I vote Democrat

[ark steel]

Unless you're on the dole instead of working like the rest of you stupid *****.

As you or Rod often point out, the price you pay and the cost are not the same. The COST of the policy goes up. You might not be the one paying it, though.

 

[ark steel]

1. Expensive technology.
2. Expensive malpractice insurance for the healthcare providers.
3. Expensive standards to meet. I used to work in a hospital purchasing department. Electrical outlet for your house, $1.19. Spark-proof hospital-grade electrical outlet so a leaking oxygen tank doesn't blow the joint up, $45.00 and that was 20 years ago. I once unloaded our first pallet of heart stents when that was brand-new technology and a 4'x4' pallet stacked with boxes only knee high to me had a P.O. over $1 million. And that was 20 years ago. I used to spend $10,000 a month on batteries. Just plain ol' Duracells for battery backups and beepers. I'd buy 8 to 10 pallets of copy paper a week. The paper supplier would just send us our own truck. Had four different major electrolytes the dialysis department would use. Most hospitals buy it in 3 liter IV bags, we'd get it in 55 gallon drums at a few thou each and dialysis had a central pump room with lines running to all the chairs. The cost of what WE paid for stuff was astronomical.
4. People with no insurance can't pay for the expensive stuff so healthcare providers jack the rates they charge insurance companies to cover the costs for the people who can't pay.
5. Need to pay for Bomma's ever-increasing energy costs. You know what it costs to heat and cool a hospital? Bomma gonna get us a solar powered MRI though.....

Good answers. There are two areas of our economy whose costs have increased faster than inflation over many many years. Education and Healthcare. Want to guess where more and more subsidizing by the government and/or insurance companies have come from?

 

[Ron Burgundy]

Good answers. There are two areas of our economy whose costs have increased faster than inflation over many many years. Education and Healthcare. Want to guess where more and more subsidizing by the government and/or insurance companies have come from?

When a third party pays for something, the price ALWAYS goes up because there is no price signal to the providers that they are charging too much, i.e. people buying less stuff. This is why colleges have all sorts of goofball majors, to fill the seats with as many fannies as they can (and students have mountains of loan debt to pay for useless degrees in puppeteering and women's studies). The colleges don't give a **** if you get a job at the end, they just care that they get those financial aid and loan checks from Uncle Sam. I occasionally teach part-time at a couple of local community colleges. Guaranteed as soon as the loan checks come in, half my students drop the class to get a refund on the loan money. School gets the money, student drops the class, now student gets the money. It's a heck of a scam.

Why yes, as a matter of fact I DO have a degree in economics.

 

[RollRed]

So in 1980 the per capita cost of annual healthcare in the United States was about 1 thousand dollars. In 2013 before Obamacare started, along with the
pre-existing condition coverage, the annual per capita cost of healthcare was $8,700. What caused the 870% increase in 33 years. That's like 26% inflation
per year.

An 870% increase in 30 years... That seems reasonable... Don't bother citing facts 21... It just confuses them.

 

[hamster]

An 870% increase in 30 years... That seems reasonable... Don't bother citing facts 21... It just confuses them.

Here is a fact.......my healthcare premiums have increased 30% since Obamacare passed. And it is expected to increase again after December. Yep, the Dems really had the answer for rising costs.
You are right. I'm confused. I was told that my costs would decrease, and I'd be able to keep my doctor.

 

[Badcat]

1. Expensive technology.
2. Expensive malpractice insurance for the healthcare providers.
3. Expensive standards to meet. I used to work in a hospital purchasing department. Electrical outlet for your house, $1.19. Spark-proof hospital-grade electrical outlet so a leaking oxygen tank doesn't blow the joint up, $45.00 and that was 20 years ago. I once unloaded our first pallet of heart stents when that was brand-new technology and a 4'x4' pallet stacked with boxes only knee high to me had a P.O. over $1 million. And that was 20 years ago. I used to spend $10,000 a month on batteries. Just plain ol' Duracells for battery backups and beepers. I'd buy 8 to 10 pallets of copy paper a week. The paper supplier would just send us our own truck. Had four different major electrolytes the dialysis department would use. Most hospitals buy it in 3 liter IV bags, we'd get it in 55 gallon drums at a few thou each and dialysis had a central pump room with lines running to all the chairs. The cost of what WE paid for stuff was astronomical.
4. People with no insurance can't pay for the expensive stuff so healthcare providers jack the rates they charge insurance companies to cover the costs for the people who can't pay.
5. Need to pay for Bomma's ever-increasing energy costs. You know what it costs to heat and cool a hospital? Bomma gonna get us a solar powered MRI though.....

