Health Care Reform is Dead
- Thread starter Pesqueeb
- Start date
Reliance on corporate provided health insurance is our modern version of Indentured Servitude.
It's a link to Screengrabber because I can't link to the video.
http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/bah-gawd-its-the-rattlesnake-1797324485
http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/bah-gawd-its-the-rattlesnake-1797324485
the look on McConnell's face is priceless
If only there was some way we could regulate the price of medicines.
If you can't afford 3/4 of a million dollars a year to keep your child off of a respirator you just need to work harder.
Those kids are obviously just bad people.
There needs to be rationing. Set a threshold for price per quality adjusted year of life. Have public single payer insurance cover that. Want more? Buy more insurance on the private market or pay list.
Just because it relates to health care doesn't mean that potentially futile treatments at exorbitant prices should be covered.
Just because it relates to health care doesn't mean that potentially futile treatments at exorbitant prices should be covered.
But free market pricing of life saving/changing is immoral because the price people will pay is everything they have.
How much would you pay for say a cure for pancreatic cancer for a family member?
Wait!! I thought health care was supposed to be SIMPLE?!?
Who could possibly have known that it was COMPLICATED?
Who could possibly have known that it was COMPLICATED?
We need universal single payer coverage because people are idiots and won't buy insurance, yet come begging after the fact. Everyone pay in via payroll taxes or whatever and then no coverage issues. Like I said, though, there has to be rationing since resources are not unlimited yet the prices that drug companies can ask for are.
Example:
https://www.nice.org.uk/advice/lgb10/chapter/judging-the-cost-effectiveness-of-public-health-activities
Set the threshold at 30,000 GBP and let people pay for extra insurance in advance (e.g. no signing up with pre-existing conditions for this one else the risk pool would be uber-fucked) if that's their thing.
Which is exactly how it works in the UK, your employer deducts your taxes and your national insurance contribution.
I'd never had to complete a tax return in my life working in the UK, as for a simple earner it's deducted at source with no random "deductions" to claw back later.
It's not perfect, immigration has had a negative impact. But at least you know if you get ill or have a health issue you will get seen eventually and won't get saddled with a crippling debt.
that doesn't sound like freedom at all
Yes Winston, life is slavery.
Crippling financial slavery however is freedom.
Cross-post from today's GMT and a reason why I have a hard time envisioning staying in this country so long as we continue to rely upon for profit insurers and a medical industry that isn't even remotely transparent about the costs of service. I'm young and healthy, I can't imagine the burden for older folks.
The bill came yesterday for the wife's trip to the clinic last month for a UTI. Her PCP was unable to see her that day and she tried to get an apt at a Planned Parenthood to no avail, so we had to settle for going to a local clinic that told her over the phone it was a $175 fee to be seen. We were there for 20 minutes, she peed in a cup, a doctor came in to give her a prescription for antibiotics and we were on our way.
That apparently becomes, in out of pocket terms:
Doctor fee = $197
Urology lab = $75
Clinic fee = $4,600
Almost $5,000 out of pocket billed to me for a single urine test, 20 minutes sitting in a bed, and a prescription. This better be a fuck of of epic proportions on their end otherwise I'll be seeking every single possible avenue, legal or otherwise. That's ridiculous beyond ridiculous.
The bill came yesterday for the wife's trip to the clinic last month for a UTI. Her PCP was unable to see her that day and she tried to get an apt at a Planned Parenthood to no avail, so we had to settle for going to a local clinic that told her over the phone it was a $175 fee to be seen. We were there for 20 minutes, she peed in a cup, a doctor came in to give her a prescription for antibiotics and we were on our way.
That apparently becomes, in out of pocket terms:
Doctor fee = $197
Urology lab = $75
Clinic fee = $4,600
Almost $5,000 out of pocket billed to me for a single urine test, 20 minutes sitting in a bed, and a prescription. This better be a fuck of of epic proportions on their end otherwise I'll be seeking every single possible avenue, legal or otherwise. That's ridiculous beyond ridiculous.
