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A Fatal Accident Waiting To Happen: U.S. Healthcare

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

U.S. healthcare isn't just an historical accident--it is a fatal accident waiting to happen.

Many of the systems we take for granted are historical accidents. Either based on legacy systems hundreds of years old (higher education) or assembled in a short-term, ad hoc fashion (post-1940 national defense/ national security), these systems have expanded into vast patronage systems that are completely out of touch with 21st century needs, costs or realities.

The U.S. healthcare system was not planned; it is largely accidental.

As Jeff Deist of the Mises Institute and I cover in our recent conversation on The US Healthcare Debacle (21:23) (YouTube version), the system of employers providing healthcare insurance began as a means of offering a bit of extra compensation in the 1940s era of wage/price controls.

This historical accident is at the heart of the current system's dysfunction. Those without jobs are covered by the government at horrendous expense, and those with coverage are terrified of risking it by moving to less secure employment or self-employment: The New Shackle of Serfdom: Clinging to Healthcare Insurance (September 22, 2015).

By removing the consumer from the equation, pricing is now purposefully opaque. The cost for a test or procedure is all over the map, and insurers have few incentives to demand truly transparent pricing.

Meanwhile, the federal/state healthcare programs of Medicare and Medicaid are riddled with the same lack of transparency and are vulnerable to fraud, over-billing and paying for needless tests, medications and procedures.

Few seem to know that the cost of these two behemoth programs exceeds the Pentagon's budget.

This contraption of private insurance paid by employers, co-pays paid by employees and state programs guarantees paperwork consumes an estimated 40% of all healthcare expenditures. How is that for inefficiency and needless expense?

Employees and the self-employed are expected to pay their co-pays and fees but without giving them true choice. Most regions are served by two or three insurers, i.e. a cartel. The "choice" is purely illusory, and the result is soaring costs.

Healthcare in 2015 ($4 trillion) accounts for almost 23% of U.S. GDP. ($17.4 trillion)


source: Annual U.S. Healthcare Spending

Some will quibble that the U.S. spends "only" $3.3 trillion on healthcare, but the salient question is: how much of this enormous expense is "fat," i.e. waste, needless or counterproductive tests, meds and procedures, paperwork, claims, counter-claims, fraud, cartel collusion, government patronage and protection of private profiteering, etc.?

I present the photo of human blood that has been spun in a centrifuge as a metaphor for U.S. healthcare. Red blood cells (heavier) are on the bottom. Above is the serum, which is normally clear and yellow tinged. This serum is opaque and buttery looking due to very high fats (hyperlipidemia).

It is abundantly clear to anyone who peeks beneath the surface of America's state-cartel healthcare system that roughly half of all expenditures are needless, counterproductive, profiteering, fraud, etc., compared to a system that was actually designed to be efficient, transparent, and that gave consumers real choices, real power and real responsibilities.

U.S. healthcare isn't just an historical accident--it is a fatal accident waiting to happen. Anyone who thinks this system is effective and sustainable will be disabused of that fantasy within the next decade.

 

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Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:45 | 6690189 world_debt_slave
world_debt_slave's picture

healthcare is a rackett for the drug companies

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:50 | 6690201 Tonald J Drump
Tonald J Drump's picture

you got that right...actually, it's a yuuuuge racket !   But that will change if you elect me next November !   Let's make America great again (bitchez) !!!

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:15 | 6690335 Manthong
Manthong's picture

It wasn’t an accident, it was a planned assassination.

And there is no waiting, it already happened..

It’s just a matter of watching the bleeding out as the victim(s) die.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:40 | 6690476 Boris Alatovkrap
Boris Alatovkrap's picture

You are like doctor, you are keep doctor!

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 16:53 | 6691133 N2OJoe
N2OJoe's picture

Actually it began as a way to "pay" employees more without pissing more money down the toilet of government taxes.

Of course the government couldn't let this go without a fight, and decided to make it so convoluted and wasteful that you'd be better off just paying income tax and taking care of your health on your own.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 18:02 | 6691443 UncleChopChop
UncleChopChop's picture

actually, it began during WW2 when there was a national labor shortage due to all the men overseas fighting. the thinking was that a free market would have led to upward spiraling labor costs for manufacturers. as they tripped over each to get employees in the door. so the govt instituted a national wage freeze.

offering healthcare to employees was done as a way to get-around the wage freeze and offer more money to prospective employees. the link between work and health coverage hadn't existed before.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 21:55 | 6692431 goldsansstandard
goldsansstandard's picture

The solution is just a few hours away.
Hospital city in the Cayman Islands does acabbage for 1250 bucks. fully accredited. Offshoot from India.
a gift to the americas.
The market always wins in the end.

