Perspective: How It All Happened

Thanks for proving you are not interested in the truth. The man spent 15 years as an executive VP at CIGNA, one of the largest in insurance corporations in the country. He is willing to let you in on the scam. But instead, you choose to remain blind.

Liberals are well aware of the dangers of government. But you people on the right are totally blind to the dangers of huge corporations and cartel. But for conservatives, there is only ONE entity you people fear. Ironic, it is the very entity that our founding fathers created to address grievances, prevent malfeasance and protect We, the People.

neither government or corporations are inherently evil. Its the people who run them that are sometimes evil. Root out the bad people, the institutions are just fine.


:rofl:

Just get rid of all the bad people lol. What a grand idea!

Madoff is in jail, Ken Lay is dead, Hitler is dead, Castro is dying, clinton is out of office, LBJ is dead, Oswald is dead, McVeigh is dead, OBL is dead, Rostenkowski went to jail.

sometimes bad people do get what they deserve. Why do you find that funny?
 
Thanks for proving you are not interested in the truth. The man spent 15 years as an executive VP at CIGNA, one of the largest in insurance corporations in the country. He is willing to let you in on the scam. But instead, you choose to remain blind.

Liberals are well aware of the dangers of government. But you people on the right are totally blind to the dangers of huge corporations and cartel. But for conservatives, there is only ONE entity you people fear. Ironic, it is the very entity that our founding fathers created to address grievances, prevent malfeasance and protect We, the People.

neither government or corporations are inherently evil. Its the people who run them that are sometimes evil. Root out the bad people, the institutions are just fine.


:rofl:

Just get rid of all the bad people lol. What a grand idea!


I think he's talkin' about you.
You're not gonna take that, are you??



I'll hold ya' coat.....
 
When that program aired Obamacare was still in the talking phase. It wasn't even a bill yet, much less one that Congress had passed so they could find out what was in it.

So let's get real. Again I ask you to provide any credible source that can dispute the facts included in those links I provided or that PC just provided. Authoritarian government have been doing really bad things 'for the good of the people' for a very long time now. And our government has done a very bad thing with Obamacare no matter how much the uneducated and gullible want to believe that it is wonderful.

Translation...you're not going to watch it...

I did watch it. And it did not dispute a single fact in any of those links I posted.

You watched it? Please give me a recap?

If you really did watch it, you would know that insurance corporations have been doing really bad things, and not even 'for the good of the people', but only for the good of their profits. Even REAL death panels, where Americans DIE, and claims department personnel are rewarded and incentivized to deny expensive treatments to fellow Americans facing serious and fatal illnesses AND then in the middle of fighting for their lives, they have to face bankruptcy and losing everything worked their whole life for to add the final dagger.
 
neither government or corporations are inherently evil. Its the people who run them that are sometimes evil. Root out the bad people, the institutions are just fine.


:rofl:

Just get rid of all the bad people lol. What a grand idea!

Madoff is in jail, Ken Lay is dead, Hitler is dead, Castro is dying, clinton is out of office, LBJ is dead, Oswald is dead, McVeigh is dead, OBL is dead, Rostenkowski went to jail.

sometimes bad people do get what they deserve. Why do you find that funny?

Placing Clinton and LBJ in the same group as Hitler and McVeigh. Wow, what a piece of shit you are.
 
:rofl:

Just get rid of all the bad people lol. What a grand idea!

Madoff is in jail, Ken Lay is dead, Hitler is dead, Castro is dying, clinton is out of office, LBJ is dead, Oswald is dead, McVeigh is dead, OBL is dead, Rostenkowski went to jail.

sometimes bad people do get what they deserve. Why do you find that funny?

Placing Clinton and LBJ in the same group as Hitler and McVeigh. Wow, what a piece of shit you are.

Actually, it isn't any worse than some of the crap you spew. :eusa_whistle:
 
Translation...you're not going to watch it...

I did watch it. And it did not dispute a single fact in any of those links I posted.

You watched it? Please give me a recap?

If you really did watch it, you would know that insurance corporations have been doing really bad things, and not even 'for the good of the people', but only for the good of their profits. Even REAL death panels, where Americans DIE, and claims department personnel are rewarded and incentivized to deny expensive treatments to fellow Americans facing serious and fatal illnesses AND then in the middle of fighting for their lives, they have to face bankruptcy and losing everything worked their whole life for to add the final dagger.

And despite the eeeeeeevil insurance companies focusing on their profits, they served us very well before government started meddling. There were good insurance companies and not so good insurance companies just as there are good restaurants and restaurants that suck. People are fallible, sometimes stupid, sometimes oppportunistic, sometimes dishonest. But to put all insurance companies in the same box is just as wrong as putting all Democrats into the same box or all Republicans into the same box.

However, once the government started meddling, it became more profitable for the insurance companies to please government instead of their customers. And the system did become very skewed. They'll pay the price though when the government takes it all over and puts the insurance companies out of business. And we the people will suffer the consequences of that in a much much worse way that any anecdotal consequences of a few bad insurance companies.
 
Liberals are well aware of the dangers of government.
Like fucking hell you are.
But you people on the right are totally blind to the dangers of huge corporations and cartel. But for conservatives, there is only ONE entity you people fear. Ironic, it is the very entity that our founding fathers created to address grievances, prevent malfeasance and protect We, the People.
Huge corporations get their power from only one place: the huge gubmint that regulates them and extends to them their limited liabilities...The same huge gubmint that ignoramus dweebs like you want to make even more huge, in the name of saving us from the corporations that they pretty much control like the mob Don controls his Capos.