Post of the year right here. Well done! Rather than fix the REAL issues with healthcare, the government siezes power.

 

[diver]

I am sure this has been stated before, but if not:

Health insurance is not health care. Just having insurance does not guarantee you will get the care you need. The government has done a wonderful job of clouding the issue. The VA scandals prove this. Vets have all the coverage they need. They aren't getting the care, though.

 

[RollRed]

Here is a fact.......my healthcare premiums have increased 30% since Obamacare passed. And it is expected to increase again after December. Yep, the Dems really had the answer for rising costs.
You are right. I'm confused. I was told that my costs would decrease, and I'd be able to keep my doctor.

I agree.. Obama care sucks... We should have single payer like the rest of the civilized world. We have a system where something as important as medical treatment... Life saving medical treatment is directly linked to an insurance provider whose entire business model is to take in as much money as they can from the customer... i.e. "the sick person", and pay out as little as they can... i.e. "the doctors and hospitals". Decisions concerning your father's heart surgery or your child's cancer treatment should not have to take into consideration somebody's profit margin. We spend hundreds of billions a year funding a military to protect our citizens from our enemies, but for some reason the idea of doing the same to protect ourselves from diseases is out of the question. The right is always saying that the gov't. is a miserable failure at everything they do. Is our military a failure? We have the most powerful, well equipped, well trained army that the planet has ever known. There's no doubt in my mind we could do the same with our healthcare system if we just had the will to do it. Doctors could still make a lot of money just like high ranking members of the armed forces can.... Maybe not as much as they can under the current system, but we have to ask ourselves as a country what is more important... Having a healthcare system where doctors salaries are the priority or one where the priority is that every American have access to the same quality of care regardless of their income? We might have to build a few less aircraft carriers and a few more hospitals, but to say it couldn't be done is simply false.

 

[diver]

I agree.. Obama care sucks... We should have single payer like the rest of the civilized world. We have a system where something as important as medical treatment... Life saving medical treatment is directly linked to an insurance provider whose entire business model is to take in as much money as they can from the customer... i.e. "the sick person", and pay out as little as they can... i.e. "the doctors and hospitals". Decisions concerning your father's heart surgery or your child's cancer treatment should not have to take into consideration somebody's profit margin. We spend hundreds of billions a year funding a military to protect our citizens from our enemies, but for some reason the idea of doing the same to protect ourselves from diseases is out of the question. The right is always saying that the gov't. is a miserable failure at everything they do. Is our military a failure? We have the most powerful, well equipped, well trained army that the planet has ever known. There's no doubt in my mind we could do the same with our healthcare system if we just had the will to do it. Doctors could still make a lot of money just like high ranking members of the armed forces can.... Maybe not as much as they can under the current system, but we have to ask ourselves as a country what is more important... Having a healthcare system where doctors salaries are the priority or one where the priority is that every American have access to the same quality of care regardless of their income? We might have to build a few less aircraft carriers and a few more hospitals, but to say it couldn't be done is simply false.

It cannot be done, because it will be run by government. Are you blind? Haven't you observed the VA mess? And that isn't a new thing. The VA has always been sub-par.

But all the **** you spew out, hell, do you liberals have a little booklet that you read over and over again and memorize? Do you actually have some of your own thoughts on these matters?

 

[Steelr4evr]

It cannot be done, because it will be run by government. Are you blind? Haven't you observed the VA mess? And that isn't a new thing. The VA has always been sub-par.

But all the **** you spew out, hell, do you liberals have a little booklet that you read over and over again and memorize? Do you actually have some of your own thoughts on these matters?