Wed, 10/21/2015 - 02:25 | 6693128 goldsansstandard
goldsansstandard's picture

The Hill Burton Act got the Feds nose into the tent by granting hospital construction money in exchange for the hospital taking all comers regardless of ability to pay.
In 1975 the Act morphed into Section C of the Public Health Service Act, and the requirement to serve non payers became immortal.

Just imagine if Trader Joes was required to give food to all poor comers. Those who could pay would have to cough up a hundred bucks for a jar of peanut butter.,

If you have any assets, , you have to pay to eat, or they will come and take it.
You can starve, go to the black market, or sign up and go full retard section 8,.The analogy might help people see that it is Hill Burton that completely FUBARed the health care market, creating hundred doller tylenol bills.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 15:42 | 6690814 daveO
daveO's picture

Speaking of planned assassinations. Happy Breast Cancer Awareness month, suckers!

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:55 | 6690563 Jstanley011
Jstanley011's picture

Single payer? Blah. That alone is reason enough to vote against you...

BTW fellow jingoists, Cruz on immigration:

http://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2015/08/12/ted-cruz-when-it-comes-to-immigration-legal-good-illegal-bad/

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 17:20 | 6691269 OpenThePodBayDoorHAL
OpenThePodBayDoorHAL's picture

We live under single payer here in Australia and it's friggin great. When we lived in the US we noticed that doctors usually had 3 or 4 people in the back shuffling paper, docs here have one person. At the counter you submit your claim, by the time you drove home the money's already in your account.

Obomba had a chance to put in single payer but he took it off the table to protect Big Insurance. He could have done what the Dutch did: keep insurers in the loop AND have single payer. Make them compete on quality and price.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 18:39 | 6691570 Encroaching Darkness
Encroaching Darkness's picture

Maybe yours works - or you just don't see what it costs you. An online comment from a Dane mentioned the taxes he pays for the privilege of "free healthcare" - things like 180% upcharge on a new car, taxes paid to inherit, etc. Maybe Australia isn't like this - or maybe, now that the commodities markets are in free-fall, your experience won't change. Let us know, next year, how it goes?

Obomba is so incompetent in so many ways that you want to put him (and his enablers) in even greater control of your health care? No deal, as soon as we get rid of the FSA (probably through internal warfare and starvation) we can get rid of his programs - and maybe some of the earlier debacles (since 1913) as well. No way it can continue for long, so no way to avoid real changes - and downsizing government has to be high on the list.

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 20:02 | 6691909 AGuy
AGuy's picture

" Let's make America great again"

You didn't finish his sentence;

TRUMP: " Let's make America great again for ME!"

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:54 | 6690222 sgt_doom
sgt_doom's picture

Actually, it was kind of planned, dood.

If you study the history of public health in America and the English-speaking countries, you will understand why (ref:  Morbid Symptoms, from the Socialist Register).

And are you really telling me this wasn't planned?

http://www.intouchservices.us/EHCTPshare/HCChartHires.jpg

http://disinfo.com/2015/10/obamacare-creates-departments-fdrs-new-deal/

Plus, there is this:
 

Anthem, Inc. purchasing Cigna, creating the second largest health insurer.

So let's drill down a bit further: who are the Big Four investment firms which own the majority of major corporations in America and Europe?

BlackRock, Vanguard Group, State Street and FMR LLC (Fidelity)

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Who owns Anthem?

Vanguard Group 14,746,358 shares

T Rowe Price         11,566,057

State Street Corp 11,484,901

FMR LLC (Fidelity) 11,002,864

(Block ownership: Three of the Big Four)

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Who owns T Rowe Price?

Vanguard Group    15,890,636

State Street Corp    12,907,755

JPMorgan Chase       12,005,962

Fayez Sarofim & Co   8,013,935

BlackRock                 6,806,338

BlackRock Advisors 3,788,738

(Block ownership: Three of the Big Four)

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Who owns JPMorgan Chase?

Vanguard Group   209,360,838

State Street Corp  163,827,104

FMR LLC              124,495,660

BlackRock             103,593,641

(Block ownership: The Big Four)

The term for this is cross-stock ownership, which has long been illegal in the USA. It is illegal as it successfully hides ownership and monopoly, or in this case, an ultra-monopoly.

Now, these firms are essentially hiding their major investors, who are normally private, as these are private institutional firms (whether publicly owned or private, they are still private, get it?). Fidelity is owned by the Johnson family, but who are the major investors besides them?

BlackRock's major investors? Who knows, but they are an offshoot of the Blackstone Group, founded with Rockefeller money.

This is how they hide ownership in America.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

But why stop there, what about Aetna, largest insurer?

So who are the top shareholders of Aetna?

State Street Corp

Vanguard Group

Wellington Management Group***

FMR LLC

BlackRock

***[Wellington Management Company was created as an advisor to the Wellington Fund, which is owned and controlled through the Vanguard Group. Can you dig it?]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

But wait, what about the third health insurer, UnitedHealth?

