The US Healthcare Mass Debate

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Brian Peacock
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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Brian Peacock » Tue Nov 23, 2021 6:06 pm

Ouch.
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Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by macdoc » Tue Nov 23, 2021 7:05 pm

Wonder if Seth ever got cancer ...he figured he could cover any bills with his $100k ...
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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by JimC » Tue Nov 23, 2021 8:26 pm

If you don't pay, do they send around the heavies to whip you with stethoscopes?
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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Brian Peacock » Tue Nov 23, 2021 8:29 pm

No, they just sell the debt on and garnish your wages untill you're dry.
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

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"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Tero » Tue Nov 23, 2021 8:38 pm

It's the hospitals' own fault for not taking spare kidneys in exchange for services.
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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Sean Hayden » Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:42 pm

It's so crazy I can't take it seriously. Unfortunately you have to, I just don't know how people do it.
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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Mon Dec 13, 2021 8:43 am

It's easy to run up a monstrous bill when you use a mark-up of 675% for things like sutures.
A former nurse at Scripps Memorial Hospital showed columnist @Davidlaz screenshots of the facility’s electronic health record system.

The screenshots show price hikes ranging from 575% to 675% being automatically generated by the hospital’s software.

- Los Angeles Times · Dec 10, 2021

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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Tero » Thu Nov 17, 2022 1:46 pm

Medical debt
In Minnesota, Allina Health encourages its patients to sign up for an account with MedCredit Financial Services to "consolidate your health expenses." In Southern California, Chino Valley Medical Center, part of the Prime Healthcare chain, touts "promotional financing options with the CareCredit credit card to help you get the care you need, when you need it."

As Americans are overwhelmed with medical bills, patient financing is now a multibillion-dollar business, with private equity and big banks lined up to cash in when patients and their families can't pay for care. By one estimate from research firm IBISWorld, profit margins top 29% in the patient financing industry, seven times what is considered a solid hospital margin.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... als-profit
International disaster, gonna be a blaster
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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Tero » Wed Oct 18, 2023 10:05 pm

International disaster, gonna be a blaster
Gonna rearrange our lives
International disaster, send for the master
Don't wait to see the white of his eyes
International disaster, international disaster
Price of silver droppin' so do yer Christmas shopping
Before you lose the chance to score (Pembroke)

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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Tero » Thu Oct 19, 2023 12:44 am

From there
shansterable
Shannon Skinner (she/her)
@shansterable@c.im
In the US, our for-profit heath insurance premiums increased 7% this year.

For about half of Americans, health insurance coverage is tied to their job. Employers pay 71% on average for the cost of family coverage (now $24,000 per year), while employees pay the balance (now $6,575 per year).

“Employers spend all this money on health insurance because they want to recruit and retain the best staff they can.”

Translation: Employers spend all this money on health insurance because they want to lure you into employment out of desperation for health insurance coverage and entrap you out of fear you will lose your coverage the day you quit."

The average annual salary in the US is $59,428. Your employer would rather pay the equivalent of almost half your salary to a for-profit, health care profiteer than pay their fair share in taxes to support a single-payer system that would relieve them of their responsibility for your health insurance.

her link
https://www.benefitspro.com/2023/10/18/ ... 0918211835
International disaster, gonna be a blaster
Gonna rearrange our lives
International disaster, send for the master
Don't wait to see the white of his eyes
International disaster, international disaster
Price of silver droppin' so do yer Christmas shopping
Before you lose the chance to score (Pembroke)

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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Tero » Mon Jun 03, 2024 11:04 am

Maybe the cost goes up towards 80, but it's not 600.
Traditional Medicare is accepted at practically every doctor’s office and hospital in the US. But it can be expensive. Most Americans will pay $679 a month just for hospital and medical coverage, with the potential for more costs if they get sick.

With monthly premiums of $18.50 per month on average, Medicare Advantage often looks like a frugal alternative. However, private insurers keep premiums low by limiting providers and using byzantine cost containment tools such as prior authorization.
Ours is not "advantage" but the traditional, and it went to 190 per person just last time.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/art ... vatization
International disaster, gonna be a blaster
Gonna rearrange our lives
International disaster, send for the master
Don't wait to see the white of his eyes
International disaster, international disaster
Price of silver droppin' so do yer Christmas shopping
Before you lose the chance to score (Pembroke)

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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by L'Emmerdeur » Tue Jun 04, 2024 5:09 am

The profit-driven health care/medical insurance system can in turn drive its victims 'round the bend as they suffer and die.

'Pharma Exec Indicted for Excruciatingly Detailed Death Threats Against Health Insurer'
Most Americans loathe their health insurance providers.

A majority say they have severe concerns about financial hardship due to medical bills—even with insurance coverage—thanks to denied claims, unexpected charges, and a refusal to pay for out-of-network doctor visits. And, according to one poll, nearly half of insured adults say they were unable to solve their issues, with a percentage simply going without necessary care as a result.

In April, Baltimore-area pharmaceutical exec and Crohn’s sufferer Justin Dynlacht spoke to The New York Times about his frustration with Aetna and its paltry reimbursements for out-of-network doctor visits, even after paying extra for a plan that supposedly covered them.

“I’m being ripped off,” Dynlacht told the Times. “It’s not right.”

Dynlacht was just one of many people feeling aggrieved over Aetna’s alleged nickel-and-diming, which the Times blamed partially on a cost consulting firm the insurer uses. However, over the course of roughly two years, Dynlacht allegedly took his feelings to a significantly darker place than the law generally tolerates.

...

In early January 2023, the indictment says Dynlacht sent an email from his personal account to Finke and the two Aetna employees, plus Lynch, saying, “[t]he four of you are corrupt, greedy cocksuckers… Go fuck yourselves, you goddamn fucking thieves… Aetna is the absolutely the worst health insurance company in the U.S. and its executives are all criminals who I sincerely hope burn in fucking hell!”
This is relatively mild compared to later messages in which he gets much more personal with the threats.

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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Brian Peacock » Tue Jun 04, 2024 6:12 am

"And I woulda gotten away with it if it wasn't for those pesky kids and that damn dog!"

The Pharma marketplace creates structural conditions where extremes are not only encouraged, but enthusiastically rewarded.
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

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"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Sean Hayden » Fri Jun 14, 2024 8:37 pm

An old friend was recently laid off after 20+ years. His wife who had only three months ago been declared cancer free has just been told cancer is back.

Even when he was working the expenses were too much. Who knows what they’ll do now.

Of course the company owes him nothing. I’m sure with perfect information, and a perfect account of all things between them, we’d see clearly the scale is balanced, and any feeling otherwise about what may or may not be owed, is just that, a feeling…
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Re: The US Healthcare Mass Debate

Post by Brian Peacock » Sat Jun 15, 2024 7:51 am

That's shit Sean.
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"It isn't necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice.
There are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia."

Frank Zappa

"This is how humanity ends; bickering over the irrelevant."
Clinton Huxley » 21 Jun 2012 » 14:10:36 GMT
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