Healthcare costs have soared. Obamacare failed to live up to its promises. And my lead image dramatically understates the problems with costs. 
Changes Since 1983
- CPI: 208 percent
- Medical Care Services: 505 percent
- Hospital Services: 975 percent
- Medical Care Commodities: 308 Percent
Changes Since Obamacare Started
- CPI: 41.28 percent
- Medical Care Services: 77.98 percent
- Hospital Services: 77.98 percent
- Medical Care Commodities: 29.94 percent
Understanding BLS Calculations
The numbers look bad but they are much worse than they look because of the way the BLS calculates the CPI.
On all CPI calculations, the BLS only counts costs directly paid by consumers.
To the extent corporations and Medicare are obscuring more of the costs, the CPI numbers are understated.
Health Insurance Coverage 2023
- Employment-based insurance: 54.5% of the population
- Medicare and Medicaid: 18.8% of the population
- Direct-purchase coverage: 9.9% of the population
- TRICARE (Active Military Service): 2.4% of the population
- VA and CHAMPVA coverage: 1.0% of the population
The above is an AI-generated response. It totals 86.6 percent.
Census. Gov says that in 2022, 92.1 percent of people, or 304.0 million, had health insurance at some point in the year.
Those in various Medicare plans have seen smaller increases than those buying insurance for themselves.
And the cost of direct pay is outrageous. Large corporations can get better deals than smaller ones.
The BLS averages this all in to arrive at the numbers posted in the chart. Heaven help anyone paying for their own insurance who gets cancer or other serious needs.
Rolling the Dice
Obamacare penalizes young and healthy for the benefit of those older and with conditions.
Young adults not working for a company that provides health care benefits frequently opt out. No one can blame them.
ObamaCare Con
The Wall Street Journal discusses the ObamaCare Con
Progressives are at last acknowledging that ObamaCare is a failure. They aren’t doing so explicitly, of course, but their social-media screeds against insurers, triggered by last week’s murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, suggest as much. “We’ve gotten to a point where healthcare is so inaccessible and unaffordable, people are justified in their frustrations,” CBS News medical contributor Céline Gounder said during a Friday segment on the roasting of health insurers.
Remember Barack Obama’s promise that if you like your health plan and doctor, you could keep them? Sorry. How about his claim that people with pre-existing conditions would be protected? Also not true. The biggest howler, however, was that healthcare would become more affordable.
Grant Democrats this: The law has advanced their political goal of expanding government control over insurers, in return for lavishing Americans with subsidies to buy overpriced, lousy products. (One might observe that Democrats are driving a similar Faustian bargain to induce automakers to produce more electric vehicles.)
One problem is that simply having insurance doesn’t change people’s behavior. It does, however, cause them to use more care. This is a particular problem in Medicaid, since beneficiaries often rush to the emergency room for nonemergencies because they don’t have deductibles or co-pays.
Another problem: The nearly 100 million Americans on Medicaid or tightly regulated and generously subsidized exchange plans struggle to find doctors to treat them. Physician access for Medicaid patients has long been limited owing to the program’s low reimbursement rates.
It has gotten worse since ObamaCare expanded eligibility, as states have tried to hold down Medicaid costs by reducing reimbursements. A 2019 study found that patients were only half as likely to get an appointment with a doctor compared with privately insured patients before the law passed. Post-ObamaCare, they were less than one-third as likely. Medicaid is insurance in name only.
Patients with exchange plans hardly fare better. Affordable Care Act plan networks include on average only 40% of local physicians and 21% of those employed by hospitals. Patients must pay significantly more out of pocket to see out-of-network doctors. If you find a doctor in network, there’s no guarantee he’ll continue to be. Insurers are narrowing coverage to keep down costs.
They are also hiking deductibles, which this year averaged $5,241 for a typical plan. That’s up from $2,425 in 2014. Although subsidies reduce how much people with ObamaCare plans pay toward their premiums, they are stuck paying out of pocket until they hit their deductible.
Most healthy young people never do. That means their insurance is worthless except in the event of a catastrophic emergency, which was the gist of recent rants against insurers. Perhaps they should take up their grievances with Mr. Obama, since his law’s mandates and regulations are to blame.
ObamaCare requires plans to cover myriad government-determined “essential benefits” regardless of whether people need them. It also prohibits insurers from charging higher premiums based on a patient’s health-risk factors and limits their ability to do so for older people. The young and healthy are thus required to subsidize their elders, while taxpayers are required to subsidize everyone on the exchanges.
The WSJ noted “states have tried to hold down Medicaid costs by reducing reimbursements.”
Everyone else pays more because if it. Wait times and the struggle to find a doctor who takes Medicaid are not factored into the CPI at all.
‘This Is A Warning’: Warren, Sanders Address Sympathy For UnitedHealthcare CEO Killing
The Huffington Post reports ‘This Is A Warning’: Warren, Sanders Address Sympathy For UnitedHealthcare CEO Killing
Two of the biggest critics of the U.S. health care system condemned the assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson while calling out “vile” insurance company practices aimed at maximizing profits.
“The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the health care system,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told HuffPost in an interview on Tuesday when asked about the cold response to Thompson’s death, which included celebratory posts on social media.
“Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far,” Warren added. “This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they lose faith in the ability of their government to make change, lose faith in the ability of the people who are providing the health care to make change, and start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone.”
After drawing some criticism for her remarks, Warren clarified her comments in a statement provided to HuffPost on Wednesday.
“Violence is never the answer. Period,” the senator said. “I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called Thompson’s killing “outrageous” and “unacceptable” before similarly criticizing insurance company practices.
“I think what the outpouring of anger at the health care industry tells us is that millions of people understand that health care is a human right and that you cannot have people in the insurance industry rejecting needed health care for people while they make billions of dollars in profit,” Sanders said.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) also criticized “vile” social media posts for celebrating an “assh*le that’s going to die in prison.”
“If you gun someone down that you don’t happen to agree with their views or the business that they’re in, hey, you know, I’m next, they’re next,” he added. “And people want to celebrate it. It’s twisted.”
It’s Twisted
Government meddling is one of the reasons healthcare is so expensive.
Obamacare failed across the board. And it did so by creating big pools of those who overpay and underpay.
Let’s not mince words. People who smoke ought to pay more for healthcare because they are a higher risk. Those who are grossly overweight ought to pay more as well.
Medicaid encourages emergency visits by paying primary care doctors so little that the doctors refuse new patients.
To avoid lawsuits, doctors perform more tests than necessary. Fraud is rampant. Paperwork is excessive.
“Medicare for All” would enhance problems in all of the above.
No Skin in the Game
Customers who have already reached their max out of pocket deductibles have no skin in the game. And that’s a huge problem.
According to Medicare.Gov “No Medicare drug plan may have a deductible more than $505 in 2023. Some Medicare drug plans don’t have a deductible. In some plans that do have a deductible, drugs on some tiers are covered before the deductible.”
Once deductibles are reached, sometimes in one month, consumers have no incentive to shop around.
Other customers, unaware of cost differentials, fill prescriptions on the basis of convenience, that being the nearest pharmacy.
Denver Health at “Critical Point” as 8,000 Migrants Make 20,000 Emergency Visits
January 24, 2024: Denver Health at “Critical Point” as 8,000 Migrants Make 20,000 Emergency Visits
The Denver hospital system is turning away local residents because it is flooded with migrant visits.
