News Americas Now, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 7, 2013: The medical industry in the U.S. is out of control. Way out of control.
So what will Obamacare do? Feed it. With even more tax dollars plus forced payments.
Medical care is as much of a necessity as water. Imagine if our entire water supply was in private hands and the water industry could charge virtually anything they wanted for their product. How much do you think we’d be paying for water across America. And if you were too poor to pay well you would either get polluted water or none at all.
That basically sums up the medical industry in America.
So then along comes the Huckster Barack Obama who cons us into electing him President to save us from the water industry. He creates WaterCare that forces us to buy water or else and if we can’t afford it well the government will pay for part of our water at whatever price the water industry wants to charge us. But don’t be dismayed WaterCare provides us cheap free glasses we can use to drink our very expensive water.
Does this sound absolutely ridiculous? Well it should. So does ObamaCare.
It amounts to welfare for the medical industry as its primary purpose.
This week’s lesson is culled yes from my partner The New York Times. They have the massive resources your lowly Commentator can only dream of like medical care. What The Times did earlier this week is an updated comparison between medical costs in America and everywhere else on Earth.
SURPRISE medical costs here are far higher than anywhere else. Why for only one reason. The entire medical industry has us by the genitals and ObamaCare rather than curbing the monster insures it even more and bigger profits. The medical industry is salivating over how much more $$$ ObamaCare is going to make for them.
If we had truth in labeling Obamacare would be called … SUCKERCARE.
But we don’t. Instead we have the out of control medical industry in America yes we have Capitalism otherwise known as competition for those who can afford to buy whatever they want from the President and Congress. So what did the medical industry buy with our money the legal right to charge the highest costs anywhere on the planet.
What does Obamacare do? Before you got nothing for the high prices if you could not afford it. Now the government will force you to buy it no matter how high the cost OR if you still can’t afford it Obama will use taxpayer dollars to feed this greed machine.
So let’s turn to The Times article for some of the detail about this snake oil industry.
Here we go …. Titled “The $2.7 Trillion Medical Bill” (aka Sucker Care ) ….
“That is fairly typical: in Keene, N.H., Matt Meyer’s colonoscopy was billed at $7,563.56. Maggie Christ of Chappaqua, N.Y., received $9,142.84 in bills for the procedure. In Durham, N.C., the charges for Curtiss Devereux came to $19,438, which included a polyp removal. While their insurers negotiated down the price, the final tab for each test was more than $3,500.”
“In many other developed countries, a basic colonoscopy costs just a few hundred dollars and certainly well under $1,000. That chasm in price helps explain why the United States is far and away the world leader in medical spending, even though numerous studies have concluded that Americans do not get better care.”
“Whether directly from their wallets or through insurance policies, Americans pay more for almost every interaction with the medical system. They are typically prescribed more expensive procedures and tests than people in other countries, no matter if those nations operate a private or national health system. A list of drug, scan and procedure prices compiled by the International Federation of Health Plans, a global network of health insurers, found that the United States came out the most costly in all 21 categories — and often by a huge margin.”
Yes that deserves an Obama’s America ENCORE …
“A list of drug, scan and procedure prices compiled by the International Federation of Health Plans, a global network of health insurers, found that the United States came out the most costly in all 21 categories — and often by a huge margin.”
Double encore “and often by a huge margin.”
How about a short break for a few verses of “God Bless America” … a special version:
While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
We keep paying more for medical care
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.
Even if medical insurance is so so expensive
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
That doctors and hospitals can charge whatever they like
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer:
Please save us from Obamacare
God bless America, land that I love,
If only you did not need medical care
Stand beside her and guide her
Medical industry to record profits
Through the night with a light from above.
Charge us whatever you like
From the mountains, to the prairies,
Every medical procedure
To the oceans white with foam,
And every doctor in the land
God bless America,
Where the medical industry is free
To charge whatever they want
My home sweet home.
Enough patriotic singing back to The Times …
“Americans pay, on average, about four times as much for a hip replacement as patients in Switzerland or France and more than three times as much for a Caesarean section as those in New Zealand or Britain. The average price for Nasonex, a common nasal spray for allergies, is $108 in the United States compared with $21 in Spain. The costs of hospital stays here are about triple those in other developed countries, even though they last no longer, according to a recent report by the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation that studies health policy.”
“The U.S. just pays providers of health care much more for everything,” said Tom Sackville, chief executive of the health plans federation and a former British health minister.”
ENCORE …
“The U.S. just pays providers of health care much more for everything,” said Tom Sackville, chief executive of the health plans federation and a former British health minister.”
“Hospitals, drug companies, device makers, physicians and other providers can benefit by charging inflated prices, favoring the most costly treatment options and curbing competition that could give patients more, and cheaper, choices. And almost every interaction can be an opportunity to send multiple, often opaque bills with long lists of charges: $100 for the ice pack applied for 10 minutes after a physical therapy session, or $30,000 for the artificial joint implanted in surgery.”
The United States spends about 18 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, nearly twice as much as most other developed countries. The Congressional Budget Office has said that if medical costs continue to grow unabated, “total spending on health care would eventually account for all of the country’s economic output.”
ENCORE ..
“The United States spends about 18 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, nearly twice as much as most other developed countries. The Congressional Budget Office has said that if medical costs continue to grow unabated, “total spending on health care would eventually account for all of the country’s economic output.”
“A major factor behind the high costs is that the United States, unique among industrialized nations, does not generally regulate or intervene in medical pricing, aside from setting payment rates for Medicare and Medicaid, the government programs for older people and the poor. Many other countries deliver health care on a private fee-for-service basis, as does much of the American health care system, but they set rates as if health care were a public utility or negotiate fees with providers and insurers nationwide, for example.”
ENCORE ….
“A major factor behind the high costs is that the United States, unique among industrialized nations, does not generally regulate or intervene in medical pricing … they ( other countries ) set rates as if health care were a public utility or negotiate fees with providers and insurers nationwide, for example.”
DOUBLE ENCORE …
“A major factor behind the high costs is that the United States, unique among industrialized nations, does not generally regulate or intervene in medical pricing … they ( other countries ) set rates as if health care were a public utility or negotiate fees with providers and insurers nationwide, for example.”
WOW .. what a radical idea Obama …..
set rates as if health care were a public utility or negotiate fees with providers and insurers nationwide …
just like …. WATER !!!
Instead Obamacare further institutionalize the medical industry racket making it a “crime” not to buy their “junk” pricing or have taxpayers pay for even more of it.
Obama even dropped his modest pledge in his first campaign to insist any bill have a public option that was dropped because of opposition from …
YES the medical industry !
There is much more to this article but why bother .. read it all for yourself if you like ..
I’d rather go back to singing about America …
From the mountains, to the prairies,
Every medical procedure
To the oceans white with foam,
And every doctor in the land
God bless America,
Where the medical industry is free
To charge whatever they want
My home sweet home.
About The Writer: Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.
