Have we Americans lost the plot?

Every angle the American people get screwed. The basic costs of medicine itself is inflated. The fact that pharmaceutical's costs fluctuate so tremendously throughout the world is just another tax.

a reply to: Skeeball

Pharma fluctuates so research $$ can be saved up for the next drug. (we are told)

For profit medical and affordable can not exist in the same universe.

a reply to: Skeeball

Example..

Person paying into Highmark Blue cross Blue shield. ( job paying taxes and personal health insurance)
LYRICA 30 day supply... $350 USD.

Medicare part D 3rd tier... $6.50 USD. ( person whom we hope payed into the system )

Which would one take?

They lost it long ago . Its ok . Making another fortune on popcorn and tissue stocks .

Let's cut to the chase.
U.S. health care costs are the highest in the world.
Twice that of second place country.

26th in quality of care.

You young people tell me the answer.

a reply to: flatbush71

Quit your job and take Medicare?

Certainly not my first choice. But wise.🤔

They're, they, someone is providing a forced path into the system.

a reply to: flatbush71

Perfect TL;DR post!

Young or old, we need action. Staying along this path will not bode well for anyone who pays for insurance.

a reply to: flatbush71

We are being screwed because it is profitable.

Odd how the media doesn't talk about the terrible health outcomes-costly medical care does not = better outcomes.

I have little hope this will be resolved until a complete crash occurs and hospitals shut down and many many people die.

Who is going to be the first one to take a pay cut? Hospitals? Dr.s? Insurance? Or the public?

a reply to: JinMI

33 words😆😆😆

Ok 2 were abbreviated

a reply to: Bigburgh

I'm all about efficiency! Thus the reason such long OP's are difficult!

a reply to: JinMI

I hope you keep this going. And appreciate your work. 🤗




But I understand😊

a reply to: Bigburgh

Following this discussion:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
is proving my point.

The battle wages. Both sides screaming over who will fund insurance companies better while no one acknowledges the elephant in the room.

I'm starting to think I'm the one misinformed...which is completely plausible.

a reply to: JinMI

As someone who served for 10+ yrs as a trustee of 4 separate multi employer benefit trust funds with a little over 3,000 beneficiaries and $500+ million in assets, part of what we did was to oversee the administration of health & welfare benefits.

My experience tells me that we have several culprits in our healthcare mix who cause the bulk of our gloom & doom, but it really just boils down to taking capitalism or profit out of healthcare delivery.

Private, for profit, healthcare insurance providers are publicly traded corporations with an obligation to produce year over year profits for their shareholders and the way you generate profits in the insurance industry is by finding ways to NOT pay as many claims as possible.

Their job is to make money, they are not in it to make sure you have a positive healthcare outcome.

Then we have the big pharma industry, who basically has the same profit motives as healthcare insurance providers, with their own set of wholesalers and distribution middle-men, each with their own mark-ups, who drive the cost up even higher.

Then we have the bargaining power of 300 million American consumers being diluted by the fact that our voice, like our patronage, is split up amongst numerous insurance providers & plans.

IMO, the only reasonable answer is to adopt a not-for-profit, single-payer, "Medicare For All" system that is truly universal. A system that delivers basic healthcare to everyone and everyone other than the indigent pays their share of tax to support it.

I know you don't like forcing people to purchase healthcare insurance coverage, but the biggest single factor lowering the cost of any healthcare plan is the size of the pool of beneficiaries. The bigger the pool, the lower the cost.

By adopting a single payer system similar to those utilized by most of the industrialized world, we can eliminate the useless & costly aspects of our current healthcare delivery system that use up precious resources for things like advertising, CEO salaries, claims denial departments and profits for shareholders.

Furthermore, we would be uniting the bargaining strength of 300 million American consumers into one very powerful voice that will actually have some real influence in the healthcare & pharmaceutical marketplace.

It's the only way to get the biggest bang for our healthcare buck while not letting anyone slip through the cracks.