swgohome.com

Ok, I think the gun thing has been there for a long time and since the last obamacare thread went out of control (and then locked) I decided to open a new one where we can all "freely express ourselves" (I just sounded like a middle school teacher?)

Here I add a link to a time magazine article 11 pages long about healthcare that was published this week and I hope you guys read it. Once you are finished reading it, you'll feel outraged. Here's an appetizer:

regarding a medical bill>

The first of the 344 lines printed out across eight pages of his hospital bill — filled with indecipherable numerical codes and acronyms — seemed innocuous. But it set the tone for all that followed. It read, “1 ACETAMINOPHE TABS 325 MG.” The charge was only $1.50, but it was for a generic version of a Tylenol pill. You can buy 100 of them on Amazon for $1.49 even without a hospital’s purchasing power.

According to one of a series of exhaustive studies done by the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm, we spend more on health care than the next 10 biggest spenders combined: Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia. We may be shocked at the $60 billion price tag for cleaning up after Hurricane Sandy. We spent almost that much last week on health care. We spend more every year on artificial knees and hips than what Hollywood collects at the box office. We spend two or three times that much on durable medical devices like canes and wheelchairs, in part because a heavily lobbied Congress forces Medicare to pay 25% to 75% more for this equipment than it would cost at Walmart.

The expensive technology deployed on Janice S. was a bigger factor in her bill than the lab tests. An “NM MYO REST/SPEC EJCT MOT MUL” was billed at $7,997.54. That’s a stress test using a radioactive dye that is tracked by an X-ray computed tomography, or CT, scan. Medicare would have paid Stamford $554 for that test.

Patient was charged $18 each for Accu-chek diabetes test strips. Amazon sells boxes of 50 for about $27, or 55¢ each

$21,000 Heartburn Bill

in the end, it seems obamacare was mostly a waste of time. People keep going broke while the hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies continue with their orgies.


http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/

I agree, the system is horrible.

Let's scrap it and put something in place that isn't operating on a profit motive.

In the end?
Most of it hasn't kicked in yet...

Well at least ya'll know where your taxes are going to.
I don't know how you can allow such prices for things cheaper in stores then in hospitals.....anyhow, worst part is, most likely by the time the problem kicks in, Obama will no longer be president to answer to them, or isn't that what tends to happen in politics?

MT

This isn't even about Obamacare. Read the full article - the problems are far deeper and more systemic than that.

(SWGO)Minas_Thirith wrote:Well at least ya'll know where your taxes are going to.
MT

Actually, I honestly haven't a clue where our tax money is going to. Most of the American people and, I dare say, most of Congress doesn't either. Some of it from Obama's first term went to line the pockets of campaign contributors and friends of his thru bailouts right before they declared company bankruptcy, a lot went to shovel-not-so-ready projects to boost employment that no one can seem to identify, and a lot more increasing the size of Government in directions it did not need to...etc. nothing to show for all those trillions wasted in under 4 years. Now we will waste trillions more on a Healthcare behemoth that Congress passed without knowing what exactly it was that they passed. Guess we will find out soon enough.

You complain about Specialized doctors making money huh? Of course they're in it for the money, that's why they chose to be 'Specialists'! Obamacare will all but obliterate the incentive for practicing specialized medicine, so for you cancer patients, heart attack victims, transplant needy folks, brain tumor unfortunates out there...suck it up and get to the back of the line. Before long you will be seeing a General Practice Doctor for all that [poo], and there will be an additional 11 million illegals who will have as much right to see those doctors before you do. Suckas!

Another typical example of government intervention.

if you read the article you will understand that the doctors aren't so much the problem... it's the hospitals and insurance companies that keep controlling us. Palpatine is a kid in diapers compared to these people. Regulation needs to be imposed on the way hospitals and insurance companies deal with healthcare. Doctors can win all they want, but a non for profit hospital can't have such incredible profits like that and insurance companies need to be regulated so they pay more than 50% of the bill.

Darth Crater wrote: Read the full article - the problems are far deeper and more systemic than that.

true, that's why I said that obamacare was not doing much... basically the problem is still there and something needs to be done.

Matt-Chicago wrote:In the end?
Most of it hasn't kicked in yet...

Especially the parts that actually benefit ppl...