Rube.
 
I am not 'spinning' anything. Those were not my words, they were the words of David Frum - Republican and former speechwriter for George W. Bush

"At the beginning of this process we (Republicans) made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994."



If you are interested in the truth, invest a half hour listening to Wendell Potter, he was VP of corporate communications at CIGNA for 15 years. It is very revealing and enlightening.

Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients | PBS

Check out the part about a memo, from Frank Luntz. He's the Republican strategist who had written the script for opponents of health care reform. "First," he says, "you have to pretend to support it. Then use phrases like, "government takeover," "delayed care is denied care," "consequences of rationing," "bureaucrats, not doctors prescribing medicine." That was a memo, by Frank Luntz, to the opponents of health care reform in this debate. Now watch how Republicans parrot those comments.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER: The forthcoming plan from Democratic leaders will make health care more expensive, limit treatments, ration care, and put bureaucrats in charge of medical decisions rather than patients and doctors.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: Americans need to realize that when someone says "government option," what could really occur is a government takeover that soon could lead to government bureaucrats denying and delaying care, and telling Americans what kind of care they can have.

SEN. JON KYL: Washington run healthcare would diminish Americans' access to quality care, leading to denials, shortages and long delays for treatment.

REP. JOE WILSON: How will a government run health plan not lead to the same rationing of care that we have seen in other countries?

REP. TOM PRICE: We don't want to put the government, we don't want to put bureaucrats between a doctor and a patient.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.
Edmund Burke

The next link from PBS, is liberally biased. I will not fall for any more of this hackery from you. You need to enlighten yourself on more than just the Liberal demagoguery coming from your own party.

Thanks for proving you are not interested in the truth. The man spent 15 years as an executive VP at CIGNA, one of the largest in insurance corporations in the country. He is willing to let you in on the scam. But instead, you choose to remain blind.

Liberals are well aware of the dangers of government. But you people on the right are totally blind to the dangers of huge corporations and cartel. But for conservatives, there is only ONE entity you people fear. Ironic, it is the very entity that our founding fathers created to address grievances, prevent malfeasance and protect We, the People.

The only huge corporations and cartels to fear are the ones which have the Government in their pocket. If Government didn't have so much power, there would be no reason for these businesses to seek the influence of your elected officials.

The best thing about the market, it provides limited power to huge corporations. Under a system of Rule of Law, a business can easily be sued, go out of business or be held accountable. Each of which hurts their bottom line. The same cannot be said for the Government. It doesn't get sued, it can't go out of business and almost no one is held accountable.
 
Last edited:
I did watch it. And it did not dispute a single fact in any of those links I posted.

You watched it? Please give me a recap?

If you really did watch it, you would know that insurance corporations have been doing really bad things, and not even 'for the good of the people', but only for the good of their profits. Even REAL death panels, where Americans DIE, and claims department personnel are rewarded and incentivized to deny expensive treatments to fellow Americans facing serious and fatal illnesses AND then in the middle of fighting for their lives, they have to face bankruptcy and losing everything worked their whole life for to add the final dagger.

And despite the eeeeeeevil insurance companies focusing on their profits, they served us very well before government started meddling. There were good insurance companies and not so good insurance companies just as there are good restaurants and restaurants that suck. People are fallible, sometimes stupid, sometimes oppportunistic, sometimes dishonest. But to put all insurance companies in the same box is just as wrong as putting all Democrats into the same box or all Republicans into the same box.

However, once the government started meddling, it became more profitable for the insurance companies to please government instead of their customers. And the system did become very skewed. They'll pay the price though when the government takes it all over and puts the insurance companies out of business. And we the people will suffer the consequences of that in a much much worse way that any anecdotal consequences of a few bad insurance companies.

I swear this is like Bill Murray's Ground hog Day. It is always the same right wing propaganda...EVERYTHING that scurrilous people do, like insurance cartel's death panels is not because these people are scurrilous, it's because of GOVERNMENT. The fucking government made them do it, fuck personal responsibility, fuck morals and ethics. You right wing turds always preach 'personal responsibility', then you make excuses for your beloved CEO's and the hierarchy you worship. The 'captains of industry' can do no wrong, they are VICTIMS...victim-hood; the right wing mantra.

You right wingers need to educate yourself about who our founding fathers were. They were not 'laissez-faire' capitalist. They did not believe in any 'invisible hand'. They totally controlled corporations. They would have cancelled the corporate charter of these scurrilous insurance cartels in an instant, and arrested your beloved 'captains of industry'

Our founding fathers did not subscribe to Adam Smith's 'invisible hand'. They believed in very heavy regulations and restrictions on corporations. They were men who held ethics as the most important attribute. They viewed being paid by the American people for their services as a privilege not a right. And they had no problem closing down any corporation that swindled the people, and holding owners and stockholder personally liable for any harm to the people they caused.

Early laws regulating corporations in America

*Corporations were required to have a clear purpose, to be fulfilled but not exceeded.

*Corporations’ licenses to do business were revocable by the state legislature if they exceeded or did not fulfill their chartered purpose(s).

*The state legislature could revoke a corporation’s charter if it misbehaved.

*The act of incorporation did not relieve corporate management or stockholders/owners of responsibility or liability for corporate acts.

