Posted on 07/14/2017 6:27:53 AM PDT by Wolfie
Jail. Now. Not Bailouts
The latest Senate attempt to pass Obamacare Lite is now out.
It contains a number of provisions that are interesting but exactly zero of them address cost.
Notably, it does not include my one-sentence bill that would instantly destroy health insurance extortion rackets which are destroying the middle class and, if ended, would immediately force down costs for everyone in the system.
Nor does it include any of the other provisions that I have in my larger model legislative proposal that would force price transparency and end collusion -- the very essence of which violates 100+ year old law.
It's not like these provisions aren't known to the Senate. They are. They're also known to the House. And they're known to Trump too, who has run a company for decades and is well-aware of the rank lawless nature of a "business" that refuses to quote you a price and charges people 5, 10 or 100x as much money based on whether or not you bought a "preferred" service from someone else.
Yet there is not one word about any of that -- which would bring down cost, and solve the problem.
Nope -- instead we have..... billions to "fight" opiod addiction.
A problem that, it appears, is at least in part the responsibility of a company that just got fined.
(Reuters) - Mallinckrodt Plc, one of the largest manufacturers of the generic opioid painkiller oxycodone, will pay $35 million to resolve allegations that it failed to report suspicious drug orders, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.
The deal, in which Mallinckrodt did not admit wrongdoing, marked a record settlement of claims that a drugmaker failed to properly notify the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of suspicious orders for drugs such as oxycodone, the Justice Department said.
Of course they didn't admit wrongdoing -- they never do.
But it appears they weren't reporting "suspicious" orders for their pills -- that is, orders which they knew or had good reason to know were going to pill mills and others who were dispensing them inappropriately -- meaning for profit and to boost addiction rather than for therapeutic use.
Instead of shutting down this company and jailing their executives for drug running (which I remind you we're all to happy to do if it's some ordinary person who similarly is selling drugs for an illicit purpose) they instead "paid a fine" and "didn't admit wrongdoing."
Oh, yeah, and they're still able to sell their drugs too.
The Senate is complicit in both the opiod epidemic and a direct enabler of the lawless nature of our entire "health care" system in the United States. We must put a stop to this -- all of it -- or it will destroy our nation. We do not have the money and cannot raise it to keep expanding health care expenses at multiples of the size of the economy and every bit of it is happening not because people are getting older but because providers collude both among themselves and with other parties to fix prices and restrain trade -- practices that were declared illegal more than 100 years ago and which in many cases carry felony criminal penalties.
Yet utterly nobody -- at either the State or Federal level -- will enforce existing law, instead putting forth the sort of twaddle that the Senate has now released.
Minnesota will sue CenturyLink (a DSL and telephone provider) for failing to honestly disclose prices so why won't they sue every single damned hospital and doctor's office that fails to do the same?
Solve this problem now, America, or our way of life dies as do both State and Federal budgets. This is not going to happen at some well-off time in the the future; it has already crippled GDP and productivity growth and at present rates of expansion will have inflicted critical and perhaps unrecoverable damage before the next Presidential election.
WE ARE OUT OF TIME TO DIDDLE OURSELVES AND PRETEND WE ARE "HELPING."
If anyone ever bothered to read our Anti Trust Laws, I have, they would soon see that they are basically a description of how our Entire Medical Profession operates, they ALL BELONG IN PRISON!!!
Maybe it’s just to simple for people to get. Or they’ve been too indoctrinated by decades of this criminal behavior. Or, my favorite, “Tort Reform will fix it”.
P4L
The last bill had 50 Billion dollars paid directly to insurers. . This one has 70 BILLION DOLLARS PAID TO INSURERS. What?? #noinsurancebailout
70 billion?? #notjustno
Yup, many on here just want the ACA repealed, but that simply isn't going to cut it. Healthcare costs in the US were growing 8-10% a year from 1960-2008 before the ACA was passed and its grown at a similar level since then. If it keeps up, in 20 years, the country will be bankrupt and the middle class will spend 30%+ of their income on healthcare "coverage."
Maybe that’s redundant. Our entire system is a prison, full of noxious gas and all of us locked inside. And Satan is the jailkeeper.
A massive jailbreak is our only hope.
Why you, Wolfie?
I thought you had been standing up for a libertarian position on the usage of medications. Now are you turning from principle?
I still think that could work, but the land needs to reconnect with God. God is like oxygen to suffocating people.
The trust phenomenon is what happens when people miss out on the love of God. They will often or sometimes love each other, but in cliques rather than generally as humanity.
When the problem is endemic we cannot ban it away.
The "design of the product" is dictated, and in many if not most cases, the price of the service is dictated too. Whatever the ramifications of "competition" are, they tend to reduce cost to the supplier, and increase market size and market share.
Congress can mouth the words "free market" all day long, but their actions clearly lay out that the words are a bald-faced lie.
Nobody should be surprised at this.
