Soaring cost of healthcare sets a record

[Skeptik]

Healthcare spending grew to a record 17.3% of the U.S. economy last year

Reporting from Washington - In a stark reminder of growing costs, the government has released a new estimate that healthcare spending grew to a record 17.3% of the U.S. economy last year, marking the largest one-year jump in its share of the economy since the government started keeping such records half a century ago.

Regardless of how we feel about the current health care reform debate, of whether said reform would bring down costs or not, there is one thing on which we all should agree: The current system is not sustainable over the long haul.

 

[Gadawg73]

They do not care. Most here get their health care "free" as a employee benefit and they love blank check health care.
Same with retirees of all sorts. They could care less if we go bankrupt.
"I have mine" mentality has ruined America.

 

[sealybobo]

Healthcare spending grew to a record 17.3% of the U.S. economy last year

Reporting from Washington - In a stark reminder of growing costs, the government has released a new estimate that healthcare spending grew to a record 17.3% of the U.S. economy last year, marking the largest one-year jump in its share of the economy since the government started keeping such records half a century ago.

Regardless of how we feel about the current health care reform debate, of whether said reform would bring down costs or not, there is one thing on which we all should agree: The current system is not sustainable over the long haul.

I talk with a woman in Toronto. She/They LOVE their healthcare. They pay $100 a month. With all of them pooled together to spread the risk, that is plenty of money for the socialized company that acts as the middle man instead of how we have FOR PROFITS doing it. Of course they are going to charge as much as they can and provide as little as they can get away with.

The healthcare industry in America is falling apart. Doctors are specializing in boob jobs and not in cancer research because the money is in boob jobs.

And the solution is not tort reform and malpractice insurance. That's just right wing distrations. Drop in the bucket. The problem are the out of control insurance monopolies.

You do the math. The Canadians pay $1200 a year or $100 a month.

I just went on a job interview. Listen to this. It will cost me $100 a month up front. Then the first $1500 is paid by ME. Then after that the insurance kicks in, but even then they don't pay 100% of it.

Is that a crock of shit or what? That would cost me $2,700 before the insurance company would even kick in one nickle!!! I have never spent that much in my life. So basically unless I get really sick, I'll be paying for all of my healthcare. And/or they'll be making $1200 on people who avoid going for preventative care. This is insane!

My dad worked for Ford and he only paid $5 a visit. Ok, that's not an option anymore. Thats the cadillac plans Republicans have been using to steal union votes. Fact is, those cadillac plans are going to be taken away sooner or later.

So now as a non union college graduate sales professional, I pay $20 per visit and the insurance picks up 80%, sometimes. Sometimes they nickle and dime me on a dental procedure or something. But mainly they pay 80% of anything I go for. That's ok.

But now this new company has this crappy $2700 out of pocket plan??? I worked for them 10 years ago and they had a much better insurance. This is they way things are heading people. You don't want healthcare reform? Then you assume what you have now is what you will have the next 10-50 years??? Wake up. In 10 years, 50% of us will be uninsured.

We need a public option/government run plan. PERIOD.

 

[FireGod]

As an added benefit of the US current providers, you can expect to have a thorough investigation into your medical background for any preexisting condition at all for your entire life.

You can be automatically rejected for many many things including job and medications. Diety(s) of your choice forbid if you have a tummy ache that you did not go to the doctor for BEFORE you applied for insurance.

Do you need glasses or contacts? Congratulations you have a preexisting eye condition.

Read for your self:

Health Insurance for Preexisting Conditions

Fighting a preexisting condition: greed - Los Angeles Times

Papers Show Insurers Limited Coverage for Acne, Pregnancy - washingtonpost.com

Pre-Existing Health "Conditions" -- Cops, Firefighters, Expectant Dads, and Those Suffering From Allergies, Acne and Toenail Fungus Are Uninsurable According To Internal Documents - Consumer Watchdog

Download links (it is easier to download these than wait for the document to load in your browser):

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/PacifiCareUnderwriting.pdf

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/BlueCrossUnderwriting.pdf

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/BlueShieldUnderwriting.pdf

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/HealthNetUnderwriting.pdf

 

[Old Rocks]

I have a Cadillac plan. And pay $160 a month for my wife and I. The company pays the rest, and it is a bunch! More a month than the people pay in Canada a year.

