This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse
If the U.S. health care system was a country, it would have the fifth largest GDP on the entire planet. At this point only the United States, China, Japan and Germany have a GDP that is larger than the 3.5 trillion dollar U.S. health care market. If that sounds obscene to you, that is because it is obscene. We should want people to be attracted to the health care industry because they truly want to help people that are suffering, but instead the primary reason why people are drawn to the health care industry these days is because of the giant mountains of money that are being made. Like so many other things in our society, the health care industry is all about the pursuit of the almighty dollar, and that is just wrong.
In order to keep this giant money machine rolling, the health care industry has to do an enormous amount of marketing. If you can believe it, a study that was just published found that at least 30 billion dollars a year is spent on such marketing.
Hoping to earn its share of the $3.5 trillion health care market, the medical industry is pouring more money than ever into advertising its products — from high-priced prescriptions to do-it-yourself genetic tests and unapproved stem cell treatments.
Spending on health care marketing nearly doubled from 1997 to 2016, soaring to at least $30 billion a year, according to a study published Tuesday in JAMA.
This marketing takes many different forms, but perhaps the most obnoxious are the television ads that are endlessly hawking various pharmaceutical drugs. If you watch much television, you certainly can’t miss them. They always show vibrant, smiling, healthy people participating in various outdoor activities on bright, sunny days, and the inference is that if you want to be like those people you should take their drugs. And the phrase “ask your doctor” is usually near the end of every ad…
The biggest increase in medical marketing over the past 20 years was in “direct-to-consumer” advertising, including the TV commercials that exhort viewers to “ask your doctor” about a particular drug. Spending on such ads jumped from $2.1 billion in 1997 to nearly $10 billion in 2016, according to the study.
As a result of all those ads, millions of Americans rush out to their doctors to ask about drugs that they do not need for diseases that they do not have.
And on January 1st, dozens of pharmaceutical manufacturers hit Americans with another annual round of massive price increases.
But everyone will just keep taking those drugs, because that is what the doctors are telling them to do. But what most people never find out is that the pharmaceutical industry goes to great lengths to get those doctors to do what they want. According to NBC News, the big drug companies are constantly “showering them with free food, drinks and speaking fees, as well as paying for them to travel to conferences”.
It is a legal form of bribery, and it works.
When you go to most doctors, they will only have two solutions to whatever problem you have – drugs or surgery.
And since nobody really likes to get cut open, and since drugs are usually the far less expensive choice, they are usually the preferred option.
Of course if doctors get off the path and start trying to get cute by proposing alternative solutions, they can get in big trouble really fast…
Today’s medical doctors are not allowed to give nutritional advice, or the American Medical Association will come shut them down, and even if they were, they don’t know the right things to say, because they weren’t educated that way in medical college. So instead, M.D.s just sling experimental, addictive drugs at symptoms of deeper rooted sicknesses, along with immune-system-destroying antibiotics and carcinogenic vaccines.
That’s why any medicine that wrecks your health is easy to come by, just like junk food in vending machines. The money isn’t made off the “vending” products, the money is made off the sick fools who are repeat offenders and keep going back to the well for more poison – it’s called chronic sick care or symptom management. Fact: Prescription drugs are the fourth leading cause of death in America, even when “taken as directed.”
Switching gears, let’s talk about hospitals for a moment.
When you go to the hospital, it is often during a great time of need. If you are gravely ill or if an accident has happened and you think you might die, you aren’t thinking about how much your medical care is going to cost. At that moment you just want help, and that is a perfect opportunity for predators to take advantage of you.
Just consider the example of 24-year-old Nina Dang. She broke her arm while riding her bicycle in San Francisco, and so she went to the emergency room.
The hospital that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg donated so much money to definitely fixed her arm, but later they broke her bank account when they hit her with a $24,000 bill…
A bystander saw her fall and called an ambulance. She was semi-lucid for that ride, awake but unable to answer basic questions about where she lived. Paramedics took her to the emergency room at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, where doctors X-rayed her arm and took a CT scan of her brain and spine. She left with her arm in a splint, on pain medication, and with a recommendation to follow up with an orthopedist.
A few months later, Dang got a bill for $24,074.50. Premera Blue Cross, her health insurer, would only cover $3,830.79 of that — an amount that it thought was fair for the services provided. That left Dang with $20,243.71 to pay, which the hospital threatened to send to collections in mid-December.
Most Americans assume that if they have “good health insurance” that they are covered if something major happens.
But as Dang found out, you can still be hit with crippling hospital bills even if you have insurance.
Today, medical debt is the number one reason why Americans declare bankruptcy. Because of the way our system is set up, most families are just one major illness away from financial ruin.
And this kind of thing is not just happening in California. The median charge for a visit to the emergency room nationally is well over a thousand dollars, and you can be billed up to 30 dollars for a single pill of aspirin during a hospital stay.
Our health care system is deeply broken, and it has been designed to squeeze as much money out of all of us as it possibly can.
Unfortunately, we are stuck with this system for now. The health care industry is certainly not going to reform itself, and the gridlock in Washington is going to make a political solution impossible for the foreseeable future.
***
Michael Snyder is a nationally syndicated writer, media personality and political activist. He is publisher of The Most Important News and the author of four books including The Beginning Of The End and Living A Life That Really Matters.
Michael T. Snyder is a graduate of the University of Florida law school and he worked as an attorney in the heart of Washington D.C. for a number of years.Today, Michael is best known for his work as the publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream.