Top four shareholders:

FMR LLC

Vanguard Group

Wellington Management Group

State Street Corp.

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:28 | 6690392 Manthong
Manthong's picture

Doom,

I posted before reading down the thread, but yeah..

Just like TPP and TTIP -- planned out in secret with the specific intentions of transferring the resources/wealth of the 99% into special interests in a totally unethical and most nefarious way.

With Obamacare, to Big Pharma and Insurance companies.. with the trade scams, to large transnational corporations.

Of course the politicians who have inflicted these travesties upon us get fat along with their special interests.

And the 99% are thrust into financial slavery.

This will not end well.. or quietly.

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:08 | 6690290 HardAssets
HardAssets's picture

' accidental ' ?

Are you kidding ?

Is a stick-up 'accidental' ?

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:19 | 6690347 Bananamerican
Bananamerican's picture

as accidental as fascism ever gets.....

"sure would be a shame if grandma doesn't get her Taxol™..."

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:46 | 6690191 j0nx
j0nx's picture

Got our new rates yesterday at work. Up 15% minimum across the board. Maybe 20%. Haven't finished figuring out how much more it will cost me exactly yet but preliminary figures are 15-20% more. People here are pissed. What small raise we got just went up in smoke after this. *poof*

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:50 | 6690205 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

but, but, but, they would have gone up 1 million percent if Obamacare wasn't passed so you are much better off.

-Every shill for the prez

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:50 | 6690206 pods
pods's picture

I can't wait for ours. We saw no increase last year.  This year might make up for it. Already we are like $3500 out of pocket before insurance kicks in (well, $5k but job pays the back part).

I start to get pissed, but then I see people talk about 1-2-3k a month premiums with the same deductibles and realize I have it great.  Insane.

If I had to buy on my own I dont know what I would do. 

But this trainwreck has happened. The ass end cars just haven't stopped moving yet.

pods

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 15:52 | 6690867 gwiss
gwiss's picture

No shit about the coing trainwreck Pods. But the crunch isn't going to come from just the premium/deductable death spiral on the consumer side.  What is really going to bite is that the Feds have firmly grasped control of the reins.  They have two tools -- unfunded mandates and budget cuts.  So here's how it's going to play out.

 

Increasing numbers of functionally uninsured (they have insurance in name only but can't afford to actually go and see someone because of the copay) means the ER gets utilized more.  Which, of course, is the most expensive care you can possibly purchase.  By a factor of at least 10.  Of course, because they can't afford it, they don't pay any of their bill, but hospitals, thank you EMTALA, are required to see and treat them regardless.  And, thanks to the new unfunded mandates steadily rolling down from the Feds who think that the "solution" to "fixing" healthcare is to #1 mandate that patient's be seen and treated and dispositioned within a certain period of time or face reimbursement cuts and #2 dictate that all manner of unnecessary tests and documentation and questions be charted and addressed, the healthcare system is being trapped between a rock and a hard place.

So you see where this is going.  Mandated inefficiency reduces productive utility of available resources.  Bureaucratic response to worsening situation is to cut funding and institute yet more unproductive loops.  The end result is gridlock of the medical system, with an entire population of elderly who are being kept alive long past their expiration date by never letting them leave the system, because death is only allowed after the sacred rain dance of "all available options exhausted" has been stretched long past the point of quality of life.

 

Just like the economy, where fiat steadily steers more resources into malinvestment, with the response to the declining productivity being increased bureaucratic mandates and additional fiat.

 

Bureaucracy always marks the end of a virtuous and the beginning of a vicious cycle.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:51 | 6690211 Teh Finn
Teh Finn's picture

Premiums up 15% to 20%, but what about annual deductable?  It is doubling and tripling for many people.  The probability that an adverse health incident would bankrupt you is way higher now than before the implementation of the "Affordable" "Care" Act.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:16 | 6690337 j0nx
j0nx's picture

No, our monthly premium is only up 10%. It's everything else factored in like doubling of copay costs, deductible etc which gets me to at least 15% more and most likely more like 20% more cost to me when all is said and done.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:20 | 6690359 Teh Finn
Teh Finn's picture

My premium is up 8%y/y 4 years straight.  I have a "Cadillac" plan which will be punished...I mean taxed coming 2018(I think?)  $5000/plan.  The company is certainly going to drop our insurance plan.  Copays for me are up 25%, and my annual out of pocket has gone up 33%.  AFFORDABLE  WOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 15:59 | 6690897 madcows
madcows's picture

Dammit! Somebody has to pay for all those boomers to have full paid healthcare!

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 17:07 | 6691203 GeezerGeek
GeezerGeek's picture

Look elsewhere for someone to blame (I assume you are referring to Medicare), because there is already a separate payroll tax used to support Medicare. Further, I think I recall hearing that Medicare funding was cut (or at least its growth was restrained?) as part of the ACA smoke-and-mirrors cost estimates. Medicaid, however, may be a better place to look, what with all the illegal invaders and Middle Eastern refugees America "decided" to allow to live here. And BTW, Medicare is not "full paid healthcare".