Medicaid Expansion Was Supposed to Pay for Itself, Instead Hospitals Are Closing
March 9, 2024: Medicaid Expansion Was Supposed to Pay for Itself, Instead Hospitals Are Closing
10 states did not fall for the Medicaid expansion trap under Obamacare. The rest are suffering. Private payers (you, one way or another) make up the loss.
Medicaid does not pay enough to cover hospitals’ costs, meaning hospitals need to make up for the shortfall by charging private payers more.
This was one of the easiest “I Told You So” advance predictions in history.
Best of all, we have a decade of data to prove it thanks to ten states that resisted the trap.
Hospitals Turn to Pay In Advance, In Full
May 9, 2024: Hospitals Turn to Pay In Advance, In Full
If you are in the hospital emergency room, and that’s where most people without insurance go, then you get treated. Otherwise, many hospitals are turning to pay in advance for services.
Nonpayment a Huge Problem
It’s interesting to note that hospitals want payment in advance for births. Most illegals just walk in and never pay for anything.
Nonpayment is one of the reasons costs are soaring for everyone who does pay.
Obama claimed Medicaid expansion would pay for itself.
Whenever you hear that claim please run. Free government handouts are never free and most often backfire completely.
As long as we are going to have Medicare, and no politician will ever get rid of it, It would behoove Medicare and insurers to require the cheapest cost alternative on all drugs. That would force competition and eliminate fraudulent collusion.
US consumers are subsidizing the rest of the world. I would put an end to that by allowing drug imports.
The Right to Die
It’s an uncomfortable topic, where demagoguery about “death squads” abounds, but we need to have a talk about the right to die and how much money we spend prolonging a terminal patient’s life, in massive pain, for a few weeks or months.
I have made my wishes known. I do not want to be kept alive by heroic means if the quality of my life is expected to be grim. That’s a personal decision.
At the national level, we must face this very uncomfortable question: Should we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars keeping someone alive whose life expectancy is 3 months? 6 months? a year?
I say no to all for those without insurance, and no for me personally, regardless.
Also, hospitals should be free to turn away those without insurance. We need tort reform to cut down legal expenses.
When consumers have no skin in the game or not enough skin in the game, no one other than the insurers are interested in reducing costs.
That is the fundamental problem with US healthcare. Senators Warren and Sanders proposals would make everything worse.
I recommend reading The Healing of America. The author goes over all of the healthcare systems by doing healthcare tourism. While there is no perfect system, the one that is most highly rated is France’s…the most important parts of their system is that the insurance companies are not for profit and that ALL prices are negotiated to the penny. Our insurance companies make something like 15-20% profit on the dollar, whereas in France, it’s about 2%, which is used to pay salaries and expenses. Again, not a perfect system either, but the book did open my eyes to what is out there. Incidentally, the UK single payer system is a mess. As is Canada’s.
Good summary. I would point out that states have a lot of flexibility in how they reimburse Medicaid service providers because it is a shared federal-state program. In Idaho, large providers get increases and smaller ones complain, and overall, the costs to the taxpayer are soaring. But the large hospitals love Medicaid in Idaho and oppose attempts to limit it.
Fortunately Social Security (fixed income folks) increases compensate for rising medical costs.
Oh, wait …
The 2.5% SS increase for 2025 covers Medicare increases for most people. Not so much if you want to also eat though.
Medicare Part B Changes
So for many people, increased Medicare costs devour their entire Social Security increase, leaving nothing for anything else. The Government giveth and the Government taketh. Blessed be the Government.
I was speaking to a friend the other day – he works in finance for a big US investment bank — he told me that THREE young children of his colleagues have CANCER
Of course all are vaccinated against Covid.
They believe those vaccines are Safe and Effective so they don’t suspect the shots.
My friend knows otherwise because he has heart damage from the Covid Vaccines. Believe you me he’s not at all happy with the medical industry.
Congressional Committee Condemns (Nearly) Every Feature of the Covid Response
“The conclusion of the report: nothing worked and everything tried resulted in more damage than the pandemic could ever have achieved on its own. In this sense, and given the low bar of expectations for all such political commissions, every champion of truth, honesty, and freedom should celebrate this report. It is an excellent breaking of the ice around the topic. Note that this report has received very little press attention, which only further underscores the problem.
Coming in for heavy criticism: gain-of-function research, the deference to the WHO, the lab-leak coverup, the funding of pharma cutouts, business and school closures, mask mandates, the lack of serious attention to disease monitoring, vaccine mandates, the sloppy approval process, the vaccine injury system, the banning of off-the-shelf therapeutics, social distancing, the rampant fraud in business loans, the effects of monetary policy, and more.”
https://brownstone.org/articles/congressional-committee-condemns-nearly-every-feature-of-the-covid-response/
Murder on a massive scale. Then there are the maimed
The Vaccine Adverse Event Report System (VAERS) went into a 6 month backlog in 2021 after the jabs rolled out. CDC had to pay GDIT tens of millions of dollars to clear it. They knew right away safe and effective was destroying lives.
https://www.sirillp.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/GDIT-VAERS-Contract-75D30120F09621.pdf
The Vaxxers do NOT want to discuss this … for obvious reasons.
Excess deaths are also off the charts… loads of working aged people dying from TURBO cancer…heart attacks… strokes… etc….
I just had another friend die last month — stomach ache turned out to be Stage 4 stomach and lung cancer…. he was a fit competitive rugby player!!!!
Another died last year… trouble swallowing … Stage 4 intestinal cancer that was blocking his throat – they didn’t even try to chemo it because it was so wide spread. He was still running competitively at 52
A third friend died a few months ago of Turbo Pancreatic cancer… super healthy … no history of cancer in the family … just before he starts chemo they give him another shot of The Safe and Effective… cuz chemo weakens the immune system… BANG – Heart Attack! They do a full cardio and find no blockages … perfectly healthy … they blame the chemo ahhahahahaha (chemo can damage your heart in rare instances but it does not cause heart attacks). Last time I spoke to him he was urging me to get vaccinated… I kid you not.
I know at least a dozen other people with serious heart issues… one bloodclot…one neuro disease + heart issues…
Quite a few Vaxxers have told me they have brain fog and palpitations … nothing serious but they do blame the shots cuz it all started after the shots….
I wonder how many Vaxxers are experiencing symptoms but too afraid or ashamed to admit they got swindled
Warren, Sanders, et. al. “because more government will solve the problems that government intervention caused”.
Given the popularity of a single payer medical system, I’m thinking the best solution is to spinoff and expand the medical/hospital aspect of the Veterans Administration and eliminate all other providers/insurance companies etc. We can call it something non-military so as not to offend liberals eg National Health Administration.
The British already have the NHS (National Health Service) which is currently falling apart btw, but let’s no go there…
Won’t never happen. Our politicians are bought and paid for by the healthcare industry.
Thank you for pointing out the impact of emergency visits on medical costs. If you look at your graph of medical costs, the ‘break’ begins in 1986 or so. This is why:
” The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)[1] is an act of the United States Congress, passed in 1986 as part of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). It requires hospital emergency departments that accept payments from Medicare to provide an appropriate medical screening examination (MSE) for anyone seeking treatment for a medical condition regardless of citizenship, legal status, or ability to pay.” from wikipedia
Only a f*(king idiot would fail to realize the long-term consequences. When you subsidize something, you get more of it. In this case, abuse of emergency rooms, likely the most expensive service offered by hospitals. This leaves the hospital with ONE option. Pass the cost on to YOU.