If you want to know what is coming and what you can do to prepare, read his latest book [amazon text=Get Prepared Now!: Why A Great Crisis Is Coming & How You Can Survive It&asin=150522599X].
“When you have your health, you have everything!” – Augusten Burroughs. I don’t totally agree with him, but it seems the inverse is closer to the truth. “When you don’t have your health, you have nothing (you’re screwed!). Health insurance helps but you can still be hurting financially. It would take a book to spell out what’s wrong with the “healthcare” industry. A good book on the subject is “Undoctored” by Dr. William Davis. Preventive care is the best health care with particular focus on intestinal health.
It’s like every commercial on tv is “you have this and you need this” It’s ridiculous. I have a local doctor that takes no insurance only cash. I go when I’m sick, get medicine. Period. And even then I rarely see a doctor. I do my part to naturally strengthen my immune system.
The current medical system is not about saving lives, if you look at the whole thing solely without coloring what you think you know about it, you will find it is all FOR PROFIT and keeping a pool of RETURNING CUSTOMERS. If they cured you, they put themselves and their easy profits out of business. Note the hideously huge charges they submit to the insurance companies who you are forced to have. The bleed the half way healthy through their required coverage charges and bleed out the sick when they use it. Its a circular scam that is self supporting. Cures make for one time customers. Its also why there is so few truly knowledgeaable nutritionists, most a quacks that also support the system.
Gee Ace, do you work for kicks or to make a profit ie a paycheck?
How much do blood plasma donors get?
How much does blood products cost from the hospital before and after insurance…? Hint: google how much do blood products cost… And be shocked.
How much does chemo cost again? 10000 to 30000 a month dor the common ones.
Radiation treatment? 8600 to 25000 and up per course.
Gene therapy? 750000 to 1.5 million and more, the meds start at 750000 per year..
Lets talk about luciferianism now…. There is no altruism in the medical or health care industry.
Take all the time you need…. What is christian about that kind if naked profiteering? So why are you defending an industry for this?
I hate google, but google the question” how much does it cost for….. ” before you go off on some bs rant at me.
The medical industry is FLAT ABUSING PEOPLE AT THE TIME OF GREATEST NEED. HOW is that defendable? What is wrong with REASONABLE RATES AND COSTS? That is not advocation for Communism, as you sling that smear around.
Okay, how much do factory workers get paid versus what the CEOs make? I gather we need to correct that “injustice” right?
Man, this is Social Justice Warrior dogma, Dude.
Your are a hypocritical “Christian” poser, all i did was get you too prove it with your own posts. Thanks.
Nope. Prove me wrong…but you can’t or just won’t.
you are a fucking asshole, he was making a valid point.
Doctors and RNs actually make less money than their predecessors and have far more risk due to adding millions of people to Medicaid through Obamacare. Why do you think we are critically short in either profession.
They are NOT your enemies.
Big Pharma screws us all….
Not actually.
The way drug patents work in the USA, it’s extremely difficult to hold the patent more than seven years, after which it goes to “generic” status and anyone can make it that gets FDA approval to sell it inthe USA.
Something like 95% of drugs in the pipeline fail due to things like poor pharmacodynmics and pharmacokinetics. The efficacy is not high enough. The therapeutic index is too high to causing adverse side effects or even deleterious or toxic effects. It’s too expensive versus the target group of patients. ETC.
This means the pharmaceutical has enormous research costs and then has to have lengthy studies to ensure that first healthy people can tolerate it. Then people who are I’ll. Then people with weakened systems.
people who are ill …
No, the groups that are malevolent are the managed care companies, those that sell malpractice insurance, and the goverment employees and politicians who passed Obamacare and other oversight legislation. Then the attorneys who create spurious malpractce suits and their clients.
yWhat used to happen, say in the very late sixties was the actuaries who work for the insurance companies looked at the “pool” within a community who were the clients who bought insurance. Then the risk was spread across that pool. Then rates were set and healthcare was quite inexpensive. However it didn’t cover all the things that people demand today.
Then the insurance companies switched to looking at risks from individuals. Well that meant that those who had the most risk largely couldn’t afford insurance on their own, so the remaining were relatively low risk or even no risk if very young and healthy.
Then if you worked a company, the company paid their portion hiding the true cost, which then typically was no expensive and quite a perk as a benefit.
With malpractice, the insurance companies once fought, but instead they often settle for a fraction today, and put the monkey on the back of the physician who has no say on settling it out of court as they need to maintain malpractice insurance. That means the costs are skyhigh.
Meanwhile the government severely cut reimbursement to Medicaid to the impoverished to abysmal levels and while they pay more for Medicare,it still is a fraction of the actual bill.
This means again, the doc is left holding the bill. So they have to raise prices in a never ending game with the government. So managed care insurance companies got wise and play that game as well.
With Obamacare, the government was in cahoots with the managed care insurance companies with the idea that this was a big win for the Democrats. You see, they just reassigned medicaid which was for the impoverished to include healthy millenials who traditionaly are low or no risk patients. Basically they won’t actually have claims unless they age guys who have an accident like a broken arm. Statistically that means it’s coverage that actually will have scant claims. Alkready under SCHIP millennial women were covered under a different program.
Meanwhile this gave the Democrats new government employees to oversee a bloated Medicaid and major votes in the election by a gullible but impoverished niche of voters.
” it’s extremely difficult to hold the patent more than seven years”
Actually, its not.