Wed, 10/21/2015 - 09:56 | 6693862 madcows
madcows's picture

medicare doesn't pay the doctors enough.  so, they overcharge the other patients.  same with Medicaid.

Oh, and I have medicare taxes taken out every paycheck.  So yes, I am paying your medical bills.  same with SS.

Just as you "paid" for your parents bills. 

The issue is, there's a shitload of boomers getting these promises, and only a handful of workers paying for it.  Whereas the ratio was much higher and the cost lower when you were working.

My generation won't be able to sustain congress' promises to you.  that's reality.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:47 | 6690192 Zero-Hegemon
Zero-Hegemon's picture

It already happened. In fact, we're standing in a pool of spilt punch and broken glass. Welcome to the party. Watch for sharps.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:47 | 6690195 Hype Alert
Hype Alert's picture

So bypassing all the monopoly laws via congress was an accident?

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:52 | 6690219 0Theorem
0Theorem's picture

Big Pharma - about $340B of the 1.2T/ year medicare budget. Valeant and Turing bad new examples of non-research oriented approaches (ie., legalized profiteering). Defensive medical practices ~25-30% of total costs (lab work, tests, scans). Lack of Tort reform - related to the same. Home health care, Medical equipment manufacturers (ie., MRI machines that should have fallen from $2M/per according to Moore's law, but the market bears >$1M pricing, etc).....IN SUMMARY: so many systems, with so much fat, are at risk when they DO have to get cut (bankrupt treasury) will have far and wide ripple effects, me included (radiologist). I'm planning on starting a small berry farm. How about you?

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:53 | 6690221 Luck Dragon
Luck Dragon's picture

The current system should not be called "health care" but rather "disease management", no part of the current paradigm includes being healthy, or promoting health.

 

Let's take dentistry for example - how many dentists has anyone ever had that recommended dietary changes or nutritional supplements for teeth health? Personal experience and those around me tells me ZERO. After reading -

  • Cure Tooth Decay: Heal and Prevent Cavities with Nutrition, 2nd Edition

It became abundantly clear that proper diet and supplements can CURE cavities. These facts apply to all aspects of "health care" which are not part of the system. Fire your doctors and manage YOURSELF, that is health care.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:58 | 6690234 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

Your ideas work fine...if you are not sick. Good luck if you wake one morning with a stroke or arthritis.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:31 | 6690417 Luck Dragon
Luck Dragon's picture

Yes of course - but prevention is the key. It's much easier to stay healthy than abuse your body and try to recover once you start to get sick. Unpreventable disease is the extreme minority, and that is what "health care" should be reserved for. My 72 year old father in law who just had a stroke, might have prevented it had he not been overweight for the last 40 years, eaten fast food, stayed on medicine for type 2 diabetes, and done something to lower his blood pressure naturally instead of take drugs, not eaten hydrogenated and oxidized oils, exercised regularly and modified his diet to stop taking statins. All of these drugs are not without side effects, and when people are on them lifelong, they will eventually catch up with side effects. Bad food and poor nutrition also has side effects. It's amazing that "red neck" farmers know that if your animals are nutritionally unhealthy they get sick, but the majority of the population can "live" off fast food and expect no negative health effects?

 

Good luck if you "wake up one morning, pregnant". I wonder how that happened?

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 15:16 | 6690662 insanelysane
insanelysane's picture

So your premise is that healthy people never die?  Interesting.  You just need to spend your life being healthy and eating healthy.  Will get right on that.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:46 | 6690505 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

"should not be called "health care" but rather "disease management""

 

Agreed, I would go a step further and call it Drug and Services Deployment.

Improvement/Care of the individual is a sometime occurring coincidental byproduct.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:56 | 6690228 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

hey Chuck

As a physician of 40 years I will partially agree. Many problems are self induced. To that extent;.  treating them, as opposed to demanding modified behaviors, is a waste.

Many diseases however are genetic or seemingly random. Multiple Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis are examples. These are serious problems that medicine has altered with new treatmentsl

These are large expenses with large and beneficial outcomes.

If everyone would behave and resist gluttony we could more than halve medical expenses.

Putting more costs on the patient could help....but politicians know that little things like a higher co-pay might cost them a vote.

There is no solution to our current problems in our current system. A good funeral might help...as in the death of the dollar.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:08 | 6690292 Osmium
Osmium's picture

Sadly they don't resist gluttony or smoking 2 packs a day or drinking themselves into a stupor nightly.  So those of us who do take care of ourselves are left to pay for the fat-asses who don't give a shit.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:40 | 6690478 Luck Dragon
Luck Dragon's picture

Sure there is a solution, it's called the free market.

