandated to be self-sustaining, hasn't produced a profit yet. How long have they had to get it right? One other thing: a private provider can be sued in court if they don't uphold their contract or pay a legitimate claim. Good luck with suing the US government. They'll just come to your house and shoot your dog.
Canadians know the meaning of medical tourism. I predict, Americans with $6000 deductibles and rising will learn the meaning too.
You have to love when a plan finally comes together. ..... Oh you didnt know this was the plan all along ???
Who said this?
"Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party?"
The ignorance of the American people never ceases to amaze me. This is the Obama dreamed outcome. This is part of his transformation of America. This is the impending disaster and our nightmare that will be generational in magnitude.
yup, exactly. The only reason it's happening this way is because he couldn't push through socialized medicine straight away in the open. No matter, the end resuilt is the same.
Stay healthy!
It never ceases to amaze me, either. More than half the voters will be questioning why his name isn't in the voting booth in the next presidential election. (No guarantee of THAT, either...)
All according to plan, after all, you can do whatever you want when you can create all the money you want out of thin fucking air...
It's not as you think and the way analysts read this...you want a single pay, you might get it with United Heatlhcare, it's about buying licenses on the cheap, not big market share.
Read this and be aware of the re-run of the Medicare risk assessments where CMS has decided they want to recover the $70 billion insurers defrauded them with algorithmic formulas to increase pay out. I think United will sit back like a Cheshire cat and scoop up the remains cheap, and that's scary as they are not an honest company at all.
Its funny as I have had Humana all over my blog for the last week reading this, as you don't' get this in what's become new rigging out there.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/with-humana-up-for-sale-whats-impact-of.html
I said this could be a big short day for insurers as they found out how to dip into the Feds bail out re-insurance and keep their stock buy backs going all at once, 4.4 billion I think for Blue Cross who said last year they would dip into the Fed money. Also Cigna uses United Healthcare's new Pharmacy benefit manager. If you want you can search United on my blog for years off documentation on the zillions of subsidiaires they own and what they do, it's morphed into a financial firm that sells insurance now. You also have former Goldman Sachs banker and United Healthcare executive, Andy Slavitt now running Medicare, in a spot to absolutely make decisions that will lead United to even more profits.. that is scary. Pay attention. You'll just be visiting the United Healthcare urgent care centers and the future and getting the care "they" want you to have..scary, read this, 36 million raised by secret investors.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/05/optum-clinics-holdings-new-subsidiary.html
The only option at this point is some of the Christian matching insurance like Medi Share, Christian HealthCare Ministries and Samaritans.
The public is totally screwed by this. The Republicans did nothing to stop this or reverse this.
Freddie I ALWAYS enjoy your posts!
Note the link in my post below. The GOP are, for the most part, BOUGHT AND PAID for. They serve the same Tribe the Demonrats do. We have a handful of GOP on our side, Jeff Sessions for example, but I mean a HANDFUL, no more.
Here in NC there is a republican governor, state senate, and state representatives in control for the first time in well over 100 years. They had gotten voter ID laws passed, but now are saying if you can not afford to travel to get one just sign a paper and go ahead and vote. Last week they were working on giving illegals driving permits. Had an illegeal say that he has run a landscape business for like seventeen years with several trucks and was always scared about being found out. I run a landscape business and pay all the taxes, cdl liscenses, whatever, and I have to compete with these assholes.
I'll never vote again. Screw those and all republicans.
I hear you! You see us White folks we obey all the rules. The rules apply, by all appearances, ONLY to White people.
I've seen SEVERAL cases where gangbangers, asian, black, and brown, have had SAWED OFF SHOTGUNS, a Federal Felony, and they are NEVER charged by the Feds. Compare that with what happened to Randy Weaver.
The law, in the USSA, is a WEAPON wielded by .gov against Whites.
This is not by chance, but by design:
Since 2000, All Employment Growth Has Gone to Immigrants
Mugging Americans: ObamaCare’s Jonathan Gruber And Norbert Schlei Of The 1965 Immigration Act
Obummercare. The least service at the highest cost.
When they're short of ideas in Washington,they usually look at what Canada is doing,as if to say Canada has a great system.It seems to me that moving to socialist style medicine is done in order to create long line ups.Canada shares the same style of commi-medicine as Cuba and Russia.What does that tell you?It says that they will create lots of jobs at the top and take the pain out on workers at the bottom.Funny how when government gets desperate that they take their problems out on nurses and teachers.
"It would appear, whether by plan or unintended consequence,"
It is by PLAN, nothing by chance...
GOP House Leadership Purges Republicans Who Voted Against Obamatrade—And They’re All Immigration Patriots
Just.Don't.Play.
There is no medical care anymore. Doctors are there to pimp pills for big pharma and to shear the sheep.
Stay healthy while you can and die when you can't.
Yep, this is my plan. If I get something I will just make peace with my maker and let nature take it's course. I will never ever comply with the filthy fuckers
Over 20+ years ago my grandmother was diagnosed w/ cancer. The money grubbing oncologist doubled dosed her w/ radiation in order to get the Medi(S)care money. Medi(S)care actually refused to pay about half due to over treatment!. Either way, she would probably still be dead by now (91 yrs). I am positive that if Medi(S)care didn't exist she would've lived longer. So, why pay the effers for the pain and suffering?