Patent duration is 20 years, not 7.
the Hatch-Waxmann act gives an immediate 5 year extension out the gate from development. Beyond that, all the pharma companies have to do is reformulate the drug (to extended release for example) extend the patent to cover a different disease (antidepressants marketed as anti-smoking drugs like wellbutrin) or target demographic (adult antidepressants as ADHD treatment for kids) using the same medicine, or a minor formulation change. This can be done in 3 year increments. Thats exactly the reason you see adult depression meds marketed to kids.
so… if I had a drug I patented after 1995, I get 20 years. Add 5 for the fda approval extension, add 3 for a reformulation, 3 for a rebranding, 3 for a new target demographic, 6 for a couple of lawsuits that result in 30 month FDA stays regardless of outcome…. suddenly I have almost 40 years of patent. on one drug.
and in my opinion, the research costs should not drive hyperaggressive marketing to consumers who dont honestly know any better, or to doctors, many of whom simply practice “flowchart medicine” anymore.
Nonsense. See Prozac versus Fluoxetine.
I posted straight facts, all evident in the pharmaceutical industry practice and in case law. Your dismissive comment changes nothing.
In the case of Prozac, that’s actually a very typical attempt to extend a patent. the only mistake they made was to screw up the target demographic (In the first patent it was for humans, in the second, animals. the appeal was overturned because humans are animals.)
Ambien- same drug, change to administration (sublingual) added 5 years to patent.
risperidone- changed administration (intramuscular injection) added 5 years to patent.
Glocophage- began pediatric testing, added 6 months. Reformulated to extended release, another 3 year extension.
atomexitine- remarketed for ADHD, patent continued for about 25 years
Paxil- 30 month administrative stay due to a (basically) frivolous lawsuit simply meant to keep it exclusive.
and those were just the quick examples I can find via google.
\
and my opinion still stands- hyperaggressive marketing only benefits the manufacturer, not the Dr or patient.
A quick note to everyone else here…. The next time anyone on this forum sees a well dressed piece of tail in her mid-20’s in a short skirt toting a crapload of Panera Bread through your doctors waiting room, be sure to ask her what she’s pushing and why. that’s the stereotypical “drug rep.”. Then when you see your Dr, ask him how often she brings his entire staff lunch. Its at least weekly. Don’t you wish you had that kind of acess and face time with your doctor..?
htt ps://medcitynews.com/2018/01/drug-patents-expire-2018/
26 drugs, all going off patent, and then made cheaply in China with far less safeguards.
I can do this all day long.
But hey, then you get cheap Chinese drugs made by Chinese slave labor, no matter that well paying American jobs were lost.
do what, refute your own argument? The article you link to clearly states the patent process is a mess of extensions and overlapping patents on everything from the formulation to the method of delivery. I posted 5 direct, real life examples to support my point that your statement ” it’s extremely difficult to hold the patent more than seven years” is hogwash.
now suddenly you’re lamenting drug safety and job loss..? sort of a straw man isn’t it?
your patent statement is false, and I have little sympathy for drug manufacturers.
by the way, good discussion. Its nice to have someone here who can debate an issue without taking it personally, and who is as open with information as you are.
But many of them are surely sorely undereducated in their fields. Sadly, you cannot tell them from the insanely corrupt ones. Did I mention way too many in healthcare, including some doctors, hardly speak English.
Why is that? The USA has 330 million people and there are inadequate numbers of med schools so the physicians must be hired elsewhere or just not have them.
Duh!
marantha,
your monopolizing of opinion on this board makes me not want to read it. As others have pointed out there is a great amount of dualism and hypocrisy in ALL of your comments. As i am also a know-it-all, it seems to me, its folks like you that make sure that real conspiracies never see the light of day. I dont mind you accepting your slavedom, what irritates me, is those, like you, that seek to enslave everyone around them so you may accept your own slavery!
Nope. There is no monopoly. You have the exact same amount of power as me. You can post exactly as much as I can.
Maybe you lack the skills to discuss and debate. That’s your problem, not mine.
What I see is a weak commenter who cannot back up his claims, yet calls me enslaved. Who is enslaved? Look in the mirror!
Wow, so now its “feel sorry for the poor doctors now”?
My wifes cousin (an RN until married) is married to a doctor.
Yes they live paycheck to paycheck like most Americans, ha ha.
Constant trips, home remodeling, new cars, trucks, horses, tractors, etc, whatever is on the wish list this week.
Feel so bad for her when all she got for her 40th was a new Mercedes convertible. Breaks my heart.
Doctors who work for Kentucky as professors at UK, some are paid over a million a year.This is public data.
A new doctor may have loans but is able to pay those off soon with high wages.
The surgeon my wife worked for is a multi, multi, millionaire. Very nice man, we go to cookouts at his mansion.
Doctors and definitely nurses are not the enemy, the pharmaceutical industry and hospital owners are. Greed upon greed.
Nurses dont even compare to doctors wages, nurses are paid well to most Americans but it takes them much longer to pay off school loans, i know as my daughter is an RN.
It’s NOT just Healthcare!
EVERY THING about the USSA is FAKE:
– FAKE Education
– FAKE Politics
– FAKE Food
– FAKE Pharma
– FAKE Economy
– FAKE Money
– FAKE Wars
– FAKE News
– FAKE People
– FAKE Culture
Maximal fat burn is 1 lb. a week. Get a scale and weigh yourself daily. Get down to your BMI. Stop making excuses.
^^^^^THAT^^^^^
Eisen is correct. Set goals.
Lose weight, reduce inflammation in your body, get away from processed shit and avoid sugar. Exercise.
Your welcome, you can get off most of your meds now.
The shutdown has no consequences whatsoever.
Trump is doing more than anyone before him.