 

Why are we even talking co pays? What if you could pay for your medical expense like anything else... just pay for them?

 

Car insurance isn't for scheduled maintenance or to repair your car if you neglect to change the oil, car insurance is for ACCIDENTS, and only then it is used for more than minor accidents. Health insurance is a scam, plain and simple, the young are paying for the old, just like social security. What cannot go on forever, won't. And it won't.

 

If the free market existed in health care, the costs would assuredly come down, take the Oklahoma Surgery Center for example - https://youtu.be/0uPdkhMVdMQ

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 13:57 | 6690229 gcjohns1971
gcjohns1971's picture

Wrong.

The structure of the Medical system was created by the Flexner Report of 1910.

The payment system for medical care, contingent on 'insurance' rather than cash payments is a consequence of the cartelization of the industry under Flexner.

The TIMING of when it happened during the WWII era is one of chance...or an accident that didn't go to waste, nothing more.   The fact that it had to go to a 3'd party payer model is again a consequence of the intersection of cartelized medicine plus inflationary currency...meaning IT HAD TO GO TO INSURANCE.

And the devolution to government provided health care (medicaid, and now obamacare...and hence to a national health system) were modeled in from the beginning. 

These things are a consequence of the systematic debasement of currency's effects on savings, and the non-discretionary things people do with savings...just as the widespread use of mortgages for home buying, and the eventual rise of consumer credit cards, were also INEVITABLE.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:01 | 6690248 Vlad the Inhaler
Vlad the Inhaler's picture

Not to mention the massive indirect subsidy to the poison peddler corporations, who push people to be obese and bombard them with GMOs and cirgarettes.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:08 | 6690276 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

Wife just getting her 2016 health care renewal forms. Family coverage. Now up to $180 @ month. It was Free from 2001- until 3 years ago. To $90. To $150 @ month last year. It's Good coverage. But but not as great as the Free one all those years ago. And definitely not as good as the public takers health coverage that we are also supposed to pay for in out property taxes. Fuck this broken system !!!!

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:09 | 6690294 Panafrican Funk...
Panafrican Funktron Robot's picture

Holy balls, that is a heavily subsidized plan you all are on.  

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:07 | 6690282 Panafrican Funk...
Panafrican Funktron Robot's picture

Most efficient option that is politically plausible would be a "Medicare for all" plan with the insurance companies continuing to run the Medicare plans like they are currently.  With the right palms getting greased (5% guaranteed administrative margin for the plan providers, annual CPI increases = the , continuance of ASP pricing formula for drugs), it's politically do-able, and it would add significant efficiencies into the economy as a whole.  If you then 50/50 split the fraud recovery $'s and re-allow the plan providers to run their own fraud recovery units, there would be tremendous economic incentive to cut the fraud fat.  

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:38 | 6690460 plane jain
plane jain's picture

Just having one set of forms/claims and one payment system would probably save a mint. Imagine if every medical service provider were able to cut paper pushing jobs by 2/3rds.

On the other hand, there go more jobs. I understand that voice to print software has already significantly reduced the demand for medical transciptionists.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:07 | 6690284 Chumly
Chumly's picture

This whole world is an enigma, wrapped inside a paradox, engulfed within a conundrum. It is, what it is, what it is, ad infinitum. Tomorrow will probably be more screwed-up than yesterday, so what in the Sam Hill ya gonna do about it?

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:19 | 6690286 Dre4dwolf
Dre4dwolf's picture

 How can you take something for granted when you dont even have access to it in the first place?

I haven't had health insurance since 2006 and its just been getting more expensive to have since then.

If given a choice between mortgage or healthcare the choice is a no brainer.

You can buy most antibiotics online without a prescription to cure whatever ailes you.... if you have half a brain you can self-diagnose 90% of your health problems and self administer correct dosages of whatever you need.

Viral infections are pretty much untreatable, most of the drugs are plecebos / do almost nothing the only thing that works is vitamin C for the most part.

Bacterial infections can easily be destroyed with any of the common antibiotics.

Most other problems are caused by poor diet/an imbalance or lack of bacterial flora in the intestines.

 

So whats really left for doctors to cure?

You dont need doctors you just need access to the basic medicines (Probiotics, Antibiotics, Vitamins) your body does the rest.

 

If you go to the doctor and he tells you that you have an ear infection, (no shit sherlock I came because my ear and sinuses hurt) obviously you are just there as a ritual experience/paying for the prescription paper.

Bypass all the bullshit and make all common drugs (anti-biotics etc) require no scripts, doctor visits would plummet and the cost of health insurance would fall.