Is the clinic in your insurance network? The billing should go through the insurance first and chances are, they'll cut down some of those to the pre-mediated levels. If you are out of network or outside of insurance, you're totally screwed.
That was post-insurance. They did me a great favor by cutting the doctor fee from $340 to $197 but it appears that they are passing on the rest.
Call the insurance company and ask them about the Clinic fee.
Christ on a crutch. My daughter has had a chronic UTI problem pretty much since birth. If we had to shell out 5g's every time she had one we'd be proper fucked.
Best healthcare system in the world, amiright?
Insurance is fucked, Obama Care or not, because of $5k clinic fees and drugs that cost eleventy million dollars. Until you fix that, health insurance can't work, single payer or not.
Mexican drug prices are astonishing if you're used to US prices. I was just down there and my wife managed to get bit by god knows what, and got an epic welt, doctor visit, topical steroid prescription lunch w/ beers was all under $75. The topical steroid was $3.80, for a made in USA drug, somebody was still making money at both the wholesale and retail level on that. Grabbed a few other things to restock my first aid kit, $2-15 for large boxes of meds, and again, there was still enough money in that sale to support a pretty nice pharmacy, and pay a decent wage to a knowledgeable pharmacist. Meanwhile, my copay on just one of the drugs I picked up there would have been $100, plus whatever my insurance is picking up. No wonder insurance is unaffordable for most people.
Mexican drug prices are astonishing if you're used to US prices. I was just down there and my wife managed to get bit by god knows what, and got an epic welt, doctor visit, topical steroid prescription lunch w/ beers was all under $75. The topical steroid was $3.80, for a made in USA drug, somebody was still making money at both the wholesale and retail level on that. Grabbed a few other things to restock my first aid kit, $2-15 for large boxes of meds, and again, there was still enough money in that sale to support a pretty nice pharmacy, and pay a decent wage to a knowledgeable pharmacist. Meanwhile, my copay on just one of the drugs I picked up there would have been $100, plus whatever my insurance is picking up. No wonder insurance is unaffordable for most people.
You're mistaking those charges.
That's the price of freedom. You tell sean Hannity thank you.
It starts with paying $200k+ for the education, then there's the stock market casino and people's retirement savings in healthcare and drug companies and all suppliers' stocks that would need to take a massive cut as well. A half of the society would have to be taken apart in order to see meaningful changes IMO.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/08/are-you-sure-you-want-single-payer/537456/
The author argues that we are too far down the road of privatized medicine to be able to adopt single payer vs. Europe that has decades of cost suppressing efforts under their belts. Moving to single payer would deliver healthcare to the uninsured while providing worse healthcare to those insured who are generally pretty happy with their employer sponsored plans.
Frankly I think the argument of being "too far down the road" is a poor excuse. Would there be temporary upheaval while the system adjust/disrupts itself? You bet. But at this point it is well established that we are on an unsustainable trajectory. Both sides agree on that. To not make changes because it's too hard is the one choice you can't make. Hell, I pay $1,400 a year for the privilege of having health insurance that I don't even use because it's easier to avoid the doctor in the first place than it is trying to understand the nuances of the system and how to get the care I need without incurring an absurdly high bill (see above). The system is simply fucked and it's hard to envision future prosperity for a country that spends inane amounts of money with mediocre outcomes.
I too read that earlier, and I agree. Weak sauce argument = weak sauce.
Burn it down, start over.
Single payer doesn't pay the bills
You can't expect him to raise a family on less than that and he won't make that with a single payer system.
I personally think this is mostly red herring. Compare i.e. with a cost of a single open heart surgery or cancer treatment.
I had no idea there were agreements for international basic human rights like that.
Hey - maybe Trump can do that for us. Wasn't he voted in on the "burn it down" platform?
On the burning down your rights,freedoms and bank accounts platform yes.....
Wait one damn minute. I thought we were supposed to get MOAR FREEDOM, and rights, and bank account-stuff. SHENANIGANS, I declare!
I've seen zero evidence he's capable of rebuilding anything.