Had a bad sore throat once when strep was running rampant in my area. My doc office told me they dropped me since I hadn’t been to the office in 2 years, and would have to sign up as a new patient. They also could only schedule me for a visit the next month.
So I decided to visit an “urgent care” office to get checked out. When I was admitted the total time in the office was 15 minutes with 5 minutes or less with the actual doc, and a throat swab. Received the bill a week later. Over $400, 200 to the doc, and 200 to the office. My insurance covered half thank goodness, but I felt I was in the wrong line of work.
(I have not been to my doc office now in 5+ years, and will be almost dead if I need another urgent care. I now eat better, quit smoking, exercise, and try to use natural ways when those rare times I feel ill. Fuck ’em)
DM,
That seems a little high.
One time when
I accompanied my wife to her local Kaiser
doctor, I asked the office ladies what would
they charge me, a non-covered person
for a walk-in, such as you did.
Kaiser did accept urgency care patients.
They quoted $400 per hour plus
lab fees. That was a few years back.
About the same as a good lawyer eh?
Now I know how the hospital that owned the urgent care I went to has bought almost EVERY local urgent care facility, and PNP offices in my area. It’s looking just like Starbucks did… one on every corner.
One day a man went to the proctologist
The doc told him to pull down his drawers and bend over the table
The man did as asked
The doc said “Now Im going to stick one of my fingers up your arse and see if I can feel what the problem is.”
The man thought for a few seconds and replied “Gee doc, do you think you could stick two fingers in my arse?”
The doc asked “Why do you want me to do that?”
The man replied ” I just want to get a second opinion.”
😛
Bada Bing!
Good one. I should have asked them to kiss me before they fucked me.
If I need anything I will claim to be a scum illegal alien and receive no bill.
Educate yourself.
Most illness results from nutritional deficiencies.
People who were on ships got scurvy. It turns out that scurvy is a deficiency of Vitamin C.
Rickets makes you bow legged and is caused by another deficiency.
The other most common cause of illness is toxic poison in water, food, and in the air.
Viruses and bacteria do cause illness which is why sanitation is the surest reason for improved health in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Unfortunately, the USA is near the worst Country in the developed world for health. Our children are dying and our old people are invalids suffering for years in convalescent beds until they finally die.
Ignorance is rampant in America. People can help themselves if they just make small changes. Read a book on nutrition for starters. Get some sun and walk around your neighborhood.
.
Yes most health issues flow from vitamin & mineral deficiencies. Breast and bladder cancer in women is stimulated by a lack of zinc. In men a lack of zinc causes prostate cancer.
Take a 100% vitamin & mineral supplement every day; large doses of vitamin c & D3. Turmeric, ginger, & garlic kill the bugs that cause disease, as do all of the other spices.
Google ORAC VALUES.
Be sure to get enough fruit & veggies, as both have unique substances that prevent disease. 🙂
Exactly. Before the modern age of medicine peoes health all relied on a nutrition diet of whole fresh foods. And then industrialization happened and all the excess grown food needed processing to preserve it against waste, and then convenience and then naked profits. Each step forward introduced new injected unnatural chemicals and preservatives, the food extenders and fillers and sugars. Mankinds health took a massive dive too because of all the advances… Look where we are today. Obese and sickly eating pharmas pushed at us by quack doctors. Yeah, progress. Not.
Yep, most Americans are low on vitamin d which causes you to catch colds, flu easier and not have much energy.
Also other vitamins and minerals due to crappy American diets and gmo food like wheat which kills our stomach bacteria.
A third of Americans are lardbutts and another third are overweight. That is why 2/3 have CHRONIC health issues.
A third of Americans have been exposed to an STD. No one should have unprotected intimacy unless you are a denegerate gambler. “Gee she looks hot, wonder if she has chlamidia, syphyllis, HIV, etc”. That is insane!
Honey,
All my physical problems were sports, or job related.
I could eat like a saint, but my knee was virtually destroyed
playing football. Bones broken from sports or fighting, joints ripped apart working without proper tools or accidents.
I drink what I want, eat what I like, and I like my life. Eating soy burgers, kale, and gluten free breads doesn’t appeal to me.
Meats, seafood, eggs, real breads, real butter, cheap beer, fresh “Normal” veggies, fruits like avocados and tomatoes, an occasional Pizza, are my diet.
As I have way more days behind me than in front of me, I’m going to enjoy the time I have left, rather than worry about dying from some diet related disease.
I had Rolling rock beer and Pizza with everything on it for dinner last night.
My BP was 124/82 after dinner.
Rolling Rock from Old Latrobe is not cheap beer. It’s an inexpensive non snooty non foofoo beer. No blue collar guy is going to put a wedge of lime in a Rolling Rock. It would be ridiculous.
But this gives you a beer belly. At least drink a mint julep once in a while with a double strength shot of Woodford Reserve.
Watch the Irish try bourbon.
B70e-01JBbA
quit drinking in ’10, never looked back. Its not for everyone, but I was amazed what a difference it made in my life. Only thing I miss is the occasional single malt and some of the social interaction, but what I gained outweighs that
Moderation.
I drink maybe one mixed drink a month and never go to bars.
I went to rednecks bars for a six month period when I was young and dumb. That’s a waste of time and full of harlots.
Wow Americans have to pay, yet ILLEGALS get free health care????
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-york-bill-de-blasio-health-care_us_5c34cb9ee4b05d4e96bcec99
Canadians receiving radio signals from deep space!
Probably all that MaryJane smoke drawing em in.???