I dont understand the need or desire for health insurance, doctors visits would be cheaper running as a cash-basis.... if you are paying taxes and society cant afford to give you 3 days in a hospital room and a free splint for a broken leg/arm wtf do we live in a society for? whats the point of society if you dump tons and tons of tax dollars into it and it gives you nothing of use in return? we shouldn't even have a health insurance industry adding more complexity to a system will only drive the cost of that system up.

 

If you have a bacterial infection:

http://www.allivet.com/p-2377-fish-mox-amoxicillin.aspx

If you have a viral infection:

http://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Ascorbic-Acid-Pounds/dp/B0013OQIIK/ref=s...

If you have a fungal infection:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000E7R3FY/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8&qid=1445365141&sr=...

If you have something else:

http://www.amazon.com/Renew-Life-Probiotic-50-Billion/dp/B001LIW11Q/ref=...

and Vitamins

 

There you go I just relieved 90% of the burden from the health care system.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:23 | 6690377 Kprime
Kprime's picture

send me a bill in 60 days; make sure it's incomprehensible and includes undocumented charges.  your check is in the mail.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:44 | 6690501 plane jain
plane jain's picture

The pharmacist can do this most places in Europe, definitely the UK.

Bypass all the bullshit and make all common drugs (anti-biotics etc) require no scripts, doctor visits would plummet and the cost of health insurance would fall.

What you haved described is illness and most illness can be self managed or taken care of by a PA/Nurse Practitioner which is where we seem to be heading anyhow.

For accidents/trauma, disease, and some chronic conditions I still want a doctor. 

Sure, I'll take vitamins and self administer antibiotics, but I'm not setting my own broken arm.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 21:25 | 6692297 Faeriedust
Faeriedust's picture

RIght for 80% of illness, and most of the rest, they can't actually do anything for except charge you massive costs for "monitoring" which does nothing except pay their salaries.

Traumatic injury is another problem altogether; it's very hard to do surgery on yourself.  Of course, a good vet is usually a better surgeon than the guy working at your local hospital.  And the LAST thing you want, is to "catch" a cancer early! You will spend an additional two years in very expensive misery as they run you from "treatment" to surgery and back to chemo, all of it running up a half million in bills for extending your agony with no hope of a cure.  But it's a SUCCESS because they kept you alive for two years of pain and poverty.

 

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:09 | 6690293 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

HIGH FATS IN THE BLOOD?!?!

ADD A PIECE OF BREAD TO IT, COOK IT AND YOU'VE GOT A MCDONALDS HAMBURGER!!!

 

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:21 | 6690364 Kprime
Kprime's picture

where did you think it came from in the first place?

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:10 | 6690307 Ghost of Robotrader
Ghost of Robotrader's picture

I had always thought a total cost accounting would be north of 20 percent. The population is getting older. The population is getting fatter.

The costs will go higher. The only way to avoid it is for insurance companies and governments getting even more aggressive in the denials of payment and coverage. It is likely to be subtle though. Did your doctor choose the best medicine and treatment for your condition or did he choose what he knew your plan would pay for and remain silent?

I bet you can guess the answer lol

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:11 | 6690309 RougeUnderwriter
RougeUnderwriter's picture

<  You Can Keep Your Doctor

< Affordable Care Act

 

 

LOL

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:12 | 6690319 rejected
rejected's picture

Walk into any "doctors" office and you see 20 assistants per doc. They don't want cash as that would eliminate their job filing for insurance. A dermatologist I see has an assistant in the room at all times. She's a burly Latino and stands at the door with her arms folded. Reminds me of the door guards at high stakes poker games I never attended. lol. Then it takes three months to get the billing and then it's usually wrong.

Can't call in to refill a script,,, gotta pay that "bribe" first. Like my somewhat high blood pressure,,, have to go every year to get the script and the machine I use at home is better than their little junkie from Walmart. In fact it costs me more to get the script than the script itself.

The whole thing is a mess and will crash on its own ineptitude, greed and fraud.

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:14 | 6690332 Seasmoke
Seasmoke's picture

How's that Affordable Health Care TAX working out for all of us ???

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:18 | 6690339 divedivedive
divedivedive's picture

I'm not sticking my finger in anyone's eye - but we have retired to Mexico where - for government covered health care we pay about $700 USD per year for the two of us (mid-sixties). We live outside the US for more than 330 days so we don't need Obamacare. For the most part our government insurance is pretty decent. There are LONG waits at times - particularly for specialists - but the quality of care is every bit as good as what we experienced in the US. The cost of our healthcare includes meds - if they have them. I had pretty bad sinitus this spring and decided to go outside our coverage to an ENT specialist. He fixed my deviated septum and shrank my turbinates. Total cost of outpatient surgery with anesthesia and follow up visits - about $700 USD - cash. Our 'insurance' has NO deductibles and NO co-pays. If a 'third-world' country such as Mexico (which it isn't by the way) can do it - I'm sure the US could as well. The problem is the insurance companies and the lawyers.

