posted on Jul, 21 2015 @ 12:18 PM
And the Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries,
The story linked to provides an egregious example of why I am so adamant that ACA (Obamacare) is not worthy of being called reform. Any form of so
called single payer systems will also have the same basic defect of overcharging and price gouging that is rampantly prevalent throughout the entire
system.
So long as the medical industry in the United States enjoys protection from prosecution under the Sherman, Clayton and Robinson-Patman acts there
exists no free market able to discover true price point or economic value in any real sense.
The political class, media and all manner of special interest groups propagandize that the "problem" is insurance affordability which is a Trojan
horse that keeps the true nature of the problem from being tackled.
The true problem is unfettered
Corruption, Price Collusion, Price Fixing, Price Gouging, No Fixed Pricing Quote, Charging Differently for
Services ad nauseum which in turn make care unaffordable for uninsured patients and care for insured patients very expensive through inflated
premiums.
The Rattlesnakes are in Congress and Hospitals
Robinson-Patman makes illegal price discrimination among like kind and quantity purchasers. Since the consumer of the commodity in question
(rattlesnake antivenom) is the person who got bit (irrespective of how he or she pays) that appears facially to be a violation of said federal
law.
The Sherman and Clayton Acts make any organized act to restrain trade or fix prices a federal felony carrying both criminal and (very large) civil
penalties. By design the "health insurance" system fixes prices when on a statistical basis nobody could possibly pay the asking price without said
"insurance."
If a majority of Americans understood the criminality of the entire medical industry and demanded true reform including jail terms for the most
egregious then medical care would once again be in reach of most peoples budgets and only require low cost catastrophic insurance. Government paid
care for the poor or indigents would not threaten to bankrupt the country in a matter of years and the Medicaid/medicare programs would stay solvent
and affordable.
Calling for more insurance benefits under the current circumstances just feeds the beast.