In 1992, I had a policy through a construction company that paid 80%. My wife had two major surgeries in 10 months in two seperate years. My daughter had major orthedontal surgery. I was six years paying off my portion. And I made good money at the time.

Everything that I have read about the care and the cost of the plans in other industrial nations says that we in this nation are being taken for a ride by the present Health Care System.

 

[Skeptik]

I have a Cadillac plan. And pay $160 a month for my wife and I. The company pays the rest, and it is a bunch! More a month than the people pay in Canada a year.

In 1992, I had a policy through a construction company that paid 80%. My wife had two major surgeries in 10 months in two seperate years. My daughter had major orthedontal surgery. I was six years paying off my portion. And I made good money at the time.

Everything that I have read about the care and the cost of the plans in other industrial nations says that we in this nation are being taken for a ride by the present Health Care System.

Seventeen percent is, I believe, about what we used to pay for the entire federal government before our unfunded wars and bailouts of corporations deemed too big to fail.

Now, we have unbridled growth of both health care and government.

 

[Christopher]

Healthcare spending grew to a record 17.3% of the U.S. economy last year

Reporting from Washington - In a stark reminder of growing costs, the government has released a new estimate that healthcare spending grew to a record 17.3% of the U.S. economy last year, marking the largest one-year jump in its share of the economy since the government started keeping such records half a century ago.

Regardless of how we feel about the current health care reform debate, of whether said reform would bring down costs or not, there is one thing on which we all should agree: The current system is not sustainable over the long haul.

Which is why we need to be addressing the actual causes of the health care spending growth and correct them with policies that affect the market with just small government involvement. The problem is that while we may all agree that the cost increases are unsustainable we all do not accept the fact that government spending is even more unsustainable. If we could be on the same page on those two, we would be less likely to pursue the public option or government-run plans.

 

[Skull Pilot]

State and local government spending accounted for nearly 50% of GDP

Tell me which do you think will bankrupt us first, runaway government spending or health care?

 

[Jos]

The problem I see with health care in the US is that medicine is orientated towards profit rather than as a basic social need

 

[Skull Pilot]

The problem I see with health care in the US is that medicine is orientated towards profit rather than as a basic social need

if it wasn't oriented towards profit, you wouldn't have CAT scans, MRIs, high tech neurosurgery, new life saving drugs etc etc

 

[Charles Stucker]

The problem I see with health care in the US is that medicine is orientated towards profit rather than as a basic social need

if it wasn't oriented towards profit, you wouldn't have CAT scans, MRIs, high tech neurosurgery, new life saving drugs etc etc

Yeah but the witch doctor would only charge a chicken leg, not an arm and leg.

 

[Skull Pilot]

The problem I see with health care in the US is that medicine is orientated towards profit rather than as a basic social need

if it wasn't oriented towards profit, you wouldn't have CAT scans, MRIs, high tech neurosurgery, new life saving drugs etc etc

Yeah but the witch doctor would only charge a chicken leg, not an arm and leg.

 

[Political Junky]

The problem I see with health care in the US is that medicine is orientated towards profit rather than as a basic social need

if it wasn't oriented towards profit, you wouldn't have CAT scans, MRIs, high tech neurosurgery, new life saving drugs etc etc

European countries all offer those things, and it's illegal to make a profit.
Here, the very wealthy get all that. I know all republicans like to identify with the wealthy.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

The current system is not sustainable over the long haul.

Neither is Social Security or Medicare

 

[Skull Pilot]

The problem I see with health care in the US is that medicine is orientated towards profit rather than as a basic social need

if it wasn't oriented towards profit, you wouldn't have CAT scans, MRIs, high tech neurosurgery, new life saving drugs etc etc

European countries all offer those things, and it's illegal to make a profit.
Here, the very wealthy get all that. I know all republicans like to identify with the wealthy.

they have all those things after someone who wanted to profit from the technology perfected it.

take that incentive away and the people who invent and perfect these technologies will work in fields besides medicine.