Edit : I can walk into any lab here and ask for any test I want without getting a script beforehand.

 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:27 | 6690403 Teh Finn
Teh Finn's picture

Long medical tourism.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 16:22 | 6691017 daveO
daveO's picture

Shhh! If you keep telling the debt slaves how good it is outside of the debt plantation, they'll all escape to your neighborhood. Watch that fence go up in a hurry. The Mexicans will gladly pay for it and Trump will get to keep his campaign promise. 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 17:59 | 6691436 Pure Evil
Pure Evil's picture

Mexico will happily accept any and all wealthy Americans.

Just don't think of sending the illegals back or the citizens of Detroit, Compton, or the lower ninth ward in New Orleans down to Mexico, it won't be tolerated.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 18:24 | 6691524 divedivedive
divedivedive's picture

Not a day goes by when we don't meet Mexicans who have lived in the US at one point or another. And I am talking very white collar people. Today, for example, we went to the bank. The guy at the desk who was helping us was a defensive lineman for the Universithy of Reno. His manager has lived in Toronto and Montreal. These people leave Mexico - and come back of their own free will. Yes Mexico screened us to assure we would not be a burden when we moved here - but the US offers the same priviledge to immigrants. You can easily buy your way into the US. We still pay our US income taxes - but Mexico is pretty smart in that we are spending out lifetime of savings in Mexico.

Wed, 10/21/2015 - 02:42 | 6693138 kareninca
kareninca's picture

If you are a poor person in Mexico and need dialysis, you will not get it.  You will die.  It is as simple as that.  There was a case in Florida a few years ago of a hospital that lost its funding for undocumented immigrant dialysis, and the people who were getting it went back to Mexico and died.  Some of the dead were really young people.  It was truly hideous.  Maybe Mexico is okay if you are well off.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:39 | 6690444 QQQBall
QQQBall's picture

Rich Mexicans go to San Diego or Houston for major medical procedures. I get your point on the small stuff and lab work, but I know of no one that would leave USSA to go to a Mex doctor, except for alternative treatments.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:52 | 6690548 divedivedive
divedivedive's picture

Before leaving the US we had a rather unique medical insurance arrangement. I worked for a very wealthy guy who self insured the entire company. Any expenses an employee incurred - bring the bill/receipt to the accounting dept and it was handled. So we could see any doctor we wanted. Ya know - most of the doctors were either retired military or Indian etc. Ok - we weren't living in Boston or NYC - but we were living in an area where there were a lot of old people. We are not rich Mexicans - but we have some for friends - and they are very proud of the Mexican healthcare system.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:43 | 6690494 somebody poison...
somebody poisoned the water hole's picture

pay the tax and self ins. In the long run save thousands

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 14:45 | 6690504 Jstanley011
Jstanley011's picture

re: "...the salient question is: how much of this enormous expense is "fat," i.e. waste, needless or counterproductive tests, meds and procedures, paperwork, claims, counter-claims, fraud, cartel collusion, government patronage and protection of private profiteering, etc.?"

Surgery Center of Oklahoma charges cash only (cash operations are ILLEGAL under ObamaDon'tCare; this outfit has been grandfathered). Last I heard, they're charging co-pay for most operations. Which would mean every dollar over co-pay IT'S ALL WASTE, CORRUPTION AND BUREAUCRATIC OVERHEAD.

Don't take my word for it. Check their pricelist yourself. That's right, I said PRICE LIST...

http://surgerycenterok.com/

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 15:52 | 6690706 NuYawkFrankie
NuYawkFrankie's picture

Funny how all these Govt. "ad hoc" & "accidental" systems/solutions have one thing in common:

Stuffing the pockets of the "usual suspects" for serving up a sh!t-sandwich.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 15:26 | 6690717 kaboomnomic
kaboomnomic's picture

I will makes you eats your words.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_programs_in_the_United_States

Dude, why you have SOCIAL PROGRAMS, dude? You commented, you DON'T LIKE SOCIALISM,dude!?

You said, ONLY COMMIES DO SOCIALISM, dude??

Well dude? ARE YOU GOING FULL COMMIES, with that SOCIAL PROGRAMS, dude??

Like it? To eats your own words??

So... PATHETIC..

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 15:36 | 6690775 Binko
Binko's picture

$4 trillion is roughly $12,000 per person. Our little family of 3 can easily  live a frugal lifestyle (exclusive of medical expenses) on $36,000. 

Basically we are spending enough money on "healthcare" to provide everybody in the entire country with a complete moderate living. This is some seriously messed resource allocation. 

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 17:10 | 6691222 robnume
robnume's picture

When are sheeple gonna wake up and pay cash for doctor visits? Why pay high deductibles when cash payments to service providers offer discounts of 90% or more? Just stay away from hospitals - they will gouge you no matter what method of payment you use. Black market healthcare services, for managable conditions, are the way to go. No premiums, no deductibles. What happens if you need hospital care ? I don't know, haven't got that far yet. If anyone else knows of an affordable solution/alternative to the price of hospital/institutional services, please share info with us.

