Why does healthcare cost so much?

[Gadawg73]

You are right but infant mortality has little or nothing to do with the cost of health care or how healthy a nation is.

Perhaps, the government should also (through mandates) order us to wear brimmed hats outside to make a healthier nation in regards to skin cancer. If this bill passes the muster with the Supreme Court, it opens up a can of worms on what the government can mandate.

Yes there would be nothing the government could not make us do and the concept of America,i.e., freedom from government, would, in effect , be destroyed. Thank you liberals. What you could not get by spying for Stalin you are getting in other ways:

Norman Thomas quotes:
The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.

Liberals support the current system.
Liberals love it when someone else, group health insurance paid for by the company, provides for their blank check health care. Government offers large tax incentives to employers to keep it this way.
Liberals love Medicare where seniors get free blank check health care.
Liberals love it that all government workers get their health care paid for.
The current system is as close to socialism as it gets.
Conservatives want THE INDIVIDUAL to pay for their own damn health care, not group health care subsidized by government, not Medicare and Medicaid subsidized by government and not giving government workers blank check health care provided at tax payer expense.

 

[Greenbeard]

Liberals love it when someone else, group health insurance paid for by the company, provides for their blank check health care. Government offers large tax incentives to employers to keep it this way.

Given the 9.5 percent affordability standard for employees' coverage and the coming limit on the tax deductibility of employer-sponsored insurance, the days of the "blank check" are ending. And if you want employees to be able to take a defined contribution from their employer into a competitive insurance market where you can choose a plan, that will also be an option. Things are changing.

 

[Gadawg73]

Liberals love it when someone else, group health insurance paid for by the company, provides for their blank check health care. Government offers large tax incentives to employers to keep it this way.

Given the 9.5 percent affordability standard for employees' coverage and the coming limit on the tax deductibility of employer-sponsored insurance, the days of the "blank check" are ending. And if you want employees to be able to take a defined contribution from their employer into a competitive insurance market where you can choose a plan, that will also be an option. Things are changing.

For the bad they are changing in many cases.
Insurance companies run the show. It takes my friend 2 extra employees just to figure out each of the 1000 health insurance companies in America and their different rules.
He has been an MD for 30 years and states the current system is broken and unsustainable. He states the insurance companies only negotiate with the large companies for business and subsidize that market with very high premiums on the self employed.
And I can vouch for that as I am a small business.
Group health care is the problem. Someone else pays the bill.
"It is free so let us go"
And the end of year "I have already met my deductible so I am going to every doctor I can" mentality is being taken advantage of by the consumers and the doctors solicit it.

 

[Euro]

The bottom line is that we can reduce our healthcare costs dramatically by reducing our weight. .

I think a big country like US should give the states more power, let the states run the health-care programs not the government. States like California and Montana dosen’t have that large problem with obesity. Missisippi and Alabama are the states with most fat people. Their are big differences between the states. Small states with strong local power is always better than large centralized government. So more power and responsibilities to the states. Let the states decide what’s fits best for them.

It’s also seems at those states whcih a large majority of GOP voters struggle much more with obesity. E.g. Texas, Missisippi, Alabama.

The states with democrat majority voters like California, New York,Vermont, New Hampshire don’t have that big problem so socialized medicine can be more affordable in democrat states.

It seems to be a clear tendence that states with a majority of GOP voteres struggle much more with obesity than democrat states. I don’t know why but GOP states are fat. So the Pubs need to put on diet.

 

[dblack]

I think a big country like US should give the states more power, let the states run the health-care programs not the government. States like California and Montana dosen’t have that large problem with obesity. Missisippi and Alabama are the states with most fat people. Their are big differences between the states. Small states with strong local power is always better than large centralized government. So more power and responsibilities to the states. Let the states decide what’s fits best for them....

Agreed. And you know what the US needs to do to give the states this power? Nothing. States already have the power to implement whatever health care programs they want. Unfortunately, the PPACA takes away the rights of the states to do as you suggest, forcing them all to follow a similar path.

