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50 Signs That the US Health Care System Is [About To Collapse]
The Economic Collapse Blog ^ | 2-24-13 | Michael @ TEC

Posted on 02/28/2013 7:43:14 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin

The U.S. health care system is a giant money making scam that is designed to drain as much money as possible out of all of us before we die. In the United States today, the health care industry is completely dominated by government bureaucrats, health insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations. The pharmaceutical corporations spend billions of dollars to convince all of us to become dependent on their legal drugs, the health insurance companies make billions of dollars by providing as little health care as possible, and they both spend millions of dollars to make sure that our politicians in Washington D.C. keep the gravy train rolling. Meanwhile, large numbers of doctors are going broke and patients are not getting the care that they need. At this point, our health care system is a complete and total disaster. Health care costs continue to go up rapidly, the level of care that we are receiving continues to go down, and every move that our politicians make just seems to make all of our health care problems even worse. In America today, a single trip to the emergency room can easily cost you $100,000, and if you happen to get cancer you could end up with medical bills in excess of a million dollars. Even if you do have health insurance, there are usually limits on your coverage, and the truth is that just a single major illness is often enough to push most American families into bankruptcy. At the same time, hospital administrators, pharmaceutical corporations and health insurance company executives are absolutely swimming in huge mountains of cash. Unfortunately, this gigantic money making scam has become so large that it threatens to collapse both the U.S. health care system and the entire U.S. economy.

The following are 50 signs that the U.S. health care system is a massive money making scam that is about to collapse...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 0care; healthcare; zerocare
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#1 Medical bills have become so ridiculously large that virtually nobody can afford them. Just check out the following short excerpt from a recent Time Magazine article. One man in California that had been diagnosed with cancer ran up nearly a million dollars in hospital bills before he died...

#2 This year the American people will spend approximately 2.8 trillion dollars on health care, and it is being projected that Americans will spend 4.5 trillion dollars on health care in 2019.

#7 Approximately 60 percent of all personal bankruptcies in the United States are related to medical bills.

#19 Close to 10 percent of all U.S. employers plan to drop health coverage completely when the major provisions of Obamacare go into effect in 2014.

1 posted on 02/28/2013 7:43:17 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

LOL. Maybe Donna Brazille would like to add some insight here.

All hail ObamaCare, the cornerstone of the great Obama presidency! The legislation the corrupt MSM loved, supported, and desperately wanted to help Obama win.


2 posted on 02/28/2013 7:48:58 AM PST by Obadiah (High speed, low drag.)
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To: Obadiah

Don’t misread DB’s tweet.

It was not “I don’t know why, under 0bamacare, my premiums went up”.

It was “Even with Obamacare, the greedy private insurance companies are trying to cheat us, so single government payer is the only way to go.”


3 posted on 02/28/2013 7:55:08 AM PST by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

I’m watching what doctors are doing to a number of people I know who are in their 70’s, and I wonder if there isn’t some sort of scam going on to take lots of money and then let them die.


4 posted on 02/28/2013 7:59:44 AM PST by lurk
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

What supports all this nonsense? The ability of the Gov’t to print money and have a central bank (the Federal Reserve) with their primary dealer constituents buy this debt

End the FED and you end 1000 evils that are enabled by it.


5 posted on 02/28/2013 8:08:13 AM PST by PGR88
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

I’m distrustful of Time magazine in general, but some of the examples of overcharging they gave were pretty shocking. For some reason, I also got the impression that non-profit hospitals are a scam. Maybe some of the medical experts could weigh in.


6 posted on 02/28/2013 8:08:50 AM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Back in the 90s, a friend was in a bad accident. He left the hospital after three months, broke and jobless. He then received in the mail his hospital bill: $287,000, or, $427,092 in 2012 dollars.


7 posted on 02/28/2013 8:16:28 AM PST by pabianice (washington, dc ..)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Everything you are all posting indicates that the Progressives will eventually get their wish. A 51% majority for single payer.


8 posted on 02/28/2013 8:46:25 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
There may be overcharging at some places, but, look at what people get when they buy medical care today. Incredible. Life expectancy in the US is now 80, it used to be 45 in 1900.

Why is it so much longer? Hint: It is NOT from people quitting smoking, dieting and exercising, and not doing stupid dangerous things. It is because of a huge, unrelenting, almost all-American, century long, Space-age type acceleration in our science and technology related to medicine. It costs an incredible amount.

But the other reason it costs an incredible amount is that every single penny practically, spent on health care, has to be run through greedy insurance companies and all of their cubicled workers. Millions and millions of people are supported by this expense, though, it adds NOTHING to the medical products or services bought. Bring back a real market, and really informed consumers, and freedom to purchase whatever, wherever, and prices will tumble.