You reduce medical costs by eliminating free access to expensive ER services for minor ailments and creating low-cost treatment centers. The ER bills that go unpaid are ‘overhead’ and added to your bill.
That’s also when illegal aliens were required to be medically treated at public expense.
Same year as the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) which protects vaccine manufacturers and administrators from liability for injuries or deaths caused by vaccine side effects.
Kids get their ‘wellness’ shots in the day and some show up at the ER that evening. But that’s another elephant in the room that we don’t talk about.
Think you hit a soft spot here Mish! These comments are outstanding insight and testimonies. They hit on the issue of the lawsuit drain. I believe in using standard tables and a committee decides the cost to the victim for an arm, leg, or lifetime in a wheel chair is worth. Cut out the lawyers. But NO ONE mentions about how states are demanding that insurance companies pay for gender or trans affirming care, or now insurance companies must pay for abortions. Both are selective care. Insurance does not pay for plastic surgery, why should they pay for gender or abortions? Its another category that raises costs.
Want an interesting take on health care costs per nation and over time?
https://randomcriticalanalysis.com/why-conventional-wisdom-on-health-care-is-wrong-a-primer/
and
https://randomcriticalanalysis.com/2020/02/13/its-still-not-the-health-care-prices-2017-edition/
discussed here:
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/02/random-critical-analysis-on-health-care.html
and discussion of the discussion here:
https://www.econlib.org/is-the-us-an-outlier-on-health-care-spending/
Side note: Consider this: “You get what you pay for.” in light of why one might have an open wallet come time for dear your Mom to die.
While it’s true that you get what you pay for, it’s also true that people with more money than brains often overpay … and to cater to them, there are gold-plated vanity versions of just about every product under the sun. Healthcare is no exception. When incentives don’t align properly those systemic flaws are inevitably exploited.
Emmanuel Todd: the most astonishing thing is that the rise in mortality has gone hand in hand with the highest health care costs in the world. […] Large pharmaceutical companies, supported by well-paid and unscrupulous doctors, have made available to patients in mental and emotional pain, for economic and social reasons, dangerous, addictive painkillers, very frequently leading to direct death, alcoholism or suicide. […] America is no longer functionally a democracy but rather a “liberal oligarchy.”
It’s almost as if by sucking billions of dollars out of the system in return for nothing, health insurance companies are making people sicker and shortening their lives.
For profit.
They’re not the only ones, either. You just don’t hear much about it in the media.
It’s an oligarchy all right, but a fascist (corporate control of government) one. Not “liberal” by any historic definition.
My dad was an MD. When he started practice in 1965 his malpractice insurance was $360 a year. When he retired in 1990 he paid $180K a year. Or as he pointed out, “I don’t pay anything, my patients do”. For 18 years after he retired his premiums were $130K a year since he could have been sued for malpractice up to 18 years after treatment. Note that my dad, then, had to have $130K in more or less guaranteed post tax income each year, even after he died (his estate paid). That meant he had to have saved an absolute fortune while working just for malpractice insurance, which of course drove up what his patients had to pay, either out of pocket or via health insurance premiums.
He was sued for malpractice a few times, never lost a case and in fact successfully sued lawyers for frivolous lawsuits a few times. So, it’s not like he was a quack.
Add in a vast number of trivial tests and procedures just to cover his behind which had nothing to do with good medical practice.
You want to know why medical care in the US is so expensive? Lawyers.
Standard tables for costs and a state appointed, yes doctors, insurance with some appointed by votes for determining costs, cut out the middle man.
Did not realize Dr’s needed to continue malpractice insurance 18 years after retirement due to the lawyers. My dad was also a MD. He started his practice in 1949 in a small town and was forced out of private practice in 1977 after contracting Hep C from open heart surgery. They couldn’t test for hep c in those days and they paid for blood “donations” often from junkies. Since Hep C was contagious no insurance company would cover him for malpractice so he was forced out and ended up working in occupational medicine as a plant doc for a US Navy manufacturing plant. AFAIK he was never sued and I remember growing up particularly around Christmas time people in town that he treated without pay often bringing gifts to our house. I once got an old TV that my dad let me keep in my room. He also served as county coroner for a number of years. An unpaid volunteer job. Different times for sure. Seems like Mayberry now.
Recently read an article stating the fee schedules from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid haven’t been increased for 5 consecutive years. Of course doctors haven’t had to deal with inflation according to the government. All done so the politicians can claim they are reducing costs while forcing thousands of doctors to retire or move on to corporate positions. Whenever government gets involved it’s a disaster.
Always funny to watch Americans discuss healthcare with their “socialists are everywhere and going to ruin everything approach” to healthcare.
Pretty much everywhere else in the developed world does healthcare better on a population basis than the USA where rapacious private enterprise runs amok.
But hey, socialism.
Let me provide a real life example of just how understated the BLS statistics are. I enrolled in Obamacare in 2015. My premium was $245.97. My premium for 2025 is approaching $1,000/month. That is a four fold increase in just ten years. Further, I’ve lost several plans and doctors over the years. Deductibles, co-pays and out of pocket costs are going up as well.
Obamacare gave me way worse care for way more money.
How do you know if your costs would not have accelerated even more w/o Obamacare in place?
Virtually EVERYTHING has gone up significantly since 2015!
All I know is that my premium is 4x what it was, out of pocket is much higher and the level of care sucks. Nothing else I buy has 4x’d in that period of time.
BTW, the entire increase happened when Obama or Biden were president.
I’m on my 3rd year of Obamacare. My first year I had a $165.00 monthly premium with a $13,500 deductible. The same plan went up to $325 with a $13,200 deductible. Switched plans this year to a $0 monthly premium and an $18,200 deductible. The new plan has a better selection of doctors and hospitals and I can afford the deductible. I’ve been very happy with Obamacare, but I’m in good shape at 62.
All you should really know is that you are full of crap.
meh, weak sauce. let’s remember, the name of the law is not Obamacare. it is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” most definitely not the “No Viable Protection But But But Costs Would Accelerate Even More Without This Act Act.” no one thinks it has protected patients or led to affordable healthcare – and evidence proves it. so, it’s an abysmal failure. by the way, what law of economics would lead anyone to believe subsidies would be DEflationary?
Obamacare was designed to fail. It was always intended as another welfare program
Get serious. Healthcare costs are up for all but I bet very few on a stable employer plan have seen their costs go up 4x.
Which is my point above. The costs HAVE gone up significantly, but they are hidden by the fact that the employer covers most of the cost AND you don’t get taxed on the benefit the employer provides you.
You are all hypocritical TAKERS who complain about others but aren’t willing to give up your own FREE benefits.
Agreed. All health insurance is socialism. From each according to his ability to each according to his need. Even worse when your employer pays for it. Real capitalists pay for medical care out of their own pocket.
Employer costs not up 4x either
… but I agree about the moral hazard effects of health insurance as currently implemented.
I remember wondering about the popularity of extreme sports, decades ago, and then realizing that most participants only risk temporary injury – not bankruptcy – thanks to their insurance paid by others.
As the meme says, you don’t have a right to anything which requires the labor of others.
Your premium outside that program would be higher. You’re getting a deal and whining about it.
Obama care was a wealth transfer from the outset. It was NEVER insurance, because the high risk-high cost members are subsidized by the rest. Sorry, but you were suckered.