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 17:55 | 6691427 IAmStrider
IAmStrider's picture

Damn straight it wasn't planned!

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 18:39 | 6691572 sam site
sam site's picture

Alolopathic Medicine has been able to get away with this insurance scam because they were given a government-protected monopoly by all the state governments

It's unaffordable because there is no competition between the various types of medicine. 

Our state governments gave accident or Allopathic medicine a government-protected monopoly to

diagnose, treat and cure ALL medical afflictions including degenerative diseases that represents 90% of medical care.

Did you know that Big Pharm drugs are mostly petroleum-based synthetic chemicals that poison the liver and present a huge burdon on the body to eliminate? 

The body doesn't recognize these foreign coal-tar based foreign substances. 

Much of the world is using cheap Chinese, Naturopathic, Homeopathic or Ayurvedic medicine and they aren’t dropping like flies like Americans want to believe. 

Monopoly Allopathic Medicine has duped Americans into believing that disease strikes randomly like lightning from germs and that we have little control over our health. 

Louis Pasteur, the founder of the Germ Theory of Disease, finally admitted on his death bed that germs don’t cause disease but the terrain is the chief cause.

The terrain is the state of cleanliness or toxicity in the body that enables our immune system to reverse or prevent disease. 

Allopathic Monopoly Medicine completely ignores toxicity, detoxification, nutrition and natural immunity as all the alternative medicines emphasize.     

With government-protected Monopoly Medicine, it's all about managing disease not curing it, maximizing profits and getting patients on daily "maintenance" drugs, using costly surgery and interventions with toxic vaccines. 

A massive disruption is coming in health care.  In fact investors who have Big Pharma stock should sell ASAP because when the dollar devalues, corrupt agencies

like the FDA and state medical boards that protect the "Standard of Care" favoring Big Pharma and Monopoly Medicine will not be able to continue protecting these corrupt industries from competition. 

Like the corrupt Fed, these are the last days of government-protected monopolies and if they had to compete with cheaper, safer and far more effective

natural medicine like Homeopathy, Naturopathy or Chinese Medicine they would likely be starved for patients. 

The last time the dangerous Allopaths competed in the marketplace in 1900 they could only attract 14% of patients. 

The public was afraid of them and fortunately there was back then a free market in medicine so the public chose affordable, safe and vastly more effective natural medicine. 

In the 1918 Flu Pandemic, the Allopaths lost 30% of their patients.  The Alternative Medical providers lost 1%. 

Allopaths were known as the Quicks (later Quacks) for the quicksilver or mercury they poisoned their patients with. 

They're still poisoning patients with toxic mercury in vaccines along with aluminum, MSG and formaldehyde embalming fluid. 

And that's besides the toxic infectious agent that starts a brushfire in the brain for life causing Autism and Schitzophrenia.  Senior CDC scientists have known this for 80 years. 

They're also poisoning and killing patients with chemotherapy for cancer that's a derivative of WW1 mustard gas. 

Because we allowed the European Black Nobility - Organized Crime through their Jesuit, Zionist and Masonic agents to take over our money and medicine

about 100 years ago, we allowed the quacks of the day, a government-protected monopoly and drove out the true healers. 

The sheeple to this day still believe the myth that Ambulance Allopathic Medicine earned it's

government-protected monopoly status because it's the only "proven and scientific" medicine. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  It's a vicious, cruel lie that 90% of Americans not only believe, but

even defend because they have been chemically dumbed-down with vaccines, fluoridated water and GMO food to name a few. 

Forget about government-protected monopolies containing costs and becoming affordable, our hidden rulers are getting a huge belly laugh on their way to

the bank as they have handicapped the public with poisons in the food, air, water and medicine. 

Visit naturalnews.com and mercola.com and educate and treat yourself with cheap, safe and effective

natural medicine that cleans up your immune system terrain and turns on powerful prevention. 

Empower yourself and dispel the myth, power and fraud of Monopoly Quack Medicine. 

Allopathic Ambulance Medicine specializes in stabilizing traumatic accidents and that’s what they should be restricted to doing. 

PBS doctor Andrew Weil MD says that Allopathic Medicine has no business treating degenerative

diseases just as natural medicine has no business treating accident victims. 

We’ve all been duped by our organized-crime hidden rulers into believing false paradigms about medicine and money. 

It’s time we woke up and started controlling our economic future and health.  We will all find that the body is enormously powerful in keeping us healthy

without the poisoning agendas and interventions of corrupt men.

See this video describing this handicapping agenda by neurosurgeon Dr Russell Blaylock MD for a real eye-opener.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB3xcN_eoPo

 

 

 

 

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