I wonder who is going to take the fall for this.
Rellik:
Your diet sounds pretty healthy. Foods that are rich in cartilage like chicken feet and bone broth are good for rebuilding damaged joints. Soy burgers are not that
healthy. Worry is not the goal.
.
The managed care insurance companies LOVED THIS. What happened then was someone had to PAY and that was the middle class and the companies who employed them. They could either pay enormous rates or raise the deductables so HIGH, that statistically the insurancde company had fewer payouts.
The insurance companies bent over these folks. And then for one the first times since the great postwar boom, companies couldn’t afford to provide insurance. It was a double whammy because free trade had already severely harmed the companies.
People only think of set salary levels to be middle class, typically say $40,000. What they are ignoring are inflation and the massive expense of benefits and having them curtailed. So the true wages are very low today, the companies are economically fragile, and there are hidden amounts of unemployed that are not shown plus underemployment too.
Marantha, just for you. Israeli News Live, on youtube. New video this morning called the Real Agenda. You might appreciate what he has to say in it. Eye openng, was for me at least.
You too, Mac. Go see it with no blinders or lenses. Been a subscriber for some time. He seems genuine.
WTF.I am not pro-Israel. Far from it.
Single-payer would have been better than what we have now.
well that WAS the point to o-care: forcing a collapse of the current crappy system and forcing folks into the idea that “single payer” would be better.
a paper bag of feces would be better, but I’m not willing to simply trade for another bag of $hit because its different.
true open insurance market, fix healthcare costs. No crony capitalism, no single payer socialism.
Spot on.
Do not put your family members in a nursing home. Those are huge money making scams; try $5,000 a month for basic fees for staying in a tiny room. Nursing homes are understaffed. Cnas and nurses are overworked and underpaid. Roaches and bedbugs are a problem in the rooms and kitchen. Residents lose their homes and most of their belongings when they move into a nursing home due to the costs. Don’t buy into the propaganda about resident rights either. Residents have few rights; workers on the floor have none. Makes for high turnover in a toxic work environment.
I know what I’m talking about, I work in one.
At one time Doctors ran their own small, local, private business. Hospitals were mostly charities. Then big business stepped in buying up local clinics and hospitals. Medical care became big business, and big business puts money in the pockets of politicians, in the form of reelection money. Laws for medicine changed, exempting them from many consumer protections and causing rates to skyrocket. Nothing will change until medicine bankrupts this country. Nothing as important as healthcare can inflate at a 10% rate forever.
True.
But what else happened was patients had an expectation that a pill would fix all their problems, yet simultaneously had an expectation they could overeat without consequences. Then fail to have the same physical fitness as their ancestors, yet expect no issues. Then they hated the side effects so they stopped taking their medicines. 75-80% of patients do NOT take their medicines as directed.
Well, the whole basis of pharmacology via an oral route is to build up a level of concentration in the blood to such a degree that it has a therapeutic effect. This is why some drugs take up to two weeks to achieve this…safely. So if you stop taking it, the blood levels fall.
A physician can not MAKE YOU… exercise, eat healthy food, tell the truth, take your meds, stop having unprotected intimate contact, stop drinking ethanol too much, stop taking recreational drugs, stop yelling at your spouse, etc.
All a physician today can do is have 5-10 minutes to both examine the patient, diagnose based upon logical analysis, and then write a prescription, and TRY TO PERSUADE YOU to do these things. I mean gosh, at least a pastor has an hour to do this.
Patients today are very undisciplined versus their ancestors and yet have higher expectations…even unrealistic ones about magic pills. Why? Because they believe commercials where old men have the vigor of a 20 year old.
Consider this.
If you attend church, every week without fail, the pastor and volunteers had at least 52 hours to persuade you to change, and then inspire you to volunteer by finding a ministry.
A physician has 5-10 minutes face time. If you went four times a year, at most they had 20-40 minutes to persuade you to change while you were sick and at your worst meaning irritable, tired, and not fully attentive to advice…just seeking immediate relief.
BIG DIFFERENCE.
The first hospitals began in the Holy Lands. The Knights Hospitalier were warrior priests who believed that Christianity should seize control of Jerusalem. So not just rich aristocrats went their for the forgiveness of their many sins. Nope, every level of society was inspired to go, meaning strong ordinary men went to fight, but also women and old people and the very young.
They got ill as the trip was arduous and mostly on foot or,they the perils of the sea. So these warriors priests and their followers cared for them, for at one time, some were injured, sick with disease and infections, or their health was failing.
So churches acted to organize and get physicians to relocate to the prarie and homestead and also run a private practice. And when the village increased in population density, to a town, then a city, there were always similar situations as above. Therefore the church organized charities to create hospitals as there were always routine elements like pregnancy and injuries. And much of the disease was caused by poverty and poor sanitation.
Things actually have not essentially changed. But what was once small scale run by volunteers, became a business ruj by employees. When do you volunteer lately? Well, your ancestors volunteered to accomplish much of the work.
If you look at a population, maybe five percent are altruists, and that is where the pool of volunteers and donors comes from.
Hospitalers (knights templar) in the holy lands were for PAID protection for Crusaders and the defacto catholic bankers between europe and middle east first and foremost. People should look that up for themselvesbedore accepting your disingenious explanations. Templars were paid catholic mercenaries, not medical personnel…. Holy crap the stuff you post….
NOPE. The Knight Templar were the ones who initially began a form of credit banking to transfer assets to the various crusaders in the Holy Lands.