*As a matter of course, corporation officers, directors, or agents couldn’t break the law and avoid punishment by claiming they were “just doing their job” when committing crimes but instead could be held criminally liable for violating the law.

*Directors of the corporation were required to come from among stockholders.

*Corporations had to have their headquarters and meetings in the state where their principal place of business was located.

*Corporation charters were granted for a specific period of time, such as twenty or thirty years (instead of being granted “in perpetuity,” as is now the practice).

*Corporations were prohibited from owning stock in other corporations, to prevent them from extending their power inappropriately.

*Corporations’ real estate holdings were limited to what was necessary to carry out their specific purpose(s).

*Corporations were prohibited from making any political contributions, direct or indirect.

*Corporations were prohibited from making charitable or civic donations outside of their specific purposes.

*State legislatures could set the rates that some monopoly corporations could charge for their products or services.

*All corporation records and documents were open to the legislature or the state attorney general.

The Early Role of Corporations in America

The Legacy of the Founding Parents
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What caused the Progressive movement

We tried unregulated corporations in America. The closest experiment to total deregulation in this country occurred between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of the 19th century...it was called the Gilded Age; an era where America was as far from our founder's intent of a democratic society and closest to an aristocracy that our founder's were willing to lay down their lives to defeat.

It was opposition to that same Gilded Age that was the genesis of the Progressive movement in this country. When you study history, almost always just cause is behind it.

The only enemies of the Constitution are those who try to wield it as a weapon against the living, by using the words of the dead.
Me
 
neither government or corporations are inherently evil. Its the people who run them that are sometimes evil. Root out the bad people, the institutions are just fine.


:rofl:

Just get rid of all the bad people lol. What a grand idea!

Madoff is in jail, Ken Lay is dead, Hitler is dead, Castro is dying, clinton is out of office, LBJ is dead, Oswald is dead, McVeigh is dead, OBL is dead, Rostenkowski went to jail.

sometimes bad people do get what they deserve. Why do you find that funny?

Sometimes is right, since you're still here.
 
I did watch it. And it did not dispute a single fact in any of those links I posted.

You watched it? Please give me a recap?

If you really did watch it, you would know that insurance corporations have been doing really bad things, and not even 'for the good of the people', but only for the good of their profits. Even REAL death panels, where Americans DIE, and claims department personnel are rewarded and incentivized to deny expensive treatments to fellow Americans facing serious and fatal illnesses AND then in the middle of fighting for their lives, they have to face bankruptcy and losing everything worked their whole life for to add the final dagger.

And despite the eeeeeeevil insurance companies focusing on their profits, they served us very well before government started meddling. There were good insurance companies and not so good insurance companies just as there are good restaurants and restaurants that suck. People are fallible, sometimes stupid, sometimes oppportunistic, sometimes dishonest. But to put all insurance companies in the same box is just as wrong as putting all Democrats into the same box or all Republicans into the same box.

However, once the government started meddling, it became more profitable for the insurance companies to please government instead of their customers. And the system did become very skewed. They'll pay the price though when the government takes it all over and puts the insurance companies out of business. And we the people will suffer the consequences of that in a much much worse way that any anecdotal consequences of a few bad insurance companies.

Another fallacy. Here is an excellent website written by a doctor. He gives an insider's view into our broken health care for profit over patient system.

Healthcare - Home

UIEEfNj.png


My goal for this website was to try to understand a system that has an enormous financial impact on everyone, but makes almost no sense to anyone. It's a system with hidden costs, enormous mark ups to discourage direct payment and a labyrinth of billing and reimbursement schedules that almost guarantee that no person directly involved could ever understand it. And we've started to see why this system is set up this way, who benefits from it, and who loses. The question is: How did it get this way?

I've only been in practice for about a decade and the system, as it is, began evolving long before my medical career began. Still, I can only guess that decades ago when insurance companies started to pay for medical costs, no one intended for it to end up like this. Insurance companies were originally run by doctors. Their idea was to spread the risk. They had a sense that getting sick usually wasn't fair, so going bankrupt because you were sick probably also wasn't fair. They had the idea that pooling people in advance made it easier on everyone, and improved access to healthcare.

It's a great irony that only a few years later, some business people (people who are very good with money, but not so interested in medicine) realized that they could make a lot of money on health insurance if they created a special insurance plan that excluded the sickest people. In other words, insurance for people who probably didn't need it, which was very different from the original idea of health insurance for everyone, but far more profitable. The idea of preexisting conditions is almost as old as health insurance itself.

Here's one way to look at how the system came to be: People usually try to find occupations that follow what they love, at least in the beginning. Hospitals can be callous in their billing, as we've seen, and doctors like money as much as anyone else, but fundamentally there was a point in their lives when they (doctors and people who run hospitals) decided to get into the profession of helping sick people. Some are genuinely compassionate. Some are biology wonks or technology wonks, or just like the action. But most of them lose interest pretty quickly when they have to start dealing with complicated financial matters like insurance payments.

The first insurance companies were started by doctors, but they couldn't stay in the game when the money professionals started showing. They couldn't compete financially, and they didn't have the mindset to try. So they did what most of us do: focus on the details that interested them (medicine), and left the tedious stuff (finances) to someone who was interested in it (insurance companies). Now the insurance companies could start building a system in their image.

As the system grew and healthcare became more complex, more people came into the health insurance industry who had a good understanding of money but little interest in healthcare. It's no secret that confused people are easier to take advantage of, so layers of confusion were slowly piled on and profits soared.

Doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers didn't protest as the process slowly grew away from them because, while this was happening, they too, were making money, and didn't think they needed to worry about it. As the system became less and less transparent, insurance companies were careful to make sure that all of the major players were kept very happy. But you can't keep everyone happy forever, and when things get tight, that's when you start to learn who's running the system. Now, after 30 to 40 years of slowly allowing all of our understanding of the financial transactions to erode, we are left seeing more and more money dumped into a black hole with little understanding of what happens to it.

It's rare to see a discussion about healthcare costs that isn't centered on co-pays, premiums, and deductibles. These are all indirect costs. They tell you almost nothing about the cost of the final product (the medical services that you might need). If the cost of individual components of healthcare are mentioned at all in these conversations, the price given is usually the billing charge. But the billing charge has little to do with what health care costs either. You've seen in almost every section of this discussion that the billing charge is a hugely inflated price that almost no one ever pays.

Why would anyone want us to focus on a price that's almost never paid (unless you don't have insurance, of course)? Well, one reason might be that it makes it look like all that money is really going into paying for our health care. We all know how important an MRI can be, or an Emergency Room visit, and as long as people think an MRI really costs $4,000, and an ER visit costs $4,500, maybe they'll resign themselves to paying big insurance premiums, and we can all tell ourselves that it's the only way we can continue to have "the best health care in the world."

But if these charges have nothing to do with reality, then neither do any of the discussions. MRI's and ER visits cost hundreds of dollars, not thousands! This is all a very effective diversion because, if no one ever addresses the real problem, it's unlikely a real solution will ever be proposed. And if you don't want people to find out where their money is going, it helps to have them looking in the wrong place.
 
That's not insurance....That's pre-paid medical.

BIG difference.

That is insurance, not prepaid medical. Dr. Belk is not charging his patients a monthly fee. Oh, maybe a fucking doctor doesn't know what he's talking about.
 
You watched it? Please give me a recap?

If you really did watch it, you would know that insurance corporations have been doing really bad things, and not even 'for the good of the people', but only for the good of their profits. Even REAL death panels, where Americans DIE, and claims department personnel are rewarded and incentivized to deny expensive treatments to fellow Americans facing serious and fatal illnesses AND then in the middle of fighting for their lives, they have to face bankruptcy and losing everything worked their whole life for to add the final dagger.

And despite the eeeeeeevil insurance companies focusing on their profits, they served us very well before government started meddling. There were good insurance companies and not so good insurance companies just as there are good restaurants and restaurants that suck. People are fallible, sometimes stupid, sometimes oppportunistic, sometimes dishonest. But to put all insurance companies in the same box is just as wrong as putting all Democrats into the same box or all Republicans into the same box.

However, once the government started meddling, it became more profitable for the insurance companies to please government instead of their customers. And the system did become very skewed. They'll pay the price though when the government takes it all over and puts the insurance companies out of business. And we the people will suffer the consequences of that in a much much worse way that any anecdotal consequences of a few bad insurance companies.

Another fallacy. Here is an excellent website written by a doctor. He gives an insider's view into our broken health care for profit over patient system.

Healthcare - Home

UIEEfNj.png


My goal for this website was to try to understand a system that has an enormous financial impact on everyone, but makes almost no sense to anyone. It's a system with hidden costs, enormous mark ups to discourage direct payment and a labyrinth of billing and reimbursement schedules that almost guarantee that no person directly involved could ever understand it. And we've started to see why this system is set up this way, who benefits from it, and who loses. The question is: How did it get this way?

I've only been in practice for about a decade and the system, as it is, began evolving long before my medical career began. Still, I can only guess that decades ago when insurance companies started to pay for medical costs, no one intended for it to end up like this. Insurance companies were originally run by doctors. Their idea was to spread the risk. They had a sense that getting sick usually wasn't fair, so going bankrupt because you were sick probably also wasn't fair. They had the idea that pooling people in advance made it easier on everyone, and improved access to healthcare.

It's a great irony that only a few years later, some business people (people who are very good with money, but not so interested in medicine) realized that they could make a lot of money on health insurance if they created a special insurance plan that excluded the sickest people. In other words, insurance for people who probably didn't need it, which was very different from the original idea of health insurance for everyone, but far more profitable. The idea of preexisting conditions is almost as old as health insurance itself.

Here's one way to look at how the system came to be: People usually try to find occupations that follow what they love, at least in the beginning. Hospitals can be callous in their billing, as we've seen, and doctors like money as much as anyone else, but fundamentally there was a point in their lives when they (doctors and people who run hospitals) decided to get into the profession of helping sick people. Some are genuinely compassionate. Some are biology wonks or technology wonks, or just like the action. But most of them lose interest pretty quickly when they have to start dealing with complicated financial matters like insurance payments.

The first insurance companies were started by doctors, but they couldn't stay in the game when the money professionals started showing. They couldn't compete financially, and they didn't have the mindset to try. So they did what most of us do: focus on the details that interested them (medicine), and left the tedious stuff (finances) to someone who was interested in it (insurance companies). Now the insurance companies could start building a system in their image.

As the system grew and healthcare became more complex, more people came into the health insurance industry who had a good understanding of money but little interest in healthcare. It's no secret that confused people are easier to take advantage of, so layers of confusion were slowly piled on and profits soared.

Doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers didn't protest as the process slowly grew away from them because, while this was happening, they too, were making money, and didn't think they needed to worry about it. As the system became less and less transparent, insurance companies were careful to make sure that all of the major players were kept very happy. But you can't keep everyone happy forever, and when things get tight, that's when you start to learn who's running the system. Now, after 30 to 40 years of slowly allowing all of our understanding of the financial transactions to erode, we are left seeing more and more money dumped into a black hole with little understanding of what happens to it.

It's rare to see a discussion about healthcare costs that isn't centered on co-pays, premiums, and deductibles. These are all indirect costs. They tell you almost nothing about the cost of the final product (the medical services that you might need). If the cost of individual components of healthcare are mentioned at all in these conversations, the price given is usually the billing charge. But the billing charge has little to do with what health care costs either. You've seen in almost every section of this discussion that the billing charge is a hugely inflated price that almost no one ever pays.

Why would anyone want us to focus on a price that's almost never paid (unless you don't have insurance, of course)? Well, one reason might be that it makes it look like all that money is really going into paying for our health care. We all know how important an MRI can be, or an Emergency Room visit, and as long as people think an MRI really costs $4,000, and an ER visit costs $4,500, maybe they'll resign themselves to paying big insurance premiums, and we can all tell ourselves that it's the only way we can continue to have "the best health care in the world."

But if these charges have nothing to do with reality, then neither do any of the discussions. MRI's and ER visits cost hundreds of dollars, not thousands! This is all a very effective diversion because, if no one ever addresses the real problem, it's unlikely a real solution will ever be proposed. And if you don't want people to find out where their money is going, it helps to have them looking in the wrong place.

Just because this is written by a doctor, doesn't lend it any more credence than if had had been written by Kathleen Sebelius. Sure, I'm gonna take the premonitions of a random doctor in the San Francisco Bay area over reality.

You're through.
 
I am not 'spinning' anything. Those were not my words, they were the words of David Frum - Republican and former speechwriter for George W. Bush

"At the beginning of this process we (Republicans) made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994."



If you are interested in the truth, invest a half hour listening to Wendell Potter, he was VP of corporate communications at CIGNA for 15 years. It is very revealing and enlightening.

Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients | PBS

Check out the part about a memo, from Frank Luntz. He's the Republican strategist who had written the script for opponents of health care reform. "First," he says, "you have to pretend to support it. Then use phrases like, "government takeover," "delayed care is denied care," "consequences of rationing," "bureaucrats, not doctors prescribing medicine." That was a memo, by Frank Luntz, to the opponents of health care reform in this debate. Now watch how Republicans parrot those comments.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER: The forthcoming plan from Democratic leaders will make health care more expensive, limit treatments, ration care, and put bureaucrats in charge of medical decisions rather than patients and doctors.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: Americans need to realize that when someone says "government option," what could really occur is a government takeover that soon could lead to government bureaucrats denying and delaying care, and telling Americans what kind of care they can have.

SEN. JON KYL: Washington run healthcare would diminish Americans' access to quality care, leading to denials, shortages and long delays for treatment.

REP. JOE WILSON: How will a government run health plan not lead to the same rationing of care that we have seen in other countries?

REP. TOM PRICE: We don't want to put the government, we don't want to put bureaucrats between a doctor and a patient.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.
Edmund Burke

The next link from PBS, is liberally biased. I will not fall for any more of this hackery from you. You need to enlighten yourself on more than just the Liberal demagoguery coming from your own party.

Thanks for proving you are not interested in the truth. The man spent 15 years as an executive VP at CIGNA, one of the largest in insurance corporations in the country. He is willing to let you in on the scam. But instead, you choose to remain blind.

Liberals are well aware of the dangers of government. But you people on the right are totally blind to the dangers of huge corporations and cartel. But for conservatives, there is only ONE entity you people fear. Ironic, it is the very entity that our founding fathers created to address grievances, prevent malfeasance and protect We, the People.

I am not interested in the truth as so defined by a liberal like you. I can spend 45 years in a branch of government, or a corporation, but if I am a liar, my experience won't cover for that, now will it? Use your head.
 
And despite the eeeeeeevil insurance companies focusing on their profits, they served us very well before government started meddling. There were good insurance companies and not so good insurance companies just as there are good restaurants and restaurants that suck. People are fallible, sometimes stupid, sometimes oppportunistic, sometimes dishonest. But to put all insurance companies in the same box is just as wrong as putting all Democrats into the same box or all Republicans into the same box.

However, once the government started meddling, it became more profitable for the insurance companies to please government instead of their customers. And the system did become very skewed. They'll pay the price though when the government takes it all over and puts the insurance companies out of business. And we the people will suffer the consequences of that in a much much worse way that any anecdotal consequences of a few bad insurance companies.

Another fallacy. Here is an excellent website written by a doctor. He gives an insider's view into our broken health care for profit over patient system.

Healthcare - Home

UIEEfNj.png


My goal for this website was to try to understand a system that has an enormous financial impact on everyone, but makes almost no sense to anyone. It's a system with hidden costs, enormous mark ups to discourage direct payment and a labyrinth of billing and reimbursement schedules that almost guarantee that no person directly involved could ever understand it. And we've started to see why this system is set up this way, who benefits from it, and who loses. The question is: How did it get this way?