That’s what all insurance is.
The solution is quite simple: https://www.statista.com/statistics/283221/per-capita-health-expenditure-by-country/ The USA spends by far the most per capita on healthcare, yet the care is not better than in a typical northern european country. Start doing what they do and costs will go down.
Most everything is more expensive here. That is one reason why it is foolish to try and bring manufacturing back to this country.
I’ve read stories in the past that some health insurance companies offer fully paid trips to foreign countries for medical treatment when the cost to treat someone there is significantly less than being treated in the USA and care is judged to be equal or better there than here.
Try suing for malpractice in those countries.
Too funny. Your first thought is whether you can sue someone, not whether the quality care is good or not.
Too much “socialism” in Northern Europe.
How are those programs working out with their new “residents” from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean?
This is a major problem. Employer paid healthcare is unfair and inequitable on many levels:
1. It is subsidized by taxpayers through a deduction that employers can take for providing said health insurance and yet not ALL taxpayers get employer paid health insurance.
2. It applies the so-called “golden handcuffs” to people, making it difficult to take your skills to another company until you can be sure that you can replace the healthcare you and your family need, which in the big picture view, likely results in lower GDP than otherwise.
3. It masks the true cost of healthcare that people have to pay when they have to go to the health insurance marketplace on their own.
4. The cost to provide health insurance to employees should be a fully taxable benefit to the employee. Currently, employer-paid premiums for health insurance are exempt from federal income and payroll taxes.
Employers are not required to provide health care – they choose to.
Employees can choose to work at a company – or not.
#2 and 3 sound ridiculous.
#4 would cause hardship to employees.
You aren’t going to hire professionals without healthcare. Nobody can afford their own.
Other countries don’t have employer paid healthcare.
I agree with this overall notion of eliminating the uniquely American link between employers and health coverage (you don’t get your car insurance from your employer, why should you get your health insurance?)
Having a marketplace for insurance should increase competition between insurance carriers and in turn this should hopefully reduce prices.
Another problem with employer provided health insurance is when you become suddenly UNEMPLOYED, such as when the Covid shutdowns occurred and you no longer have any health insurance. Also being unemployed, you might not be able to afford the cost, even at the employer COBRA cost.
Too many people spew comments here on every which subject with no understanding of the underlying issues.
Dumb dumb dumb
IF I want to hire and keep productive reliable people I provide benefits of real value to them. Health care, child care, pension, profit sharing, salary, leave….
Okay but the value of those benefits should all be taxed. They are not currently. So you are just another taker looking for a free ride from those who do pay taxes?
Wisconsin State employees pay $724 monthly until they get too sick to work, and COBRA is $50,505/year when they have no income or hair. Your employer insurance is the same. You are a merchant of death; wake up.
And why should this be an issue?. This is how the world has always worked throughout history. The young take care of the elderly.
The young & healthy pay lower premiums.
And your point is?
Many of the non-elderly have the medical problems of the elderly.
As should those who use marijuana (for other than a valid medical condition), alcohol and those with pre-existing conditions.
Small quantities of wine (red) are beneficial to health. See Italy, France, etc
Alcohol is a poison. Studies showing benefits are paid for by the industry or their shills.
I’m not an expert in the Medical industry, but wouldn’t the costs be affected by supply and demand? Why aren’t we focused on increasing the number of caregivers and the number of hospitals? Start by expanding medical schools and building more hospitals.
I liked Mish’s comment about skin in the game. But after thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve been given the opportunity to shop around, so maybe it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t the insurance company do the shopping around and price negotiations anyway?
Copays probably reduce excessive and unnecessary visits.
I read a study a few years ago that showed that areas with too many (in this case) medical specialist had much higher fees. With fewer patients to fund their monthly nut they all had to raise rates. So much for competition.
A big part of Medicaid is essentially just Price Controls. Constrain price and supply diminishes. But there isn’t an overall shortage of doctors or hospitals.
Working conditions and financial rewards for doctors in many specialties are not what they used to be, with the result that people trained in medicine choose not to work as much.
Reducing sick-care (treatments that create dependencies, rather than cures) and toxic food, and taking other steps to improve average health across the nation, could also free up “supply” of healthcare capacity.
The usual way is by hiring immigrant doctors. The US could easily give visas to Cuban doctors
great article. Thank you mike
““Violence is never the answer. Period,” the senator said. “I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.””
One wonders if she later added, ‘…for individuals acting on their own behalf. as for nations, they gotta do what they gotta do.’. She didn’t oppose drones eliminating hundreds of people during the Obama years and sure hasn’t been the personification of pacifism on other occasions.
https://www.leftvoice.org/elizabeth-warren-votes-for-massive-increase-of-war-budget/
“On September 18 [2017], Elizabeth Warren, the much beloved poster child of the “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party, voted for a bill that authorizes $700 billion in defense funds. This includes $640 billion for the Pentagon and an additional $60 billion for military operations in countries such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. This bill increased military spending by $80 billion, which far surpasses the increase requested by America First President Trump ($54 billion). There were 8 no votes (against 89 yes votes) and three abstentions, but Warren was not one of them.”
In my view, medical costs started rising when people started paying with credit cards.
Back in the 80’s, doctors & dentists only took cash.
Doubtless the new and growing HIV epidemic added to medical costs along with illegal immigration adding to medical costs and drug resistant TB in the ’80s and ’90s. .
And further, in ’82 insider corporate stock buy backs were allowed by the SEC, gaming the rise of finance capital costs among corporations and politicians during the remaining chart period while illegal immigration surged during the high interest rates as well low interest rates in the post 2009 period. .
The federal government spends more on AIDS than NASA. I don’t know how much states and local governments spend in addition.
During the Monkeypox epidemic among homosexuals a few years back, a UK survey found that 96% were homosexuals, 32% had more than 10 sexual partners in the last 3 months and 54% had an STD within the past year.
Lack of impulse control consistent with mental illness.
I was around in the ‘80’s. Medical costs were exploding and a big worry then too. Go back to the ‘60’s. There’s a reason the government created Medicare and Medicaid. Private medical care has been a market failure in this country because the incentives are wrong.
What increased costs was litigation, excessive testing using expensive equipment, expensive drugs, etc etc.
in other news, CBS is reporting a Kevlar shortage as CEO’s and their families are buying up all stock of body armor. Kramer is recommending buy, buy,buy KVLR and hold its going to the moon.
one conclusion: what we have been doing to lower healthcare costs is not working at all. doing more of the same does not make sense, time for radical reform and government run care is not the solution unless you want even less accountability and choice
it wasn’t designed to work in the sense that you use the word. It is in fact working according to the design team and making some people very very rich, while killing many poor and middle class which is a feature not a bug.
we can’t know what its in the bill, until we pass the bill..
the check is in the mail
if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. pay attention…
the world is not what the media tells you.
some cynical people would say that obamacare is doing exactly what it was intended to do. completely break the medical system so that people demand that government step in and take complete control of it.
next up: your food and money to be completely controlled by government
Your AI generated chart does not add up to 100%. When AI makes a mistake you should tell the bot about the mistake. Ask it to justify or correct and it will do so.
we need an AI to manage the AI, to manage the AI, its turtles all the way down…
It’s very simple. Healthcare is bankrupting the USA. I don’t know what the best fixes need to be, but it’s at the nexus of spiraling out of control costs.