 

[Greenbeard]

I think a big country like US should give the states more power, let the states run the health-care programs not the government.

State governments do run their health care programs.

 

[Meister]

I think a big country like US should give the states more power, let the states run the health-care programs not the government.

State governments do run their health care programs.

states vs. federal mandate...does this help greenbeard?

 

[Gadawg73]

the cost has gone way way done with a variety of machines available the world over. In Japan for example the cost of an MRI is about $200Liberals have made competition illegal here. Imagine the cost of a blue ray if liberals did that in that industry too?

You have no clue.
I am conservative Republican and know that the US leads the world in down time for expensive testing machines.
That is why they cost so much. In Japan the MRI is utilized over 90% of working days.
Less than 20% in America.

 

[justathought]

I think prices became inflated because Medicaid and Medicare wouldn't pay full price for procedures. Doctors and hospitals then raise the prices to compensate for lack of payment. They know they are only going to get a certain percentage of the asking price. Next thing you know they've created hyper inflation in the cost of health care. They didn't goto school and learn to do that work to not get paid. However, having an oath to preserve life should make prices affordable to a minimum wage full-time worker. That is the best a lot of people can do, and it's a hard life full of hard work.

 

[merrill]

"Why does healthcare cost so much? "

Because health care goes through the middleman who decides what care is covered in the insurance coverage regardless of what is necessary. That middleman is the medical insurance industry who is raking in bundles off others misfortune.

The medical insurance industry does not provide health care so why is the medical insurance industry involved at all?

Dump the medical insurance industry or better yet offer consumers IMPROVED Medicare Single Payer Insurance and allow voluntary sign up. Now we're talking!

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

"Why does healthcare cost so much? "

Because health care goes through the middleman

most goods and services go through many middle men, but capitalist competition makes stuff so cheap that Americans are the richest people in human histry.

Health care is an exception because liberals made competition, which drives down price and quality up, illegal!!

Most liberals will lack the ability to understand how competition works.

 

[Political Junky]

"Why does healthcare cost so much? "

Because health care goes through the middleman

most goods and services go through many middle men, but capitalist competition makes stuff so cheap that Americans are the richest people in human histry.

Health care is an exception because liberals made competition, which drives down price and quality up, illegal!!

Most liberals will lack the ability to understand how competition works.

Private Insurance can't compete with Medicare for All, and that's why the republicans want to change Medicare to a voucher [private] system.

 

[Old Rocks]

My biggest problem with gov't health care is our gov't. I'm not concerned about how the british did it or the french did it. They won't be running our system.

Before we allow the gov't to take over our healthcare, can someone tell me one thing our federal government does well and efficiently? Ok, besides the military (we can bomb folks VERY well).

Social Security, for one thing.

MediCare, for another. Interesting, up to the age of 65, we are behind all the other industrial nations. After the age of 65, our stats are virtually identical with those of most other industrial nations. What happens at 65? MediCare.

 

[Old Rocks]

"Why does healthcare cost so much? "

Because health care goes through the middleman

most goods and services go through many middle men, but capitalist competition makes stuff so cheap that Americans are the richest people in human histry.

Health care is an exception because liberals made competition, which drives down price and quality up, illegal!!

Most liberals will lack the ability to understand how competition works.

What the hell are you talking about? Our health system is the most expensive in the world when compared on a per citizen basis. And we don't cover a significant percentage of our citizens. Our results are third world.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVgOl3cETb4]"We're Number 37" - Paul Hipp - YouTube[/ame]

Japan's cost is 1/3 of ours per citizen, they cover all of their citizens, and they have the highest longevity in the world, and their infant mortality is 1/2 of ours. In fact, the per citizen cost of every other industrial nation is lower than ours, and their results are all better. Even little Costa Rica has better results than we do, and they are not an industrialized nation.