 

[Political Junky]

if it wasn't oriented towards profit, you wouldn't have CAT scans, MRIs, high tech neurosurgery, new life saving drugs etc etc

European countries all offer those things, and it's illegal to make a profit.
Here, the very wealthy get all that. I know all republicans like to identify with the wealthy.

they have all those things after someone who wanted to profit from the technology perfected it.

take that incentive away and the people who invent and perfect these technologies will work in fields besides medicine.

You can't think that all medical advances are made by Americans, or can you?

 

[Old Rocks]

Another device is helping a stroke victim, Marci Lelliott of Poole in the UK, return movement to her left hand. Marci received an implant in her forearm with electrodes attached to muscle and nerve bundles. One operational function is to extend the wrist; the other is to open the fingers. The device has then different modes to control the wrist for different purposes.

The implant is connected wirelessly with a removable box, which is worn on the forearm. It controls and supplies power to the implant. The system, named STIMuGRIP, uses accelerometers in a similar fashion to the Activity Monitor. When particular arm movements from the patient are detected by the accelerometers, the implant sends electrical pulses to stimulate the desired wrist and finger movements.

In Mechelen, Belgium, further research is being done on cochlear technologies. A new generation of implant will greatly improve the quality of life from many deaf people, allowing them to converse in louder conditions. The implant has enabled its recipient, Maurice Vertongen, to listen to music for the first time in 20 years. This is achieved by sending electrical impulses to stimulate the cochlea, the part of the inner ear responsible for hearing.

The system itself includes an external component (an ear hook similar to traditional hearing aids) and an implant which are connected wirelessly. The external component consists of the microphones, sound processor and batteries, while the implant has the electronics that send the stimulation pulses.

The Healthy Aims project hopes to develop the implant technology extensively enough so that the accompanying external part becomes obsolete. To meet this aim researchers are working on a battery that can be safely implanted in a human. The electrodes will also be designed for optimal use with the human nervous system.

With the financial backing of a collective Europe scientific community, things are being achieved, what were until recently not thought possible. The technical advances from the Healthy Aims project allows one to envision a future without deafness, or where patients can win back the use of once paralysed parts of the body.

European initiative spearheads medical advances - Star Projects - Research - European Commission

 

[rdean]

European countries all offer those things, and it's illegal to make a profit.
Here, the very wealthy get all that. I know all republicans like to identify with the wealthy.

they have all those things after someone who wanted to profit from the technology perfected it.

take that incentive away and the people who invent and perfect these technologies will work in fields besides medicine.

You can't think that all medical advances are made by Americans, or can you?

Not all.

 

[MajikMyst]

The problem I see with health care in the US is that medicine is orientated towards profit rather than as a basic social need

if it wasn't oriented towards profit, you wouldn't have CAT scans, MRIs, high tech neurosurgery, new life saving drugs etc etc

Oh Skull you are such a lamer!! Don't you know anything?? Cuba has all those machines and they are a not for profit healthcare and they are also just a tiny island..

ARe you really going to tell me that Castro knows more about healthcare than the U.S.

I will say this.. Castro knows a lot more than you do..

Any nation that is going to provide quaqlity healthcare to their people are going to have those things profit or not..

Canada has those things.. Haven't you watched Toronto ER on the television?

Do you watch anything other than FAux Noise?

 

[MajikMyst]

The current system is not sustainable over the long haul.

Neither is Social Security or Medicare

Social security and Medicare are fine as long as we can keep wild spending rebuttlicans like Bush and others out of their coffers.. Or rebuttlicans in general demanding cuts to make them fail so they can say 'See they fail.'

The only enemy to those programs are rebuttlicans.. Like any other government program, rebuttlicans can't stand to see them work cause they didn't put them into place...

Let's face it.. It is the rebuttlicans that have the real 'Kill gradma!' and 'Death panel' Policy..