If we can’t afford to buy a home or pay our health insurance premiums, then we’re screwed.
So let’s just add this to the long list of things Trump needs to try to fix in his last four years.
With that said, we’ve got to find ways to cut costs, so this means a loss of jobs which may mean a recession.
And why the hell do I have to pay the same premium for my two kids as someone with 3, 4, 5+ kids? That’s ludicrous!!!
Massachusetts ‘supposedly’ has some of the best health care in the country but if you move here, good luck finding a doctor because the waitlist for new patients is 6 months or more statewide.
They claim there’s a shortage of doctors and healthcare workers. My belief is there actually isn’t a shortage: it isn’t in the budget to hire more doctors or nurses in Massachusetts because the income stream wouldn’t support it. Half the state is low income and a huge percentage of the population is on Medicaid.
That’s why there’s a shortage of doctors.
The 6+ months wait is not because there is a shortage of doctors. Insurance companies have laid down new rules in certain states, considerably cutting down on compensation for medical professionals.
For example, primary care physicians are only compensated a fraction of their normal fee by the insurance company if they see the same patient more than once every 6 months or if they spend more than a certain amount of time with a patient per visit.
You can thank Obamacare and the democrats for this.
all good points. Then add in how many states have added illegals into the system?
Wasn’t this part of the Dukakis “Massachusetts Miracle”?
The real cost should not be measured in Dollars, but in excess deaths, excess disabilities, people made sicker by the treatments prescribed to them by doctors. Calley Means has it right: The food industry poisons us with glyphosate and other toxic chemicals, and the medical industrial complex benefits by never addressing the cause of our sicknesses, only treating the symptoms.
When the causes of illness are due to multiple variables over a life time (which most chronic illnesses are) and the symptoms are the end result of these variable inputs what would your solution be? Legislate peoples personal habits, diets lifestyles etc.?
The symptoms of disease are manifest as a result of a lifetime of living and some genetic good/bad luck. Looking to blame doctors for treating symptoms is simply inane and other than symptoms what would you have them do/treat?
You seem to be unaware of the fact that doctors have been trained to be glorified drug pushers, and receive little education or training in nutrition, for example, which is a huge cause of much of the chronic illness we see in Americans. The business model is ‘Don’t kill the patient if possible, but never ever cure them so well that they can avoid taking the treatments we sell.’ It’s a great business model, especially when you factor in the ‘side effects’ that sometimes appear, causing patients to seek cures for whatever those ailments are. I don’t really fault doctors, though. The entire system is designed to keep the cash flowing, and cares little about patient outcomes.
As for what I would have them do/treat – I would have them find a way to align their incomes with patient outcomes. Learn what the root causes of illness are, and start to treat them. Calley Means, Andrew Kaufman and Brian Ardis are a few who have done this.
How much would a hamburger cost at McDonald’s if every homeless person or illegal alien could walk in and say it’s an emergency and McDonald was required by federal law to give them free food? And, when McDonalds asked the government to cover the expense they were told to just charge all the other customers more to pay for it.
I love a bad analogy simplifying a very complex issue into buying a cheeseburger. Just wanted to notify you, that you are under consideration for this years winner of the Syntax and Supposition Through Bad Analogy,Simile or Metaphor Award.
(don’t be dissappointed its a very large field of entrants this year)
Let me simplify it for you.. the democrats suc ass.
ahh so the solutions is voting…
thanks for the insight..
i guess its all our faults for not voting harder.
it should have been cured decades ago if we had only known to vote harder…
An incredibly insightful comment. The fundamental principle is you get more of what you subsidize, and less of what you tax. Instead, we tax productivity, and reward non producers
I foresee the root cause eventually being put directly on unhealthy lifestyles. The fix will be tracking purchases, specifically unhealthy lifestyle purchases which will then be bridged to higher healthcare costs to the individual. People who live healthier, their costs will simply go down. I don’t like it at all but there really is no other way.
It won’t solve all our problems but it will solve the main ones which is demanding society accept the delusion that obese people can be physically and mentally healthy and crush products that should not be thriving on EBT purchases like soda and potato chips. Soda should not be the main item purchased with EBT. Everyone knows this era is coming to an end.
On that note – why not genetically test everyone and if they are more susceptible to certain diseases or cancers, charge them higher premiums? While we’re at it, assign them digital IDs and microchip implants and constantly track and monitor all their activity and movements to penalize them for not exercising enough or driving too fast, etc.
That’s not on my note. I am against that fully. Only purchases. Obamacare actually hit on this. The cost for smokers was suppose to be higher. I remember showing it to a smoker who voted for Obama. He swore it wasn’t true until I showed it to him in writing. He rolled his eyes and walked away. Yeah, the eye rolling must end. Live like that you pay more.
A socialist nightmare
Should we all chip in to pay for the neurosurgeon to make ‘a vegetable’ from a motorcycle rider after a collision?
BTW, vegetable is in quotes because a neurosurgeon friend once used that term talking about his work–“I make vegetables.” His worst cases were always motorcyclists, if they survived the first few days.
Doesn’t have to be. You are neglecting the supply side.
embroynic DNA testing with instant abortion of those deemed unworthy via genetics, income, social status or zip code. a perfect job for AI
why should humans have to make all the hard decisions?
Technology is perfect and fixes everything, just look around you…
What are you babbling about?
You are neglecting the supply side.
Warren and Sanders, very simply, make everything worse that they touch.
“Violence is never the answer. Period,” the senator said.
There is a quote by JFK… i forget the words. I’ll guess readers will know the one i am referring to.
More and more experts are calling for the Covid shots to be pulled off the market due to the issues that are causing serious injury and death. The silence by the public health agencies is deafening. Fortunately, no one has taken the law into their own hands in response and RFK Jr. has been nominated to be the head of HHS, in an effort to turn health regulatory agencies back into what they are supposed to be. Above board honest regulators.
Vaccine injuries are taking up ALOT of medical resources.
were not supposed to talk about that. it makes the 3 letter agencies and NGO’s very uncomfortable. Lets talk about sports ball that’s CIA/NSA/WEF approved “SAFE TALK” (copyright Dept of Homeland Security – 2021 and FaceBook)
I think RFK Jr. will be tossed overboard once his actions cut into the profits of the Wall $treet types Trump has appointed to every financial position in his administration.
I hope to be proven wrong.
Something cannot be an inherent human right unless you can have it while on a desert island all by yourself. Any other “right” is a social right and depends entirely on the mutual obligations of the social nexus of which you are a part.
You have a right to pay for goods and services. You do not have a right to free goods and services.
Comrade, I must protest. a good education will provide many fine good and services assuring a decadent lifestyle of western privledge and large houses with only one or two or three families living together in them.
True, absolutely. But sometimes you have to go with what works or is necessary. Hence government, in many ways a necessary evil. Brother in law had a small but lucrative business, bitched about how the 2-3 employees wanted health care insurance and how that would cut into his income which was over $250K in 1990 in an area with a very low cost of living. He had a point, sure. He also had an infant that required three major surgeries and months in intensive care to survive and both parents died of cancer after long long long treatments, as an example. Even at 250K 1990 dollars if he had to pick up the tab for all that, etc., he’d have been more or less bankrupt, but he had, guess what, health insurance.