I've only been in practice for about a decade and the system, as it is, began evolving long before my medical career began. Still, I can only guess that decades ago when insurance companies started to pay for medical costs, no one intended for it to end up like this. Insurance companies were originally run by doctors. Their idea was to spread the risk. They had a sense that getting sick usually wasn't fair, so going bankrupt because you were sick probably also wasn't fair. They had the idea that pooling people in advance made it easier on everyone, and improved access to healthcare.

It's a great irony that only a few years later, some business people (people who are very good with money, but not so interested in medicine) realized that they could make a lot of money on health insurance if they created a special insurance plan that excluded the sickest people. In other words, insurance for people who probably didn't need it, which was very different from the original idea of health insurance for everyone, but far more profitable. The idea of preexisting conditions is almost as old as health insurance itself.

Here's one way to look at how the system came to be: People usually try to find occupations that follow what they love, at least in the beginning. Hospitals can be callous in their billing, as we've seen, and doctors like money as much as anyone else, but fundamentally there was a point in their lives when they (doctors and people who run hospitals) decided to get into the profession of helping sick people. Some are genuinely compassionate. Some are biology wonks or technology wonks, or just like the action. But most of them lose interest pretty quickly when they have to start dealing with complicated financial matters like insurance payments.

The first insurance companies were started by doctors, but they couldn't stay in the game when the money professionals started showing. They couldn't compete financially, and they didn't have the mindset to try. So they did what most of us do: focus on the details that interested them (medicine), and left the tedious stuff (finances) to someone who was interested in it (insurance companies). Now the insurance companies could start building a system in their image.

As the system grew and healthcare became more complex, more people came into the health insurance industry who had a good understanding of money but little interest in healthcare. It's no secret that confused people are easier to take advantage of, so layers of confusion were slowly piled on and profits soared.

Doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers didn't protest as the process slowly grew away from them because, while this was happening, they too, were making money, and didn't think they needed to worry about it. As the system became less and less transparent, insurance companies were careful to make sure that all of the major players were kept very happy. But you can't keep everyone happy forever, and when things get tight, that's when you start to learn who's running the system. Now, after 30 to 40 years of slowly allowing all of our understanding of the financial transactions to erode, we are left seeing more and more money dumped into a black hole with little understanding of what happens to it.

It's rare to see a discussion about healthcare costs that isn't centered on co-pays, premiums, and deductibles. These are all indirect costs. They tell you almost nothing about the cost of the final product (the medical services that you might need). If the cost of individual components of healthcare are mentioned at all in these conversations, the price given is usually the billing charge. But the billing charge has little to do with what health care costs either. You've seen in almost every section of this discussion that the billing charge is a hugely inflated price that almost no one ever pays.

Why would anyone want us to focus on a price that's almost never paid (unless you don't have insurance, of course)? Well, one reason might be that it makes it look like all that money is really going into paying for our health care. We all know how important an MRI can be, or an Emergency Room visit, and as long as people think an MRI really costs $4,000, and an ER visit costs $4,500, maybe they'll resign themselves to paying big insurance premiums, and we can all tell ourselves that it's the only way we can continue to have "the best health care in the world."

But if these charges have nothing to do with reality, then neither do any of the discussions. MRI's and ER visits cost hundreds of dollars, not thousands! This is all a very effective diversion because, if no one ever addresses the real problem, it's unlikely a real solution will ever be proposed. And if you don't want people to find out where their money is going, it helps to have them looking in the wrong place.

Just because this is written by a doctor, doesn't lend it any more credence than if had had been written by Kathleen Sebelius. Sure, I'm gonna take the premonitions of a random doctor in the San Francisco Bay area over reality.

You're through.

Show me where he is wrong? This is not partisan stuff.
 
Another fallacy. Here is an excellent website written by a doctor. He gives an insider's view into our broken health care for profit over patient system.

Healthcare - Home

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My goal for this website was to try to understand a system that has an enormous financial impact on everyone, but makes almost no sense to anyone. It's a system with hidden costs, enormous mark ups to discourage direct payment and a labyrinth of billing and reimbursement schedules that almost guarantee that no person directly involved could ever understand it. And we've started to see why this system is set up this way, who benefits from it, and who loses. The question is: How did it get this way?

I've only been in practice for about a decade and the system, as it is, began evolving long before my medical career began. Still, I can only guess that decades ago when insurance companies started to pay for medical costs, no one intended for it to end up like this. Insurance companies were originally run by doctors. Their idea was to spread the risk. They had a sense that getting sick usually wasn't fair, so going bankrupt because you were sick probably also wasn't fair. They had the idea that pooling people in advance made it easier on everyone, and improved access to healthcare.

It's a great irony that only a few years later, some business people (people who are very good with money, but not so interested in medicine) realized that they could make a lot of money on health insurance if they created a special insurance plan that excluded the sickest people. In other words, insurance for people who probably didn't need it, which was very different from the original idea of health insurance for everyone, but far more profitable. The idea of preexisting conditions is almost as old as health insurance itself.

Here's one way to look at how the system came to be: People usually try to find occupations that follow what they love, at least in the beginning. Hospitals can be callous in their billing, as we've seen, and doctors like money as much as anyone else, but fundamentally there was a point in their lives when they (doctors and people who run hospitals) decided to get into the profession of helping sick people. Some are genuinely compassionate. Some are biology wonks or technology wonks, or just like the action. But most of them lose interest pretty quickly when they have to start dealing with complicated financial matters like insurance payments.