Versus the Knights Hospitalier who were of the Order of St. John.
htt ps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Hospitaller
They are completely differnt.
htt ps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar
They are entirely different military orders.
I would never cite a “wiki” a serious source because that entry is rewritten by ignorant and agendized morons whose changes pervert actual history. Recheck your facts. The Hospitalers were NOT medical in nature, they were paid fortresses sponsored knight in the servixe of the catholic church. They were mercs that offered safe “hospitality” for other travelling murdering crusaders, religious fanatics to provide safe space to rest and eat and were not open to the public but only of their Order. They also served as the churches bankers and repositories for stolen wealth from conquered lands.
The Knights Hosptalier DID start the first hospitals. That is a FACT.
Nobody is claiming anything more.
Are you really expecting postmodern behavior from early medieval warriors???
How peculiar!
Sanitation and medieval are mutually exclusive terms. There was no santation in the medieval ages… SMH
And you assign modern day medical and sanitation practices to the medieval Crusaders, those quasi barbarians..? . Yep people better fact check for themselves…
Quote where I made that claim.
Yahweh does not create suffering. Jesus says, “No one is good except Yahweh alone.”
We all are sinners and rebels. Sin means to miss the mark like in archery. Yahweh has plans for you to obey and be disciplined and do good works to accomplish the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet you rebel and do whatever you want, so these good deeds do not get done by you and others. Aha. That is where suffering comes from.
You are supposed to love Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with all that you possess: heart, mind, and soul. And then, love your neighbor as yourself.
Are you accomplishing that? NOPE…and that is why rebellion leads to suffering people.You fell down on the job and so did your neighbor.
No.other spirituality equates worship of a deity with caring for there human beings…like Christianity.
End for profit care NOW. Insurance is NEVER going to work when the avg heart attack bill is $750,000.
So communism is the answer?
Okay, end for profit car mechanics. End for profit home construction. End for profit farmers.
Come on Dude.
Seems a little hypicritical to be so virulently religious and defend obscene profiteering as if it were holy ground. Jesus never charged anyone for his healings blindness leprosy broken spirit STD and sins…. God help us all if he had..defending money changers? WWJD?
So you take no salary? You make no profit? You live in the USA uner capitalism but you think we should live as communists?
What?
As i said above you defend the obscene profits i posted above… How am i a communist for showing you are wrong in your assertion? And then an ad hominem attack? Really? Nonsensical straw man examples? I wonder how hard people are really thinking when they read this. I hope they think about what i say to go look for themselves. Thats my message. Educate themselves, have enough curiosity to go take a couple minutes and not except the tripe that is posted on hereat face value… Yous mine or others.
… Accept… Not except..
OKay, define obscene and identify which groups are obscene instead of speaking in generalities.
Who assigned you to be the arbiter of what is an “obscene profit”?
Shall we form a committee of politicians to determine this level as too much money? What are the criteria for this determination?
Will you apply it equitably?
What industries or people are not allowed to make an obscene profit?
That sounds like communism.
Having done that, show me the Constitutional basis for creating a definition for obscene profits. Next, show me the legal basis and how you plan to punish those who exceed this new limit.
To do this would almost certainly require a constitutional amendment and the rigorous requirements of approving this new amendment in the state legislatures.
I smell the stink of communism.
I did already, in a post above in response to that same thing. The only stink you are smelling is your own rank hypocrisy. You Quote the bible then justify the virtual monopolitic abuse of sick peoe by the medical industry for profits.. Your own words convict you.
So you admit you are a SJW about heakthcare. Good to know.
Nobody will stop you if you think that Christianity means opening your home to every stranger and feeding and housing them.
By all means,if you make your living as saya car mechanic, and think you are supposed to donate nearly allof it to the poor, go right ahead.
If you feel that way, then show me in Scripture the justification. You will end up broke and cannot afford a wife or children.
There certainly have been self-sacrificing Christians throughout history who did give their time, talent, amd treasure but few that gave it ALL as you are implying must be done.
How silly.
750,000 is not profit, its greed. Profit is ok but greed corrupts.
Based upon what criteria? Net or gross? Are you saying that based on pure profit at the very end?
Have you ever run a business?
Why is no problem to run a standard business and have a net worth of 2 million? But it’s obscene if anyone in healthcare does?
This is about some weird BIAS. It’s a grudge because you think that anyone in heathcare is actually making $750,000 in large numbers. Well show me your claims. Is it a big subset or a miniscule subset?
Some doctors, in interviews have spoken of the “Dr. Lifestyle.” There’s the problem. As others above have said. they get into it for the wrong reason.
Personally, I believe in “Universal healthcare”, one plan, the same for everybody (including and especially the congresscritters). However, that will necessitate a cost reduction or it would take the entire national budget. In fairness, some Dr. liabilities, such as student loans, need to be addressed: one cannot say fees must be reduced without looking at their costs.
Unfortunately, most in Congress do things with blinders on, and cannot grasp the broad structure and effects. A decent plan never will be implemented until the legislators think of something other than a narrow group, a bloc of votes.
What doctor lifestyle? Man, you need a reality check. This is not 1975. How about waiting to age 32 to start your life as a physician does while in residency?
Didn’t you start your life at age 21 while they were studying? Do you think they have a right to finally earn enough to pay their loans and own a house?
Where is all this envy coming from? A real estate investor or a used car salesman makes MORE than a doc and nobody envies their rights to make a profit. Heck, over time, those folks make MORE than docs unless a doc expands say at age 52 and hires physician assistants. Honestly I think a pawn shop owner/operator makes more but that’s disgusting usury.