I’ve come around to thinking that some kind of universal health insurance is the best way to go. Took my toddler into the ER with an earache, $300 for less than literally one minute with the MD. I was the only one there who spoke English. Everyone else was using the ER as routine health care, and I’m guessing had no way to pay for it. understood enough of the language to catch all that. *In the end* we all pay for everyone’s health care. The current setup is probably the most expensive way of doing that. Alot of people have no skin in the game at all, that’s not good for anyone.
No reforms are needed.
Existing law and precedent must be enforced. Racketeering and other charges.
Even getting rid of Medicaid will not help — without doing something about the cost side nothing will help.
Note that almost the entire budget deficit is runaway unfunded medical costs, and it is also the most pressing cause of bankruptcy and precariousness to household finances. Literally insane.
As mentioned by Mish, we are shifting from bankruptcy to pay-before-service.
I love it. This would help reduce the demand for healthcare. There are too many people who use healthcare services and then don’t pay. ALL deductibles, coinsurance and copays should be required to be paid in advance.
its so difficult to fit a quarter of million dollars in my wallet for walking around money in case i have a medical emergency though.. I get a lot of hip pain on my wallet side.
Why do you ‘buy’ a car before you drive it off the lot?
cause they tell me the price before i buy it?
You also need to put in aggressive controls to minimize the conflicts of interest that are rampant and literally out of control, because the DOD rather likes them. Why else would the DOD have commissioned Pfizer and Moderna to deliver MRNA vaxxes without safety trials? Scientists and other regulators at NIH and NAIAD should not be able to patent the things they approve, or get rich in the process.
If the government (or corporation, institution, etc) owns the intellectual property will you get better or worse scientists?
Worse, of course, because the pursuit of what’s best for humanity is not a good business model. Scientists seek to discover only what’s scientifically provable. Big orgs seek whatever gives them more money, power or influence. More often than not, those two outcomes are mutually exclusive. The bigger point though is that the conflict of interest causes those charged with the responsibility of regulating behaviors in a fair arms-length transaction to instead, profit by turning a blind eye to illegal behavior.
What the shooter did was wrong.
He stayed in accomodation leaving dna evidence, he didn’t cover his face with a feature hiding mask or coloured contact lenses and he didn’t plan his trip to or from NYC to remain a ghost. And carrying all the incriminating stuff to a McDonalds is like he wanted to be caught.
About the only thing he did right was to give a piece of scum just desserts.
careful what you wish for. it will be a wild world out there if everyone that has a grievance with someone else can take them out. won’t be safe to walk down a street with all the stray bullets flying around
The comment on younger folks not liking Obamacare isn’t accurate. It’s been the case for years now – when asked if people like Obamacare, they say no. When asked if people like the individual features of the law as a policy basket, absent the name, they say yes.
People don’t like the cost, but that’s a universal thing. I love steaks, but I hate the price.
Big problem is that Obamacare increased demand for health services. That’s a good thing. It just didn’t repeal the laws of supply and demand. Our market structure is messed up more than the law is.
“Big problem is that Obamacare increased demand for health services. That’s a good thing.”
Oh I see. You clearly have a dizzying intellect.
That must be why we’re now so healthy as a nation. lol
cattle are usually fattened up before the slaughter, what does that say about our plus sized nation?
Taxpayers subsidize Obamacare for a lot of low income. That’s not a good thing. If you want healthcare, you should have to pay for it.
Healthcare should not be expensive, it should be tiered, but an aspirin shouldn’t cost a hundred dollars just because your corporation is bloated you have to mark everything up ten thousand per cent to pay your overhead and advertising and those charity golf matches and the c-suite trip to the Bahamas every year for a 3 week “management conference” and don’t forget about the hookers and blow. shit adds up fast when you run a big company…
If you have “free” Obamacare with a $5000 deductible. You really don’t have insurance..
its a tax not an insurance, according to the court rulings….
Spoken like a true socialist
Before Obamacare, people died in the streets, unable to afford medical care.
What Obamacare did was to provide the same high standard of care to everyone, regardless of cost, age, etc. It should have been a minimum standard–meaning there are limits,
Americans pay x2 for health care then any country in Europe and that was true before obamacare. And yet life expectancy continues to plumment. double the money for worse results while UnitedHealthCare netted $300B in PROFIT just last year alone, just one company. All of your charts and theories Mish cant change those facts.
THat’s just not true.
Their net profit over the last 12 months was 22 billion, with a 6% margin on profit.
That’s actually pretty low for the size of the company.
That means you were off by a factor of 14.
Please use accurate data when you make your argument. IN this case, United Healthcare’s profits were low, compared to other companies their size.
thank you edit for typo $30B. i stand by my point. Whats the value proposition of all that profit?
Without profit there is no healthcare period.
If you think people will create and work for nothing, you are crazy. That’s not how anyone, including you, operate.
22 billion in profit is a normal amount of profit for a company this size that serves this many people.
The problem is absolutely not the profits. If you think even for a second that it is, you do not understand how the world works.
6% margins is actually pretty low.
There would be healthcare without profit, it just wouldn’t be the current system.
Hospitals used to be ‘charity’ hospitals and there’s a reason many have names with aspects of religion. Besides, many are run as “non-profits” to this day. There is a lot skimmed off for pushing paper and other non-medical purposes.
Gee, I wonder how the rest of the world’s healthcare companies can possibly function then.
indeed, its like we’re being fed a very big plate of bullshit by someone…
Because they all make profit.
Those profits go to employees. In the USA it goes to medical research and stockholders (funding employees).
There is no difference.
The world’s healthcare benefits from the USA inventions and health care innovations.
About 90% of all healthcare innovations are made\invented in the USA, becuase of…..drumroll….profits.
Without USA profits, healthcare worldwide would be in the dark ages.
actually without doctors and nurses there is no healthcare, everything else is contrived to extract more money per “billable event”
you are not a patient, you are a billable event
enjoy that look in the mirror..
if you can’t manipulate your numbers you need a new accountant. its amazing what you can do, for instance the NFL is a nonprofit organization.
You can beleive the numbers or you can beleive the reality you live in, but you can’t beleive both…
Part of the problem is all the “junk” that that our government allows in our food. EU doesn’t allow this.
That 2x refers to France. Other equivalent countries in Europe and elsewhere spend more than half what the US spends per capita.
But never mind. The US already has a Euro-type single payer health system. And that part of the system spends exactly half what the US spends on health care, per capita. Same as France. Too, the US has a history of nationalizing parts of the health care system (Most recent, if I recall, was in the ’80’s or ’90’s. Wanna say something about drugs, but I forget.) Result: Slightly more spending (which applies to all parts of the system so pffft)
You should not be seriously trying to measure the quality of a health care system in a modern nation by “life span”. All modern countries have similar life span numbers. The differences are well within noise level. Consider state-by-state or province-by-province differences, for instance. And consider the effects on life span a “health system” of 50 years ago might have on current “life span”.
This is truly a sad situation that is not going to get any better without immediate action to right the ship. Murder is not the answer.
Universal healthcare is socialistic, but corporate welfare is the American Way™, damn it!
Folks have railed against “socialism “ in healthcare for nearly a century now. No one has figured out how you provide broad access to health without a measure of socialized cost though. Unless we are ok allocating healthcare according to wealth and income, which doesn’t seem like the right answer.
i don’t think anyone has really tried as it would aborted the profits of some very wealthy corporations and individuals, who do you think wrote Obamacare? you think Obama rolled up his sleeves and got out his yellow legal pad and scribbled it up one night?
like most problems in the modern world, its unsolvable, because its a fantastic revenue stream for someone.
to understand the world understand money and motivation before you consider anything else.