Then, health insurance will become what it used to be in a saner time: A means of amortizing a rare and unexpected expense for an individual.

Also, a reason it is so expensive to get medical care is because people have INFANTILE EXPECTATIONS about the chances of survival of very sick and very old people. Instead of just saying goodbye, as it was done in the old days, they let the doctors do all kinds of crazy aggressive things like liver transplantations, ECMO, chemotherapy, ridiculous operations on metastatic disease, etc. Very high tech, but usually not worth it.

Next, people sue doctors and hospitals for supposed errors if they believe not everything possible was done. Well, 'everything possible' is incredibly expensive, when it comes to medicine.

Last but not least, medical care is expensive is because only a fraction of people buy health insurance. Others are indigent, and just show up at the hospital injured or sick and then stiff the hospital for the bill. Millions and millions of people fit into this category. You can lump Medicare people in with them, because they pay about 5 cents for every dollar worth of medical care they consume.

So here is the bear through the barleycorn: Where does the hospital make up the difference so as to pay for all the freeloaders and medicare recipients?

They charge the paying (saps) customers, who had the integrity to obtain health insurance, many, many times more than their real bill, and they shunt the money over to pay for the bills of the deadbeats.

It's actually a great deal for the poor and irresponsible.

Bad deal though, for people who tend to pay their bills.

The politicians and insurance and health care and medicolegal lobbyists and suits of all kinds concocted the system.

Get back to the old days of doctor, patient, cash on the barrel, and you will have responsible, economical care again.

9 posted on 02/28/2013 8:55:53 AM PST by caddie
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To: smokingfrog

I’m no expert. But I’ve been working in hospitals since 1975.
I was a CFO for many years and have spent the last 10 years as a CEO of a hospital in a large not for profit system.
I don’t see the health care system collapsing, but it will deteriorate.
It already has deteriorated. We had the greatest healthcare delivery system in the history of the world. Now an incredible amount of what we used to reinvest in infrastructure, clinical equipment, education and basic patient care goes toward the heavy administrative costs necessitated by mandated
compliance with overwhelming state and federal regulations. Articles like those in Time and individual anecdotes whip the public into a frenzy and they buy into the need for this ridiculous over regulated situation.
Healthcare as we know it will never be the same, not because of the docs and those who are operating the hospitals but because of the government.


10 posted on 02/28/2013 9:02:47 AM PST by Palio di Siena
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To: smokingfrog

“I’m distrustful of Time magazine in general, but some of the examples of overcharging they gave were pretty shocking. For some reason, I also got the impression that non-profit hospitals are a scam. Maybe some of the medical experts could weigh in.”

I’m not an expert, but I’m also distrustful of Time magazine… :)

Remember back around 2006, the “real estate bubble”?
Remember how in places like California, the “market price” of real estate became ridiculously inflated (with run-down houses the size of a 2-car garage selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
Remember how the “prices” of real estate surged to where they had no correlation to the _value_ of same?

I think we’re seeing the culmination of something similar in the healthcare “market”.
That is to say, the actual charges for procedures, rooms, etc. seem to have “separated from” any connection to the _actual cost_ of providing same.

This has been caused by the corrupting influence of 3rd-party medical insurance along with increasing government regulation, and exacerbated by the development of new technologies and introduction of new equipment.

I guess they call this “cost shifting”, but the “shift” is actually a full separation (from reality).

And the “medical cost bubble” keeps inflating.

Sometimes I think the only way this can be “fixed” is by outlawing the concept of “medical insurance” and banning any kind of medical payment other than “fee for service” — that is, the only payment the medical provider (doctor) can receive is directly from the patient (NOT from any insurance company or 3rd-party payer).

That is to say, if you need medical care, YOU pay. No pay, no care. Or, if there is care, the bills are sent to YOU, not to the insurance company.

This doesn’t mean the patient couldn’t buy insurance coverage to protect him/herself. But the insurance company should only be allowed to re-imburse the patient AFTER the patient has paid the healthcare provider.

People are going to reply, “if that were the case, few would be able to pay for their medical care and many would suffer and die”.

I would respond, “what if no one could pay for a hospital bed @ $3,000 a day?” Either the hospitals would have a lot of empty beds (and soon go out of business), or, they might consider dropping their prices to where the market would prevail (and people could again afford to pay).

Is that not “the free market” at work?


11 posted on 02/28/2013 9:35:48 AM PST by Road Glide
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To: Palio di Siena

Not to mention the mountains of paper work the government wants Dr.’s to report. I imagine this will only increase under ZeroTaxCare!