The first insurance companies were started by doctors, but they couldn't stay in the game when the money professionals started showing. They couldn't compete financially, and they didn't have the mindset to try. So they did what most of us do: focus on the details that interested them (medicine), and left the tedious stuff (finances) to someone who was interested in it (insurance companies). Now the insurance companies could start building a system in their image.

As the system grew and healthcare became more complex, more people came into the health insurance industry who had a good understanding of money but little interest in healthcare. It's no secret that confused people are easier to take advantage of, so layers of confusion were slowly piled on and profits soared.

Doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers didn't protest as the process slowly grew away from them because, while this was happening, they too, were making money, and didn't think they needed to worry about it. As the system became less and less transparent, insurance companies were careful to make sure that all of the major players were kept very happy. But you can't keep everyone happy forever, and when things get tight, that's when you start to learn who's running the system. Now, after 30 to 40 years of slowly allowing all of our understanding of the financial transactions to erode, we are left seeing more and more money dumped into a black hole with little understanding of what happens to it.

It's rare to see a discussion about healthcare costs that isn't centered on co-pays, premiums, and deductibles. These are all indirect costs. They tell you almost nothing about the cost of the final product (the medical services that you might need). If the cost of individual components of healthcare are mentioned at all in these conversations, the price given is usually the billing charge. But the billing charge has little to do with what health care costs either. You've seen in almost every section of this discussion that the billing charge is a hugely inflated price that almost no one ever pays.

Why would anyone want us to focus on a price that's almost never paid (unless you don't have insurance, of course)? Well, one reason might be that it makes it look like all that money is really going into paying for our health care. We all know how important an MRI can be, or an Emergency Room visit, and as long as people think an MRI really costs $4,000, and an ER visit costs $4,500, maybe they'll resign themselves to paying big insurance premiums, and we can all tell ourselves that it's the only way we can continue to have "the best health care in the world."

But if these charges have nothing to do with reality, then neither do any of the discussions. MRI's and ER visits cost hundreds of dollars, not thousands! This is all a very effective diversion because, if no one ever addresses the real problem, it's unlikely a real solution will ever be proposed. And if you don't want people to find out where their money is going, it helps to have them looking in the wrong place.

Just because this is written by a doctor, doesn't lend it any more credence than if had had been written by Kathleen Sebelius. Sure, I'm gonna take the premonitions of a random doctor in the San Francisco Bay area over reality.

You're through.

Show me where he is wrong? This is not partisan stuff.

Show me where he is right? He lists no empirical data, no charts, no proof. Just euphemistic contentions. Some random doctor in San Francisco is most certainly not going to speak for the rest of them.
 
Just because this is written by a doctor, doesn't lend it any more credence than if had had been written by Kathleen Sebelius. Sure, I'm gonna take the premonitions of a random doctor in the San Francisco Bay area over reality.

You're through.

Show me where he is wrong? This is not partisan stuff.

Show me where he is right? He lists no empirical data, no charts, no proof. Just euphemistic contentions. Some random doctor in San Francisco is most certainly not going to speak for the rest of them.

There is plenty of empirical data on his site. Did you dare to look?

Diagnostic Tests

This brings me to the subject of diagnostic tests and how much they should really cost. Most blood and urine tests are done with simple chemicals that cost anywhere from a few pennies to a couple of dollars. This means that it cost little more than that to run most of these tests. Add the lab time, and most tests still cost anywhere from pennies to a few dollars (labs are pretty efficient at running tests). There are a few expensive tests, such as genetic tests, but these are not frequently used in a routine screening or diagnostic work up. The cost of radiology tests can be broken down in a similar fashion. There is the original cost of the X-ray machine, CT scanner or MRI which are usually bought and paid for by the hospital or diagnostic center. In addition, there are the costs of maintaining the machinery, paying the staff, preparing certain patients for the tests and the radiologist’s fee for reading the X-ray.

The insurance companies know all of these costs and try to reimburse the minimum amount that the institution running the test is likely to accept. Routine blood work, for example, only gets paid a few dollars but a CT scan or MRI will bring in a few hundred dollars. A PET scan (which is relatively new technology) might cost a few thousand dollars but, as with everything else in technology, the price of this test is dropping.

How much will they bill you if you try to pay for any of these tests yourself? Well, as you know by now, all tests, procedures, office visits and hospitalizations are billed for an amount that exceeds what they expect from any insurance company (often by a lot) in order to get the maximum amount possible from all of them. This means that anyone who doesn’t have insurance, or for whom the insurance is denied, has to pay five, ten or even twenty times what any insurance company would likely pay.

This not only makes people 100% dependent on their insurance for even the most trivial medical cost but also means they will have to pay an enormous penalty any time anyone makes a mistake ordering or authorizing a test if coverage is denied. In addition, this policy results in millions of people being excluded from healthcare, not because they can't afford it, but because they are not allowed to afford it. Most people could afford these services were they not priced at ten or more times their actual value.

Below is a list of commonly ordered medical tests along with a brief explanation of the test, typical billing charges and the reimbursement from Medicare and a sample PPO insurance company (more tests will be provided in an index at the end of this website). I obtained the billing charges by calling several different hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area. Private labs and imaging centers that are not affiliated with hospitals charge less than hospitals, but some still charge well above what most insurance companies are likely to pay (they are getting much better though). It’s pretty clear, even from this short list of tests and procedures, that that the institutions providing them do not want you to pay for them yourself. The question is, why? Why would any organization go so far out of their way to discourage direct payment? This is especially strange when you consider what a nightmare it is to deal with insurance companies.