Mish Excellent comments on this one and it is a problem that needs to be addressed because it affects everyone in one way or another. The abuse and fraud is far too obvious for not having accountability. One thing we can do is start creating a point system for those that inspire to be less of a burden on the overall system creating health credits maybe an entirely new market place to buy and sell credits for use in any medical system.
bonus points for suicides as it reduces the overall health burden. anybody that talks an elder relative into termination gets a tax credit. Dystopia awaits..
Turn in anyone who sneezes for a $100 amazon gift certificate. yah I can’t see any problems in this idea…
I’m 74 years old and I agree with EVERY point you made in this article. Especially tort reform.
Ed, Mish already sent out his Christmas cards, agreeing with him on everything won’t get you on the list. I think he already has you on the naughty list anyhow…
just a tip, for the new year..
Enforce 15 USC Chapter 1
If you don’t know what it is look it up. Enforce that and all the problems go away.
The entire health (death) care system is corrupt.
It needs to be said:
American healthcare costs are only partially due to the way healthcare is administered in this country.
Also to blame is the health of the American people. We have horrible health. Obesity is almost always a result of choices. Exercise is almost always the result of choices and lifestyle.
If Americans would just decide to get off the couch and the change the couch culture, much of the cost of healthcare would go away.
Depression, anxiety, blood pressure, heart conditions, etc are almost always a result of lifestyle choices.
Just go outside, get some sun, eat healthy and exercise.
Boom, half of healthcare in the USA is suddenly unnecessary.
As long as Usonians have to hop in a car to buy milk, they’ll be obese. They are unhealthy because of suburbia.
No, they are unhealthy becuase of their choices.
Choosing to overeat and not exercise is always a choice. Circumstances may make it easier, but a person is still in control of their choices.
Obesity is always a choice, 100% of the time.
Lack of exercise is almost always a choice unless a disability hinders it, but even then, disabled people can also normally exercise.
its a bit more nuanced than that. Portion sizes have increased, caloric content of prepared food has increased. Most people don’t cook, and those that do rarely cook from scratch.
with no control of the ingredeints in food, no understanding of portions and deliberately misconceived food pyramid that overstates carbohydrates, diabetes and obesity is preprogrammed.
add stupid deliberate social programming like binge-watching which decreases activity levels while indulging binge eating and other such demotivational programming such as gaming and you have a recipe for a nation unable to defend itself in the case of war, let alone healthy enough to get in the car and drive to the mail box to check the mail. (yes my neighbor does this- his driveway is 50 feet long)
It difficult to not see the social programming and manipulation of the food supplies and diets as anything less than a subversive attack on the population by elements of industry and government (actually the same thing).
All of those things you mentioned are choices, all of them.
Yes, it’s easy to be obese, but it’s also easy to research how to eat healthy, learn how to cook from scratch, and avoid obesity.
It’s not more nuanced than the truth that obesity is a choice. 100% of the time, if someone is obese it’s because they chose to be that way, by not being proactive.
Most Americans are not proactive in anything. That is a choice.
they are choices, but when you are programmed to only think you have a choice of a shit sandwhich or a shit salad, you’re going to be eating shit either way.
we exist in an environment defined by the resources available and the information available. when the resources and the information are manipulated, so to are the choices.
I am not saying people are innocent, I’m saying they are manipulated and distracted and mal-educated to the point they can’t make a proper decision or don’t even know that they are not making proper decisions.
The sugar industry deliberately told americans dairy, butter and fat caused heart attacks, which isn’t true. If you made your choices based on bad information like this you would be diabetic and still have heart disease, one small case to make you understand the problem is much bigger than bad decisions, its a manipulated reality intended to destroy most people’s health, look around you.
Count the fat people, or count the the healthy next time you go to the supermarket. If you are old enough you will know the pot is boiling and you can’t leap out. its attention immersion 24/7 smartphone,tv, etc. programming people to do stupid things not in their best interest, high interest credit cards, overpriced phones, vehicles, houses,food, vacations.
Stupidity is king by design, the rulers would rather you kill yourself than having to bother with exterminating you.
but blame each other it keeps the heat off the people who create the immersion in which you saturate yourself with propaganda.
They are unhealthy for a plethora of reasons, starting with Television, the mere act of sitting on your backside for 6 or 8 hours watching a screen is unhealthy. The programming it programs the average idiot with that deludes him into a dream world of over consumption, debt and stupidity leads to a host of bad choices and tension mental and physical.
Cellphones are miniature tv’s with surviellance capabilites and bring all the woes of television multiplied a thousand times over.
There are many other factors, such as urbanization and the death of rural life styles and physical labor. Its complicated but when you live in a nation where you are encouraged to get a mystery shot for a free donut, you must understand many things have gone off the rails, including the ability to reason and understand.
Plenty of suburbs in the 1970s and 1980s, but the obesity problem was not there.
Not getting adequate sleep, not having sufficient vitamin D or adequate nutrient intake, and spending too much time sitting and staring at a glowing rectangle are more to blame that “suburbia”.
Suburbia reduces walking in many neighborhoods, the most basic of exercise. there are many factors, There are many aspects, don’t dismiss without understanding.
there are many factors that have changed since the 70’s & 80’s – they tend to interact – a summing of the factors that increases the outcome to shorten lives and destroy health and happiness.
Vitamin D is very important, your are right. It should be given to every man, woman and child, the good far outweighs any problems especially if provided in a matrix with magnesium, copper and Vitamin K2.
This alone would reduce healthcare costs by hundreds of millions. They don’t really want to reduce healtchare costs by millions that is taking money out of the pockets of CEO’s.
Well, you make your own choices but it’s certainly true that non-walkable cities contribute.
I’m on COBRA. I pay almost 1000 a month for a $3000 deductible. I am handicapped from two serious auto accidents. I’m on four medication’s that cost over 20,000 per year. I had to appeal three times to the insurance company in order to get an MRI approved on my shoulder. I see several specialists which have long wait times to get an appointment. We don’t have sufficient medical personnel now and I don’t see the healthcare industry getting any better in my lifetime. Many of them, retired during Covid for refusing to take the clot shots. The only thing insurance companies want to do is deny, deny, deny. I’ll be forced to take Obamacare for a while when my cobra ends, which will be a lot worse than I have it now.
Thanks for your testimony. Not all health problems are people’s fault – even if many are. Hang in there, Laura. Praying for you.
Sorry to hear this, Laura. But at least you’ll have access to Obamacare (unless the Republicans repeal it before you enroll).
A lot of commenters on this site want to get rid of it. With your pre-existing conditions, probably no private profit-maximizing insurance company would insure you and you’d be paying cash for all your medical needs, including the catastrophically expensive ones insurance was always intended to cover.
If you can, maybe get a primary care physician. They can help you review your test results, and refer you to specialists. You may get specialist appts sooner, if coming from a PCP.
When you’re ready for Medicare, I’d recommend traditional, rather than Advantage.
I will definitely be taking traditional Medicare. Advantage plans suck. My brother is an insurance broker and I used to work for insurance companies for over nine years so we have expertise to pick the best plan for me..
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP … Back that truck up.
You worked for an insurance company for pay for over nine years, and you’re upset “The only thing insurance companies want to do is deny, deny, deny” when you want an expensive MRI.
We’ve got the daily winner!