Your Doctor is now the new and improved ... Emergency Room!
I can go to Mexico and buy my shit for less than it costs under Obamacare insurance. The pensions go and so goes the Q99X2. FU America nobody likes you anymore.
Mexico's cheaper drugs are due to price controls.
I'd still rather go to a Christian Mexican doctor than Bilal Abdullah or Nidal Hasan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilal_Abdullah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nidal_Malik_Hasan
shouldn't it be cheaper to just mandate everyone for payments into Medicare? and optional to the employers to give you additional coverage. And if you have no job, get medicare for free like in the UE?
that would get this bastards out of bussiness fast.
The WSJ supports all the filthy RINOs running the Republican Party who are quitely supporting Obamacare.
Just be printing me up some premiums. That's all ya gotta do.
To live free will be a Felony.
People, opt out of the Obamacare fiasco. https://mychristiancare.org/medi-share/
so tired of all this. Just want to get off this train. Is there any where on this globe where a person can live free without property taxes and just live voluntarily without committing 5 felonies a day just by breathing?
I think we are gonna have to start our own country
Trillions for insurance companies and nothing for actual care, what's not to like?
It's not "Single Payer", it's Single Controller.
Why do you think the Feds pushed (albeit behind the scenes) for the Internet Service Providers to get gobbled up and consolidated? Now there are only a handful of providers for residential broadband - basically, you have Comcast and the phone company in each market - this makes it very, very easy to have surveillance.
They will let some large player, gobble everything up, then they will put the screws to them, and essentially it will be de facto single-payer.
Let's just say that in Canada, where I live, unless you,re about to die in 5 minutes, seeing a doctor is really, really long. I'm talking weeks or months. And they'll just ``see you``... They'll do nothing... last time I had a consultation, the meeting was under 3 minutes. After that, you gonna have an appointement for a treatment... At least 6 months. Some specialists take YEARS to see. YEARS. I'm not kidding.
So for people dying in five minutes, they shorten to wait from months to 10 minutes?
I lived in Detroit metro for a long time and the hospital system was filled with canadians who came over and paid their own way because of the wait
Nationalize the health insurance industy now and be done with it.
Or just hand out free cyanide capsules. What difference does it make?
Yeah, great idea. Let the .gov decides who lives and who dies. Very smart. Here's a better idea, abolish federal government
The biggest problem with universal public heathcare in the US is its name and the fact that it is still private not public.People who whine about it for different reosons deserve the astronomical healthcare costs.Ohbummer is a looser for many reasons but healthcare reform?Too much Russian propaganda and sowing the seeds of dissent can have negative effects on the image they are trying to project of themselves.
Obamacare.. the worst of all worlds. No resemblance to a single-payer system at all. Keep pretending you'll never get sick or be in any sort of accident. Can't happen to you. Nope.
The best part is that TPTB *want* you to think that your system is the best. The current shitty american system keeps those medical bankruptcies up, keeps more people sick and dying than any socialized healthcare anywhere else ever does. Cuba has better overall healthcare unless you're the 1%. Keep on sucking!
CVS - bought Insurance rx company, bought target pharmacies, bought omnicare the largest nursing home servicer of drug services, all on zirp money and stock thank you Mr Yellen, fits right in with obuma care monopoly and big corp war on small business,, sec doj do nothing. congress does nothing, and paid well to sit on the sidelines. bad service and high cost medicine is the future.
Obamacare is Unconstitutional anyway you slice the tyranny-turd.
As a result, I am not "playing," complying.
I am, however, stacking and smithing.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
The Four Rs
Rejection: Stop Paying, Stop Obeying, Stop Playing
Revolution: It is inevitable, so prepare, as they are.
Restoration: Restore the American people, country and Constitutional republic.
Retribution: The guilty must answer for their crimes against the American people and the Constitution.
I love how the fuckers that completely fucked up healthcare in the US are now the ones who are gonna provide a solution. Fuck You >gov
Governments can be foced to work for you as opposed to private interests. Regardles of how they label themselves Left or Right is meaningless. 2009 Stats. http://boingboing.net/2009/11/02/charts-showing-how-m.html
Nationalized single payer universal coverage insurance
is the only rational way--as other civilized nations have
established.
Review of drug and treatment pricing is absolutely necessary
for cost containment.
Here's something else on Obamacare, it's called Medication Adherence Scoring, done at every Pharmacy Benefit Management company and here I used Express Scripts own infographic...you get scored every time you fill a prescription and the score you get and the data gets sold. You get dinged if you are a male patient seeing a female MD, or if you have children in the home, or best yet if you do not use mail order prescriptions, these all have a negative impact on your "secret" medication adherence score.
Yes these are all secret and the screenshots are again right from Express Scripts and it's all proprietary as well, so even just being a male get's you a ding as well. Look at what they put out and gosh knows what the other metrics are they are using but if you are not aware we're all getting these "secret scores" that are sold about us.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/06/medication-adherence-predictions-enter.html