12 posted on 02/28/2013 9:38:01 AM PST by elephant
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To: lurk

“I’m watching what doctors are doing to a number of people I know who are in their 70’s, and I wonder if there isn’t some sort of scam going on to take lots of money and then let them die.”

...seen it with my own eyes.


13 posted on 02/28/2013 9:39:08 AM PST by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: Palio di Siena

Palio,

Can you confirm one thing for me? How much of what is billed goes to cover Liability insurance and legal expenses?

I believe that Legal costs are the main driver for high costs in Health Care.

Greedy “Victims and Lawyers” are the drivers of health care costs. Doctors practicing defensive medicine as a result of the potential lawsuit for the 1% of bad outcomes drives over use of tests, consumables and expensive equipment.


14 posted on 02/28/2013 9:45:16 AM PST by boilerfan (Hoosier born, Boilermaker educated!)
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To: lurk

“I’m watching what doctors are doing to a number of people I know who are in their 70’s, and I wonder if there isn’t some sort of scam going on to take lots of money and then let them die.”

No proof I can present, but yes, and I believe wherever you find a community with a high amount of retiree’s, a community that has evolved to become a retirement community you will find “Doctors” with that sort of cynical opportunistic perspective.

Example the town of Hemet known as a large retirement community in Southern California, and back in the ninteen eighties where Mrs. RQSR’s parents retired only to be milked for almost every nickel they had by the clique of “doctors” in business there.

Long story short after the passing of her husband, and her diagnosis of breast cancer, and after years of one doctor after another in that community she finally realized she was being played for their life’s earnings, the money they had saved for their retirement, and she said to “H” with it all. We miss her dearly.


15 posted on 02/28/2013 9:47:12 AM PST by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists, call 'em what you will, they ALL have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

we need more government regulation //sarc


16 posted on 02/28/2013 10:15:40 AM PST by genghis
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To: caddie

” Incredible. Life expectancy in the US is now 80, it used to be 45 in 1900.”

I’ll bet life expectancy has improved primarily because of drugs and procedures that are now relatively cheap, so this statement of yours does not explain our high medical costs.

Your blaming of insurance companies doesn’t ring true either. My insurance company knocks off enormous chunks of the doctor’s “sticker” prices. Not that I think insurance companies are the good guys.

I’d say the enormous costs are caused by two things: so-called new drugs and equipment that are priced high because “the manufacturers need to get back their research money” or because the drugs and equipment are often applied to a patient for the rest of his life. His or her life or in some cases comfortable life is put on a very expensive life support.

The author of that Time article aimed our curiosity in the right direction: don’t ask who’s going to pay the bills, ask why the bills are so high.

The least you could do is give us insight into where the high pricing comes from, and also show us that you understand that we are spending more on our medical care than is healthy for our society, and that you might even have ideas for reducing it.

Also, please explain why (assuming it’s true) that most other countries have the same life expectancy as ours but spend far less on medical care.

I agree with some of your ideas.

But you say insurance should be “a means of amortizing a rare and unexpected expense for an individual”. But as people age the medical reasons for the expenses aren’t rare or unexpected, and those medical expenses often continue for the rest of their lives.

A drug that thousands of people must take for the rest of their lives simply can’t be priced at thousands of dollars per year.

The information I need is exactly what that Time author said: to understand where the money goes. For instance, if a doctor get $4000 to do a breast biopsy that take 20 minutes, what is it about that procedure that costs $4000.

If a person is in the emergency room for a few hours and get a $10,000 bill, where did the money go? That’s what we ordinary people would like to know: specifically where does the money go.


17 posted on 02/28/2013 10:19:53 AM PST by cymbeline
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To: cymbeline
The drugs are priced that high because you pay that much. It is a “captive” market.

The real money being made on health isn't in the doctors office, it is in the pharma companies.

18 posted on 02/28/2013 10:46:05 AM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: caddie
Walk through a old cemetery. All of the babies that died 100 years ago show that the preponderance of the improvement in life expectancy has not been caused my space-age technology but by the discovery of antibiotics. Whatever extensions that artificial joints, organ transplants and chemotherapy are providing are more than compensated for by our horrible modern lifestyles.

Psalm 90:10
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

19 posted on 02/28/2013 10:49:43 AM PST by Theophilus (Not merely prolife, but prolific)
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To: The Antiyuppie

Many doctors and their many hypochondriac and mental patients are in on the scam too.


20 posted on 02/28/2013 10:51:55 AM PST by Theophilus (Not merely prolife, but prolific)
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