Let’s say at age 18, a high school graduate gets a job making $30,000 and makes no wage increases for eleven years.
That is $330,000.
A med student is still accruing debt from school plus room and board for eleven years and then starts making $57,400. He/She missed out on $330,000 plus a just living like a normal person and has at least 160,000 in debt.
Total Negative $490,000 versus positive $330,000.
What does that pay jump to after med school?
Nurse practitioners can start around $80 k a year or more, really doubt the $57,400 for a physician.
You are trying too hard to justify an industry that is bloated with greed and overpriced procedures and medicines.
A trip to the ER or surgery shouldn’t require bankruptcy or your home being taken for unpaid medical bills.
The not for profit hospital here, which is constantly expanding, takes homes weekly, they are all listed in the newspaper every Sunday.
Docs get paid ABYSMALLY during residency. The least amount of residency is 3 LONG YEARS for Family Practice.
Some residencies last up to NINE YEARS!
So even if they make $250,000 figure all the lost income.
And realize that their job is not 40 hours. It’s 80-120 per week during residency.
Do the math, Dude.
ht tps://www.medscape.com/slideshow/residents-salary-and-debt-report-2017-6008931
Here is one quote of average residency salary in 2017 which was 63,800. The other quote I made was similarly arrived at.
They really make about $14 per hour based on 80 hours a week, but that is a misnomer. Ask any recent grad in residency their horror stories of 120 hour weeks. Do that math.
End health insurance…..pay cash for your healthcare….procedures and medicine plummet in value, eventually reaching the price they should be. The more unhealthy you are, the more YOU pay for your health costs. Not everyone else. This would also provide a tremendous incentive to take care of yourself.!!!!!!
I explained how the insurance companies are the ones profiting in outrageous ways that harm nearly everyone, yet somehow people ignored that.
I explained how horribly expensive it is to become a physician.
Most hospitals LOSE money as they technically have nonprofit status.
Most drug trials FAIL. The profit is on those five percent which do not and even then, ultimately they ay have adverse effects and must pay out in lawsuits. Even when they make money, it is for a window of time.
It amazes me that it’s alright to be a capitalist in America for every kind of business but healthcare. How weird.
I wnder if you think there is too much profit on home construction, car ownership, food, etc? The more you belyache, the more you sound like SJW types who want communism and more free stuff.
If Americans deserve inexpensive healthcare, then it follows that they deserve inexpensive cars as they require transportation, and they need inexpensive food as it is essential, and they must have inexpensive housing as it is mandatory, etc.
How immature.
Pharmaceuticals and health insurance companies run the healthcare system in this country. They set the rules and not the medical professionals.
Tell you what, I will concede that I got the patent length wrong BUT see the following.
ht tps://www.upcounsel.com/how-long-does-a-drug-patent-last
“Although patents are good for 20 years after the invention of the drug, it can take up to eight years for a pharmaceutical company to do enough testing for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and investors. This is because the FDA can continuously ask for more studies and experiments that document the side effects and efficacy on human patients.
Due to the rigorous amount of testing that goes into a drug patent, many larger pharmaceutical companies file several patents on the same drug, aiming to extend the 20-year period and block generic competitors from producing the same drug. It’s estimated that once a generic drug hits the market after a patent expiration, name brand sales drop by 80 percent .
However, big pharmaceutical companies are prepared to deal with competing drug companies. When a pharmaceutical company challenges a generic drug manufacturer in court, the FDA must mandate a 30-month freeze on the approval of the generic drug. Generic drug makers, in turn, file lawsuits to invalidate these additional patents. This is just how the carousel of brand-name versus generic drug makers works in a legal forum.”
This seems to be the general legal information.
So 20 years minus 8 equals 12 years BUT brand name sales drop by 80% making it doubtful that it is profitable. This means the generic crushes the original manufacturer.
This is rather bizarre. It would be like allowing anyone to make Harley Davidson models and pretending they are equivalent.
There actually is a solution, but you won’t like it.
What we could do is have a patient monitor who ensures that a patient:
1. Routinely exercises
2. Maintains an average and easily achievable healthy Body Mass Index
3. Measure blood levels of their prescriptions to ensure a therapeutic level is maintained and effective yet without deleterious side effects.
4. Enforce std tests as most have not been tested who are in fact infected.
5. Early testing for diabetes, heart disease, and cancer based on family history.
Something simple like that would dramatically lower health costs as it’s basically preventative maintenance.
The ACLU would have a cow. So would lots of folks.
But people demand to keep it as it is while Americans get fatter and fatter. Well, does that make any sense when the birth rate has plummeted? How can you pay for a healthcare system when the patients are insanely neglegent of their own health?
That would be like letting gamblers spend as much as they want but bail them out on their debts.
Overweight is a BMI of 27.3 % or more for women and 27.8 % or more for men, according to the NIH.
Obesity is a BMI of 30 and above, according to the NIH.
Here is a chart showing what happened since the sixties.
ht tps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USObesityRate1960-2004.svg
The folks who are overweight and are adults stayed constant as that amount of excess weight is not that bad.
That number is like ten to fifteen lbs overweight beyond the range in BMI charts for ladies and 20-30 lbs overweight beyond the range. Sort of like what used to be called “freshman fifteen” in university girls who were homesick.
But the ones who are obese either young or older rose dramatically.
Then you have morbidly obese folks who are 100 lbs over a normal average weight and maintain a BMI of 40+. This used be a very small subset, practically unheard of.
It was very rare when I was in middle and high school to have overweight teens as they were subject to horribly cruelty which was a huge motivator to not let yourself go.