Also, consider how much the insurance companies have to pay for these tests. If that’s all you had to pay, how hard would that be? How do the prices of these tests compare to the price of a tank of gasoline, a bag of groceries or a tune up for your car? Even the most expensive tests listed wouldn’t cost you as much as a transmission overhaul so, why do we have to pay so much to have our insurance cover them?

PPO prices were taken from a sample fee schedule provided by Multiplan.


Blood tests:

Comprehensive metabolic panel: A blood test that assesses liver and kidney function as well as electrolytes

Hospital charge: $179 Private insurance: $15 Medicare: $15



Lipid Panel: A blood test that checks total cholesterol and breaks it down to good and bad components.

Hospital charge: $68 Private insurance: $19 Medicare: $19



Complete Blood Count: A blood test that checks your hemoglobin, hematocrit, white blood counts.

Hospital charge: $51 Private insurance: $11 Medicare: $11



Urine Analysis: Looks for blood, signs of infection or protein in your urine.

Hospital charge: $92 Private insurance: $5 Medicare: $4



Hemoglobin A1C: A single blood test that checks your average blood sugar for the last 3 months.

Hospital charge: $61 Private insurance: $14 Medicare: $13



Thyroid Stimulating Hormone: A blood test that evaluates your thyroid function.

Hospital charge: $108 Private insurance: $24 Medicare: $23



Prothrombin Time: A blood test to check Coumadin level and your blood’s ability to clot

Hospital charge: $36 Private insurance: $6 Medicare: $6



PSA: A blood test that helps to check for prostate cancer.

Hospital charge: $117 Private insurance: $26 Medicare: $22



HIV: Tests for HIV (obviously).

Hospital charge: $92 Private insurance: $20 Medicare: $19



Cardiology:

EKG: A screening test for abnormal heart rhythms and other signs of heart disease.

Hospital charge: $367 Private insurance: $26 Medicare: $26



Echocardiogram: An ultrasound of the heart to look at valves and assess function.

Hospital charge: $4,361 Private insurance: $317 Medicare: $291



Exercise Stress Test: This test is good for evaluating chest pain to see if your heart is the cause.

Hospital charge: $1,182 Private insurance: $123 Medicare: $123



Radiology: (Price includes fee for Radiologist)

Chest X-Ray: To check for lung disease and some forms of heart disease.

Hospital charge: $375 Private insurance: $42 Medicare: $41



Mammogram: Screening test for breast cancer

Hospital charge: $336 Private insurance: $191 Medicare: $146



Ultrasound of the Abdomen: Can assess Kidneys, Liver, Gall Bladder and other organs.

Hospital charge: $1,440 Private insurance: $184 Medicare: $181



Ultrasound of the Pelvis: Images the Uterus and Ovaries

Hospital charge: $1,106 Private insurance: $170 Medicare: $169



CT of Head: Often used to look for lesions in the Brain.

Hospital charge: $2,621 Private insurance: $344 Medicare: $269



CT of Chest with IV Contrast: Can accurately evaluate lung disease and other problem in the chest.

Hospital charge: $5,295 Private insurance: $431 Medicare: $426



CT of Abdomen with IV Contrast: Accurately images the abdomen for tumors or other disease.

Hospital charge: $5,680 Private insurance: $463 Medicare: $458



CT of Pelvis with IV Contrast: Often done at the same time as the abdominal CT.

Hospital charge: $5,030 Private insurance: $408 Medicare: $403



MRI of the Brain: A more accurate way to image the brain than a CT scan but it’s more expensive and can’t be done as quickly or easily.

Hospital charge: $3,422 Private insurance: $578 Medicare: $654



MRI of the Cervical Spine: Accurately images the neck

Hospital charge: $3,041 Private insurance: $584 Medicare: $587



MRI of the Thoracic Spine: Accurately images the upper back

Hospital charge: $3,422 Private insurance: $584 Medicare: $596



MRI of the Lumbar Spine: Accurately images the lower back.

Hospital charge: $3,535 Private insurance: $577 Medicare: $588



Procedures: (Usually these procedures are done in an office not a hospital. The amount billed varies substantially for different medical groups but it usually ranges from $1,000 to $8,000 for each).

Colonoscopy, Diagnostic: A screening test for colon cancer where the entire colon is examined through a fiber optic tube.

Private insurance: $504 Medicare: $464



Colonoscopy with Biopsy: If a lesion is found on screening colonoscopy a biopsy is needed.

Private insurance: $603 Medicare: $555



Upper endoscopy with Biopsy: Evaluates problems in the esophagus and stomach, again through a fiber optic tube.

Private insurance: $447 Medicare: $410
 
That's not insurance....That's pre-paid medical.

BIG difference.

That is insurance, not prepaid medical. Dr. Belk is not charging his patients a monthly fee. Oh, maybe a fucking doctor doesn't know what he's talking about.
I'm certain you haven't the first clue ass to what you're blabbering about, as you have to constantly steal the words of others to try and mask your utter ignorance and rank partisan hack stupidity.

Insurance is for the unforseen, not for mundanities like sporadic office visits, chiropractic, alcohol/drug treatment someone, who is constantly chronically ill or -for instance- diabetics to go get a free ride on the backs of people who get their insurance as insurance against unexpected trauma and medical conditions.

Ignoramus twirps like you treat insurance as pre-paid medical for anything and everything...In fact it's exactly what you mean when you disingenuously use the term "insurance".
 

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