He's high. It's comical how socialism turns into a cancer on the free markets.It's a train wreck. People in this country do not take care of themselves very well until they're ****** up. No amount of government control or this fictional healthcare utopia will change that . If you want good healthcare CARE about your health and teach your children to eat well, exercise,dont use heavy drugs and drink massive amounts,don't stick your dick into everything that moves,don't smoke....ect The lifestyle choices we make are the most important factor for ever lowering cost in this country. That in itself would leave plenty of money to fix those who have not messed themselves up by their own hand. Go take a walk in a big mall during heavy business hours. Obesity and people staring at phones is what you'll see primarily.

 

[Lmob0621]

How much do you think an 80/20 insurance policy for a 65 year old with a substantial medical history would cost? Would an insurance company even cover a 65+ year old person with a history of cancer, heart disease diabetes, etc? You see moron, this is the person Medicare was created for.... I don't think the priority when Medicare was being created was that all the doctors and hospital board members be able to summer in the Hamptons together. Only a dumbass republican would look at a program that has made it possible for millions and millions of seniors that would have never been able to afford it otherwise, receive the healthcare they desperately needed. The gov't has also given out millions in research grants to pharmaceutical companies and university hospitals, but I guess that's how they destroy medical innovation.... By spending millions to foster it. Same old dumb republican arguments... Bitching about things that have helped millions of people because some already wealthy people didn't get quite as wealthy as maybe they otherwise could have.

Just like a stupid Libtard to say that it is about the wealthy people... it is about the middle class... The people that worked hard to make a living for themselves are instead having to make a living for everyone else now... This is not about helping millions... its also about socialism and the government taking control of insurance and the healthcare system. It is what it has always been about that... too bad you and your libtard lemmings won't figure it out until too late.

 

[ark steel]

One thing that really pisses me off is the idea that someone can ravage their bodies with drugs and alcohol and I'm supposed to help pick up the tab and just say "thank you, sir, may I have another". "Here is a free needle so you can be "healthy". "Anything else I can get for you? I can stop on my way home from work, which is what I do while you are getting high and ******* up healthcare costs."

 

[ZonaBurgh]

Not just the junkies Ark. I see people everyday with COPD dragging their oxygen around with a pack of Camels in their pocket. Diabetics that are 150 pounds over weight and make no effort to change. We are a society that wants that magic tablet, inhaler, or injection to make everything better.

 

[ark steel]

Not just the junkies Ark. I see people everyday with COPD dragging their oxygen around with a pack of Camels in their pocket. Diabetics that are 150 pounds over weight and make no effort to change. We are a society that wants that magic tablet, inhaler, or injection to make everything better.

That is a fact.

I do realize that this isn't everyone that is getting help, but in order to help those that REALLY need it, we are footing the bills for those that don't and that is bad policy. It is also the reason that this shouldn't be handled at the federal level. It is way easier for localities to handle their own problems than have the feds dictate a one-size-fits-all policy.

 

[DBS1970]

You are talking like one of those evil libertarian states rights people Ark.....

 

[RollRed]

It cannot be done, because it will be run by government. Are you blind? Haven't you observed the VA mess? And that isn't a new thing. The VA has always been sub-par.

But all the **** you spew out, hell, do you liberals have a little booklet that you read over and over again and memorize? Do you actually have some of your own thoughts on these matters?

The gov't. runs the military... Is that a mess? I'm not blind to the failures of gov't., but most of those failures occur because everything gets politicized.

 

[diver]

The gov't. runs the military... Is that a mess? I'm not blind to the failures of gov't., but most of those failures occur because everything gets politicized.

Most of the failures are because things like health care are too big for government to run. Corners are going to get cut. There are countless reasons for that, but it will happen.

What makes the military different is that when it comes down to it, you had better be self motivated, or you are likely to get your *** shot off if you are somewhere hot. There is always that. You are an administrator at the VA, you get a bonus for ******* up. Big difference.

 

[ark steel]

I'm not blind to the failures of gov't., but most of those failures occur because everything gets politicized.

And healthcare ALREADY is, or have you never heard of Sandra Fluke? If you don't believe that health insurance should pay for contraception, you are waging a War on Women. Unless you live under a rock, you MIUST have heard it, right? You don't think that is politicized?

 

[ark steel]

You are talking like one of those evil libertarian states rights people Ark.....

You misspelled "Domestic Terrorist".