12 Responses to “Health Care Profits Before Patients”

1. pelmo says:

   Sunday, August 9, 2009 at 8:20 am

   We all should be walking around wearing hip boots with the amount of bullshit put out by all sides involved on this issue.

   As long as everyone keeps telling us not to worry about the details, I am totally against a thousand plus page plan; which we all know will icrease in size as things will be thrown in at the last minute.

   I agree with the two women Bill Moyer had on his show this week. Throwing money at the problem won’t solve it.

   Everyone seems to know what the problems are, so why not start fixing them. It seems a lot cheaper and smarter then some giant plan congress is trying too cook up.

   Reply
   • Xman says:

     Sunday, August 9, 2009 at 9:25 am

     I can’t seem to identify a single person who is trying to actually fix health care.
     I see a lot of people holding onto turf and others trying to take turf.

     Reply
2. pelmo says:

   Sunday, August 9, 2009 at 12:51 pm

   Xman you are becoming a total old sage since you started living off the land and smoking those herbal cigarette’s. Your wisdom bewilders me. You are so right in your assesment.

   Reply
   • Xman says:

     Monday, August 10, 2009 at 7:16 pm

     The “herb” lets me wake up once in a while to find political, governmental and journalistic succubus’s/succubi in my bed….@#$%&*! my brains away. I’m still working on the most effective ways to kick them from my bed.

     Reply
3. Indigobusiness says:

   Monday, August 10, 2009 at 7:31 am

   I’ve been bankrupted twice by catastrophic medical costs.

   I was recently in the emergency room, I was billed $7000+ for my visit. Not including the $4,000+ ambulance transfer to another hospital. Don’t ask about the bills I racked-up there.

   My point hinges on the fact that there is no realistic billing or cost considerations.
   Some of the bills offered 40% discount for full payment, some 20%, some 10%. Had I been insured, I’m guessing the billing would’ve been at a completely different rate (as it was my last hospital misadventure).

   Something has to be done to get the profit motive out of healthcare, it shouldn’t be big business. As I type this, a lady on the radio said it had been figured that universal healthcare would ultimately cost less than $1 per day per person.
   I don’t doubt it. If Costa Rica can take care of their people as well and as economically as they do, we should be able to as well.

   It’s all money, and who’s on which tit.

   Reply
   • Xman says:

     Monday, August 10, 2009 at 7:20 pm

     I had a colonoscopy a few years go. They billed my insurance about $1200. Out of curiosity, I asked them what it would cost if I walked in off the street….at least $2200.

     Nice way to stick it to the poor and uninsured while they are under the anesthetic.

     Reply
     • Indigobusiness says:

       Monday, August 10, 2009 at 9:12 pm

       It’s outrageous. The issue is upside down. Nothing makes a lick of sense in the arguments I’ve heard in protest of universal healthcare. Obama’s Deathpanel? WTF is that? How stupid are we when Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh are quoted as sages?

       Healthcare should be a right, not a privelege…a service , not a business/racket.

       Reply
       • Xman says:

         Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 7:27 am

         I have family in Canada and Europe. They have always praised their systems. They also had great peace of mind.

         I have held residence permits in both Austria and Germany and carrying health insurance is a requirement to be a resident. I had to report my income earned in those countries (might have been in all eu countries) and they based what I pay on what I earned. I never used it, but took a few of my athletes into the hospital and service was always excellent…and better yet, they were definately more focused on the injuries than the paperwork.

         We have a “chicken little” enviroment that is nurtured in this country. The sky is always falling.

         Reply
4. pelmo says:

   Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 8:03 am

   Xman and Indigo you both hit the nail on the head. It’s the old profit motive that has to be corrected and that is what they should be working on.

   in this country there is no more forward thinking, just what will be the bottom line when they report at the end of the quarter.

   Everything seemed to work just fine when we had the mom and pop operations. From resturants to banks, when they were small they worried about the customer and not the mega profits. so lets get rid of these to big to fail corporations and get back to reality with smaller and more efficent operations.

   Reply
5. JoeC says:

   Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 5:33 pm

   What’s going on right now reminds me of a pit bull…the Big Insurance/Big Pharma is the pit bull. There are a couple of big reasons people are dead against any change in the health care system that is currently screwing them so bad: 1) Lots just pure hate Obama because he’s black and he’s Democrat, and making his agenda fail is one way for them to feel superior. 2) They know that if our current horrible system changes, every time it wiggles one way or the other, that big ol pit bull is going to readust his bite and snatch up a little more of our arm or leg between his chomped-down teeth.

   The only good thing to do is take the profit motive out, which would be to offer the option of a public plan, but if the government offers a plan without the overhead of advertising and $billion CEO salaries, the plan is going to be cheaper (and that’s the whole idea…that’s what we want!) But, if that plan is cheaper, everybody and their brother is going to switch to the public plan, so it’s going to put the private insurance companies out of business (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing…I mean, I don’t miss private fire stations…) So, if there’s a cheaper public plan offerred, then given time it will be the only plan, so we have to trust the government.
   And that’s the bottom line.
   After years and years of these guys screwing us over and lying and putting themselves first (note Congress’s health care plan…), nobody trusts the government anymore…I mean we REALLY don’t trust the spying, lying, CIA-sponsored terrorism-spewing United States Government.
   So, until our government does enough right to earn our trust again, health care costs are not going to dramatically change for the better…there’s just not a logical way it can happen, no matter what bill they pass. Much ado about nothing, I fear. Which is why if I become seriously long-term ill, I’ll heavily weigh moving to another country; it might be the best financial and quality-of-life gift I can give my children if the situation arises. And as a proud American, that sucks.

   Reply
6. Indigobusiness says:

   Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 7:27 pm

   True enough, Joe. Sinister motivations are at the heart of this clusterf*** (hush my mouth) and there is a a basic ulterior motive fundamental to it all:

   The dark lords of the right wing figured long ago that their fortunes were tied to derailing whatever administration succeeded the Bush debacle, and they knew well in advance they were sure to lose the election. They knew it longggg ago and have been sharpening their swords in expectation of shredding whatever major initiative this administration, regardless who headed it, first hung its hat on. It just happens to be Obama and healthcare.

   It’s almost comical how quickly their plans unfold after the shit hits the fan. It still shivers me timbers how soon their story of who and what was behind 911 hit the media. They nearly explain things before they happen. And boy were they ready for this fight. It’s a mockery of democracy.

   Reply
7. JoeC says:

   Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 10:21 pm

   True, true…

   Reply

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