 

[Old Rocks]

And would you haggle over the prices for table dances? Or would you just go with the hottest girl?

I wonder what would happen to the prices....

Exactly, health care is our least efficient industry because it is the least Republican capitalist. With capitalism low price and high quality is the only way to stay in business.

Imagine how bad and expensive a car would be if there was no competition, like in liberal healthcare? These are the kind of kindergarten questions you have to ask a liberal. It is our thankless civic duty even though it is like trying to teach a dog calculus.

I see no objections from conservatives or liberals with the current system when someone else is paying their tab.
Where are all the conservatives crying foul when health care prices rise 15% a year and inflation is only 1%?
Blank check health care is a failure. The health care industry has figured out they can take advantage of it and they are, big time.
Unfunded Medicare is around 20 trillion for the next 30 years.
Bye Bye America. Health care costs will bankrupt us.
Problem is no one understands basic economics. What I took my freshman year at the university.

OK. Canada is the nation closest to us in terms of culture. How do they fund their Health Care System? Their economy seems to be doing reasonably well.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Our health system is the most expensive in the world .

all agree but liberals lack the ability to understand and agree that capitalism drives costs down

 

[lizzie]

Exactly, health care is our least efficient industry because it is the least Republican capitalist. With capitalism low price and high quality is the only way to stay in business.

Imagine how bad and expensive a car would be if there was no competition, like in liberal healthcare? These are the kind of kindergarten questions you have to ask a liberal. It is our thankless civic duty even though it is like trying to teach a dog calculus.

I see no objections from conservatives or liberals with the current system when someone else is paying their tab.
Where are all the conservatives crying foul when health care prices rise 15% a year and inflation is only 1%?
Blank check health care is a failure. The health care industry has figured out they can take advantage of it and they are, big time.
Unfunded Medicare is around 20 trillion for the next 30 years.
Bye Bye America. Health care costs will bankrupt us.
Problem is no one understands basic economics. What I took my freshman year at the university.

OK. Canada is the nation closest to us in terms of culture. How do they fund their Health Care System? Their economy seems to be doing reasonably well.

That's likely because they don't do the stupid shit our government does, like bailing out corporations, bankers, and other failures, and their welfare programs aren't nearly as loosely funded as ours are.

 

[jillian]

For the Health Care System, we need Universal Health Care, not the horrid for profit system of today.

For our children, we need to do whatever it takes to get them physically active. That has mental benefits as well as physcial. Just living longer is not a good goal. Living longer actively is. One cannot do that as an obese slug.

Do you trust the government to approve medical procedures and pay for them? Why woud you think that when every expert and health care official tells you differently? At least in for profit health care, you can get some. Once the government decides health care isn't worth it for you, based on the cost benefit analysis, you don't get any at all.

the government already makes those decisions for people on medicare/medicaid. i trust them far more than insurance companies who have a profit motive and who have proven that they will delay approval for treatment until the person dies.

and you shouldn't trust insurance companies either...and wouldn't if you had half the sense you were born with.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

We all know that the health care is costing so mush..

because liberals made capitalism illegal in that industry??

 

[Gadawg73]

The good news is coming soon and is already being started:
Most insurance companies, especially the companies that insure government employees, are requiring "wellness" examinations of all the insured.
They are determing who is fat, who is a smoker and who is in bad shape health wise because they are lazy.
And they are being rated accordingly. Healthy employees that keep themselves in shape are being rewarded with a bonus of say $40-$100 a month for staying healthy.
Companies that hire fat, lazy, smokers and folks that do not practice the wellness program are penalized in their increased premiums.
THANK GOD SOME SENSE FINALLY.
This is the new wave coming and it is much needed. Now we have to transfer this to Medicare and Medicaid and weed out the dope heads, the smokers and the lazy and watch our premiums plummet.
You smoke and do not exercise and have no other disease that was not your fault? Sorry. We are no longer going to pay your high insurance premiums, we are going to fire you and you can fend for yourself.
About time.