I worked for them OVER 40 years ago when they didn’t they actually paid for healthcare and you didn’t need pre-approval to have tests, surgeries, procedures, etc.
Ditch the cobra, its the most expensive form of health care. i had it for a couple months between jobs. see if you can qualify for a state insurance if your state offers it, check what alternatives exist. Good luck, life is a crap shoot and our country seems to have morphed into a casino of mostly suckers and the owners who rake in all the winnings.
Obamacare will cost more money and I’ll have less coverage. People with assets don’t qualify for state insurance. My brother is an insurance broker so we’ve already checked this out.
sorry to hear that. you know alot of people think their 401k/IRA is there most important asset or their home, but its really your health.
people should do more to protect it, but most are more aware of how their portfolio is doing than their bloodpressure or lipid count.
strange world, so many programmed to self induced suicide without even thinking about the crap they eat every day. its like all commonsense was drained from this reality sometime during the 1970’s…
Hope you do better, and good luck with your health issues.
Healthcare costs are a very complex issue. There are many variables that contribute to whether costs go up or down. Boiling it down to “government or corporate involvement” is a bit overly simplistic in my view.
One variable that is always ignored is the overall health of the public, and it’s downright abysmal. 75% of Americans are either overweight or obese. 40% are considered obese. Many gorge on processed food, restaurant food (which is also often heavily processed), and copious amounts of booze and other mind altering substances. A good many sit on thier asses all day as well. With that said, it shouldn’t come as a suprise that people do not feel good and have health issues. Add in that 20% of Americans receive mental health treatment with most of that being in the form of prescriptions and it shouldn’t come as a surpise that demand is high, and growing, for healthcare services. Blaming govenrment or corporations is much easier than turning the mirror on onself. Yes, you will eventually need some healthcare services at some point in your life, but maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the #1 way to limit your need for it. The data is clear on that front.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Get outside and touch some grass!!!!
a lot of mental illness is the lack of sunshine/vitamin d. The body requires a cycle of daylight and darkness. VItamin D is the daylight vitamin, Melatonin is the night time hormone (Vitamin D acts as a hormone as well).
Nature via greenery, especially trees helps to provide melatonin at a mitachondrial level via infrared light reflection from plants.
Mitachondria are the basic energy level of the cell and hence the entire body.
LED light and a tv screen, and a computer monitor and a cellphone inside a home is killing your body and your brain, leading to cycles of urges such as binging food, compulsive behaviours, etc.
Touch grass seems simple and dismissive, but in truth it is the most basic medicine that can begin rebalancing your mind and body.
Turn off the internet, shut off your phone and sit outside for 20 minutes in the shade or in the sun, try it for a couple of weeks.
A libertarian would say remove government and the remaining problems will fix themselves. What’s needed is a solution that will get from here to there in a humane way.
I’m not a libertarian. I’m politically agnostic.
Wasn’t suggesting you were
You are correct. Of course, no American wants to hear this message. Michele Obama tried to change school lunches to a healthier standard with no success. Big fat American still rules. They love NFL Sunday, for wings and pizza with a case of beer. yum yum
Its a great idea to live a healthy lifestyle. It can be as simple as everything in moderation. Processed foods, ouch. Sitting all day, ouch. Eating too much, drinking too much, smoking too much ouch. Get outside, breath. Cutting your own lawn used to be exercise with a calming sense of accomplishment. Now everyone in the suburbs hires hispanic landscapers. Life is not an image. Its a series of events. If your yard looks nice but you’re a fat slob, you’ve fallen prey to the aesthetic fallacy. That’s not living, not healthy, and Bernie’s quip that healthcare is a human right is idiocy. You’re free to make good and bad decisions.
Only the rich are free to make healthy decisions on food.
No true. Anyone even city dwellers can get some plants growing and raise their own organics.
the nation has become a mass of observers, rather than doers. Healthy food is cheaper than junk food if you cook it yourself. and yes you can grow your own food, but it requires, time and skill and knowledge. Its a great hobby far better than watching TV or gaming all day or downloading porn or tiktok, so many voyeurs watching other’s lives as their own slowly dwindles into a pool of mental illness, obesity and endless fear and anxiety.
it past time to reboot the internet and humanities relationship with technology.
We like to cruise. Often, the gym is empty, we did an Azamara cruise and we were the only two in their beautiful fully equipped gym. But, anywhere there are goodies the Americans are lined up for their sugar treats. We are a fat lazy bunch.
In the U.S. that is absolutely false.
Processed, pre-packaged foods are convenient, but have fillers and lack the nutritional density of basic foodstuffs. Buying a 10# bag of potatoes gets one a whole lot more than a couple containers of fries at a fast food restaurant, but some effort must be made to prep meals. Flour, dried rice and beans in bulk, and produce that is in season are quite affordable. Paying $7 for a box of breakfast cereal isn’t the best allocation of limited funds, nor is it a healthful choice.
Not true. Veggies, healthy grains and running are free. Pushups are free, pullups are free and free weights are cheap. Frozen fruit and veggies are cheap, canned isn’t as good but not bad. Try rice and beans for a complete protein, dinner is maybe a buck.
100% agree with this. People in my area can’t even be bothered to put up thier own xmas lights (there are advertisements all over the place for this service in my area). I know a few people that hire someone to put up thier xmas lights and they are all young or middle aged and obese.
Repeal Obamacare as a start.
Failed to do it 30odd times. Perhaps as proto-dictator it will happen, tho with nothing to replace it, I wouldnt bet your house on it.
Things were just as bad before obama care. If you tried to self insure back then your only options were unregulated scammy plans. I remember.
Costs have gone up faster since it came, not slower, the opposite of what was promised
absolutely true, I had blue cross in 2007 200$ a month with a 2,000$ deductible. By 2023 my employer provided plan was 10,000$ a year and had a myriad of deductibles and caveats and exclusions.
No, much much worse after Obummercare
The 0% rates affected the medical industry as well. Hedge funds and private equity got into the same game of using hundreds of billions in free money to buy up the usual stocks and bonds and housing and also health care companies. No more publicly-owned community hospitals. All health care is now owned by some company led by some MBA that makes $20 million to shave off all excess — only pay 3 nurses when you need five. Same old story. Trump wont do it but set interest rates back at 5% and you would see the biggest unwinding of “taking America private” in history.
Yes, but dont set rates. Let them me determined by the free market. Its the fed who was appointed by republicans and democrats who have pushed down rates by debasing the dollars value. This allowed congress to run up nation destroying debt levels since the debt was sold for dollars printed out of thin air by the fed.
Asking the obese to pay more would likely be claimed to be a racist policy.
What, no graph of administrators to physicians?
so healthcare by the pound then?
Obamacare was a bailout of the grotesque healthcare apparatus by dumping the costs on the states. As Denninger pointed out today, CMS, that is Medicare and Medicaid, spent $244 billion in one month alone. That is beyond unsustainable. If that continues then the federal budget will collapse within the year.
The US are a wholesale socialistic country, that’s why there’s such a thing as Obamacare. Universal healthcare would be retail socialism, and the US won’t have anything of that! That’s how a plutocratic oligarchy works after all.
so you have never been to Sweden or Norway then, eh?
I think you were taught words but not understanding.
America is socialist? I want some of what you are smoking. please…
drive by a freeway and check out the homeless enjoying your socialist paradise as they huddle under the bridges and overpasses.
you might want to rethink your initial premise..