A BILLION Dollars for Lifetime Medical Care!

originally posted by: DAVID64
a reply to: Edumakated

This was not just for one year, they're looking at all cost for the future, possibly even into her teenage years.

It doesn't matter, the math is impossible. I am not disputing it won't be expensive, but there is no possible way the cost of care would even approach a billion dollars.

Heck, $20 million is spending $3,000 PER DAY for the next 18 years. Heck, $50,000 PER DAY for the next 18 years is a $328 million. I'd venture there are only a handful of people in the world who require healthcare that cost $50,000 PER DAY. Most probably won't live that long at that if they need such extreme care.

a reply to: DAVID64

Almost $47 billion dollars profit in one quarter

That would be their gross, not their net.

a reply to: carewemust

Source please

a reply to: DAVID64

even if they had 3000/day for 70 years this is on 76 million dollars. something is wrong there

a reply to: seasonal

I'm sure someone had to have misspoke, misheard or exaggerated. A billion dollars is a Lot of money. The main point here is that medical care is too high. Whether it's million or billion, it's just too. damn. much.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: Edumakated

Wow even with all the govt interference the money is rolling in in dump trucks to the health insurance cos.

In fact, UnitedHealth announced record-breaking profits in 2015, followed by an even better year this year. In July 2016, UnitedHealth celebrated revenues that quarter totalling $46.5 billion, an increase of $10 billion since the same time last year.

Revenues are not profits... Sears makes billions of dollars in revenue and they are about to go belly up.

People forget that these are large enterprises with millions of customers. The numbers are large, but the rules of business don't change. You still need to make a profit.

a reply to: Edumakated


Medical inflation is higher than...well, almost anything. At current trends, what cost $10,000 today will be $20,000 in 5 years.

Why can't medical innovation lower prices for care/treatments, the way tech innovation lowers the price for Televisions, computers, etc.??

a reply to: DAVID64

The thing I can't see is how people think this is going to end well. It can't.

Without some sanity introduced to our system, again #37 on health outcomes and #1 in costs, it is going to collapse.

I will describe the collapse.
When Joe six pack and Mary six pack look at the healthcare insurance payment and the mortgage and say f-it, I need a home-I need food- I need heat. But I may not need medical insurance. Then they stop paying.

The uncontrolled costs of medical care is going to doom it.

a reply to: D8Tee

prof·it
[ˈpräfət]
NOUN
profits (plural noun)

a financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something:

a reply to: Edumakated

Oh OK then the medical insurance is now priced right,,,, nevermind

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Edumakated


Medical inflation is higher than...well, almost anything. At current trends, what cost $10,000 today will be $20,000 in 5 years.

Why can't medical innovation lower prices for care/treatments, the way tech innovation lowers the price for Televisions, computers, etc.??

Keeping people alive cost money. The reality though is that people are living longer and it is expensive to keep people alive who in a previous time would met their maker. innovation is not cheap, especially when people's lives are at stake.

Most of the medical costs are incurred at the end of life.

a reply to: Edumakated

Why is our country the only one that costs this much. And have piss poor outcomes. The US does not have a good health care system. It is expensive but is not good.

The U.S. health system spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product than any other country but ranks 37 out of 191 countries according to its performance, the report finds. The United Kingdom, which spends just six percent of GDP on health services, ranks 18 th . Several small countries – San Marino, Andorra, Malta and Singapore are rated close behind second- placed Italy.

www.who.int...

a reply to: seasonal

They seem to be too tied up in doing math and proving the OP title wrong, to see the main point :
The cost of healthcare in the U.S. is out of control. Throw in Big Pharma drug prices and it's just too much for words.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: D8Tee

prof·it
[ˈpräfət]
NOUN
profits (plural noun)

a financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something:

I'm telling you they never netted 47 billion dollars in a quarter.

I don't even have to look to know that that is their gross revenue, and not their net income.

They did not profit 47 billion in one quarter, prove me wrong.

a reply to: D8Tee

I re-read the post, you are correct-revenues of 46.5 billion.


This has little to do with the fact that out country pays #1 in costs and 37 on health outcomes.

Ignoring that is ignoring the truth.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: DAVID64

Wow.


This is why I am against tort reform, and against a limit on auto insurance med coverage (in Mich) and I think we need medicare for all. And it is a cost that cuts the for profits out of the system.