When the so called debate on “healthcare” was going on, I believe the Dems got together with the repukes and said “We know you’ll get voted out of office if you vote with us and we want you in office because you want the same things we do, so you may appear to be defiant. And since you agree to run a bunch of idiots for president, we all know Hillary will follow Obama so we’ll never have to discuss it after 2016.”. The repukes have been pretenders for way too long.
That's because medical service costs and decisions are divorced from the consumer's wallet. The medical industry would be fools to not take advantage of the market dynamic. If all cars are priced the same, we all drive BMW, Porsche and Rolls Royce.
Which is almost always the result of a CHOICE made by the addict. Nobody held them down and forced a needle into their arms! Why should my share of the billions go to "treat" or "fight" the results of their bad choices?
Summary execution of drug dealers, from kingpin to street level, would go a long way towards solving this “problem”. Trial within three months, automatic appeal if needed within six months, execution within a year. No plea bargains.
That, among the fact that there is no pricing transparency, it’s the only industry that has imports banned, they can extend patents with very minor tweaks among other bad things that can be fixed.
There will shortly be a severe doctor shortage. A significant doctor shortage. And there are so many lawyers that they work at Starbucks.
Shortly you'll be resenting the doctor who isn't there. And getting your legal advice with your latte.
Yes, US hospitals (pharma, med-device mfgs, and lawyers) are robbing us blind.
Proof:
Why Hospitals Mark Up Prices by 1,000 Percent - Newsweek
www.newsweek.com/why-hospitals-mark-prices-1000-percent-343006 Proxy Highlight
Jun 15, 2015 ... Why Hospitals Mark Up Prices by 1,000 Percent. By Wendell ... (Chargemasters are lists of all the items and services hospitals bill for. Hospitals ...
Many U.S. hospitals mark up prices 1,000 percent: study - Reuters
www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-hospitals-prices-idUSKBN0OO2C920150608 Proxy Highlight
Jun 8, 2015 ... Many U.S. hospitals mark up prices 1,000 percent: study ... markups, but in the past hospitals have said list prices, shown on a “chargemaster,” ...
Some Hospitals Marking Up Prices More Than 1,000 Percent - 2015 ...
www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2015/some-hospitals-... Proxy Highlight
Jun 8, 2015 ... The 50 hospitals in the U.S. with the highest markup of prices over ... Many hospital patients don’t actually pay the “charge master” or full price.
How Hospitals Mark Up the Cost of Over-the-Counter Supplies Like ...
https://sandiegofreepress.org/2013/03/how-hospitals-m... Proxy Highlight
Mar 17, 2013 ... Chargemaster: Hospitals’ Killer App for Sucking Your Financial ... Cost of Over- the-Counter Supplies Like Aspirin and Q-tips as Much as 1000%.
50 US Hospitals That Mark Up Prices the Most - Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/51134-us-hospitals-mark-up-prices.html Proxy Highlight
Jun 8, 2015 ... Some hospitals charge more 1000 percent mark-up for certain ... more so than a hospital’s internal list of prices, known as the chargemaster.
Extreme Markup: The Fifty US Hospitals With The Highest Charge ...
content.healthaffairs.org/content/34/6/922.full.pdf%20html Proxy Highlight
Jun 24, 2015 ... In the United States, hospitals use the chargemaster, a list of .... This means that they are charging markups of more than 1,000 percent.
Study: Hospitals charge more than 20 times cost on some - JHU Hub
https://hub.jhu.edu/2016/09/08/hospital-markups-price-gouging/ Proxy Highlight
Sep 8, 2016 ... However, the relation between chargemaster markups and hospital revenue, and the variation in markups across hospitals and departments, ...
50 hospitals charge uninsured more than 10 times cost of care ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-scienc... Proxy Highlight
Jun 8, 2015 ... Researchers said the hospitals with the highest markups are not in pricey ... it costs the hospital $100, they are going to charge you, on average, $1,000. ... In the United States, hospitals have the chargemaster, a lengthy list of ...
50 hospitals with markups of around 1,000 percent - CBS News
www.cbsnews.com/news/50-hospitals-with-markups-of-around-1000-percent/ Proxy Highlight
Jun 8, 2015 ... At these hospitals, prepare to pay markups of 900 percent — or more ... compared hospitals’ so-called chargemasters — lists of procedure codes ...
Irrational Drug Prices Being Charged by Hospitals Continue to ...
www.panaceainc.com/enews/61-finance-and-reimbursement... Proxy Highlight
In particular, one hospital’s charge of more than $13,000 for a dose of the ... Because of this payment method, a hospital is incentivized to mark up a drug to ...
JCAH (accreditation for hospitals) working with CMMS (Medicaid, Medicare): you're not prescribing enough pain meds...You'll lose your accreditation if you don't start prescribing more.
BUT ITS ALWAYS FUN TO BLAME THE DOCTOR.
“Maybe it’s just to simple for people to get.”
You’re on to something there. Many of the responses in this thread will prove it. The Uniparty and media are very good at fear based distraction.
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