It is done in other countries much cheaper and the health out comes are much better. We are 30th in health outcomes (behind Columbia) and #1 in cost. Guess why?

In Australia the public system would pick up all the costs for a child like this. Now there would be limitations - some surgeries would come with a waiting list. Overall the system here provides very good care for emergencies and at very low out of pocket cost. Many people choose private insurance, especially for elective surgery, but even a patient with private insurance has full access to the public system if needed.

I think that many of the treatment and investigation protocols used in the US have become over inflated in cost due to a combination of defensive medicine, the wrong idea that more treatment is better, and a preference for some treatments that are more profitable (ie oncologists sell the chemotherapy to their patients).

There is a strong preference for polypharmacy in the US- and the more drugs you give, the more interactions you risk.

Multiple studies recently have shown that medical misadventure is the third largest cause of death in the US- and this is all down to too much treatment,

a reply to: Barliman

All true and your countries life expectancy is better than us in the USA. I can't figure out how, you have the tax payer funded system, I thought you all were dead already///sarc

US
Statistics
Total population (2015) 321,774,000
Gross national income per capita (PPP international $, 2013) 53
Life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2015) 77/82
Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births, 0) not available
Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population, 2015) 128/77
Total expenditure on health per capita (Intl $, 2014) 9,403
Total expenditure on health as % of GDP (2014) 17.1
Australia
Total population (2015) 23,969,000
Gross national income per capita (PPP international $, 2013) 42
Life expectancy at birth m/f (years, 2015) 81/85
Probability of dying under five (per 1 000 live births, 0) not available
Probability of dying between 15 and 60 years m/f (per 1 000 population, 2015) 74/44
Total expenditure on health per capita (Intl $, 2014) 4,357
Total expenditure on health as % of GDP (2014) 9.4

If they were quoted a lifetime projection of medical bills, with the inflation rate factored in, I can see that near-billion being feasible if they're taking inflation into account.

I have a severely handicapped younger brother who's had 20+ years of surgeries, medications, therapies, home nurses, hospitalizations, just about everything under the sun. When he was enrolled in daycare at age 4, I think it was, he'd already racked up about $15 million in bills. In the 90's. I think that's about $21 million in today's money after adjusting for inflation. I have no idea what the current "running total" for his healthcare is, but it's probably damn high.

I'll leave the 80+ years worth of ballpark projecting up to someone else, I am honestly too tired & lazy right now to look the necessary numbers & prices up & crunch them like that.

Quick edit: For the hell of it, my brother is 21. Let's assume that inflation stops today, and never increases again.
$21 million divided by his first 4 years of life in bills = $5, 250,000 annually in medical bills
$5 and a quarter million x 80 years, assuming his annual bills continue to hold steady & predictable at or near that annual amount, and assuming he even lives that long = $420 million

If we were to adjust for inflation over upcoming decades even as just a guesstimate, that could easily push a billion for my own brother's lifetime of healthcare.

originally posted by: DAVID64
a reply to: seasonal

They seem to be too tied up in doing math and proving the OP title wrong, to see the main point :
The cost of healthcare in the U.S. is out of control. Throw in Big Pharma drug prices and it's just too much for words.

Yep.
I came across a person complaining that the cost of their ADHD treatment was $900 per month for 1 tab of Strattera twice daily.
The same medication in Australia would cost $148
However most patients on Australia would be on Dexamphetamine or Ritalin. I have ADHD, and just paid $22 for 200 tabs- theoretically a month's supply, but I am currently doing well and taking half that.

So $22 Aus for 2 months treatment vs $900 US for 1 month's treatment with a drug that is arguably inferior (except in those intolerant of it or those who have a history of misusing their medication).

Big Pharma price gouging is rampant:
en.wikipedia.org...
Pricing
In 2000, the U.S. drug company Mylan agreed to pay $147 million to settle accusations by the FTC that they had raised the price of generic lorazepam by 2600% and generic clorazepate by 3200% in 1998 after having obtained exclusive licensing agreements for certain ingredients

That

a reply to: Barliman

What is odd is here in the US there is a large part of the population that defends the goat screw of a mess we have.

I can't figure it out, the info is out to how poor our health care system is and how much more it costs than other countries.

It is the for profit system that has now become the problem. THey refuse to keep cost down-it has to go up every year, hell every quarter, has to. So the cost has to go up, has to.