There was maybe five obese kids and most felt sorry for them, though they did get picked on by some. Typically they were extremely socially isolated with little contact ie ignored.
There were no morbidly obese teens.
Now I routinely see morbidly obese teens.
why cant you stfu?
Nobody forces you to read myposts, crybaby.
i dont read your posts name caller. i scroll past ’em by the dozen! Can we agree that i disagree with most everything you say?
Waah, baby says what?
How does it feel to be totally unable to refute my posts and impotent to halt what I post?
How weak and puny people have become. It’s contemptable and indicative of an effete generation of losers who lack the backbone to handle adversity as our ancestors did 24/7.
Average family practice pays 176,000- 229,00 based on location.
Average pediatrics pays 170,000-234,000
Look at what they lost in income to finally get there.
By all means, go for it. See if you make it. Most wash out even doing pre-med work in college as they can’t pass Physics and Organic Chemistry.Or pass the MCAT.And that is in the first 4 years.
Think of it this way, there are athletes making millions and millions. Ever seen Hoop Dreams? How many people get paid these amounts? Most athletes do not make very much money and actually end up injured and so can only work in other areas or even have issues finding work.
It’s apples and oranges. Some few many huge salaries while most do not.
And then look at what some healthcare professional made in 1990 and scale it forward based on inflation. In most cases, they make less now then before as their costs like malpractice have skyrocketed.
Frankly most docs get stiffed on the bill and get paid a fraction of the total bill. It’s what you have in hand versus the uncollected recievable.
Yeah patients are going bankrupt and guess what? They didn’t pay their bills.
If you work and your boss instead of paying you what you are owed at $600, instead he pays you $300, are you happy with that???
That happens to docs every stinkin’ day.
Yeah, how many docs can be professors at UK? They largely can’t as they have to work to keep their practice and there are not many professor positions at the med school.
You are talking about a handful ie a tiny subset and then acting as if that is the majority. Weird.
The dirty little secret why Americans pay MORE for pharmaceuticals.
Americans in affect are paying for mandated low prices in practically every other nation.
This would be like other nations getting a discount on American automobiles, but then to finally make a profit, charge the normal price in America.
You see, those poor Africans do pay for their drugs because ethey can’t afford ’em. Poor Asians, same deal. But the EU pulled the same stunt.
htt ps://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/369727-us-drug-prices-higher-than-in-the-rest-of-the-world-heres-why
One answer is that nearly all countries except the U.S. have policies to lower drug prices , including price controls , regulations that limit the profitability of drugs, reference pricing, and cost-effectiveness thresholds (e.g., in the U.K., the National Health Service is the main purchaser of drugs and frequently does not cover therapies whose cost per “quality-adjusted” life year gained exceeds $50,000 per year ).
Now what Obammmy originally proposed was buy the drugs in bulk and thus Americans would get a bulk price too.
But what would that do? Since just about the sole place that was profitable to sell drugs was eliminated, it would shut down American pharmaceuticals.
During Bill Clinton’s reign, he and Hillary owned drug stocks, then sold them, and THEN demonized the pharmaceutical industry. It caused massive downsizings and so valueable middle class jobs were eliminated in three different waves.
Wait, it gets worse. For decades, Puerto Rico had avoided becoming a US state as they were getting all the benefits without all thebresponsibility by being a US territory.
So traitorous congressmen decided to offer Puerto Rico a great deal. They gave huge tax incentives for businesses to move to Puerto Rico.
Well, guess what happened? Americans in the states saw pharmaceutical and nutritional jobs relocate to Puerto Rico. So again the pharmaceutical workers lost out.
Then to add insult to injury, free trade policies and bad legislation allowed pharmaceutical and nutritional processing to move to China, and so products were made there like vitamins, and then shipped to the same factories who had formerly made these, and they only were packaged.
The demonization exactly like this article was responsible for annhilating good paying American middle class jobs.
Because apparently capitalism is EVIL when it’s heathcare, while Hollywood and Banking and Investment groups can make BILLIONS seperately and TRILLIONS together.
htt ps://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/26/heres-how-an-obscure-tax-change-sank-puerto-ricos-economy.html
Section 936 was repealed due to the GOP which cut the tax break. Now leftist media is spinning it, “those poor devasted Puerto Ricans”. BS. Total BS. Where were they when Section 936 CAUSED the loss of American jobs in the states?!
It was so bad because as new industry came in, the Puerto Ricans would up and quit over 25 cents more an hour, and leave the companies in the lurch with zero notice. I can vividly recall a guy truly angry telling me about it. Guess what, when the next factory opened and offered a little more, these new workers did it again!
Look how they profited from our misery since the early nineties through 2008. It’s responsible for 15 years of job cuts in American pharmaceutical jobs.
And STILL Puerto Rico is NOT a state, so it accomplished nothing. They are worse off before Congress meddled and the states are worse off too.
Between 2000-2009, 300,000 pharmacutical jobs were LOST.
Between 1991-2011, 2.6 million manufacturing jobs were lost due to China and Free Trade policies.
But hey, if you hate the evil American pharmaeutical industry like SJW leftists are taught to do after listening to propaganda, then you must be celebrating that 300,000 middle class workers lost their jobs.
I love it. Millennials rush to the Democrats and the Socialists for free healthcare and meanwhile they then realize they have no good paying middle class jobs! Gee, think these phenomena are connected? Ever wonder why you can’t afford to buy a house? Maybe supporting free trade policies as the Democrats love to do is actually crippling and destroying your generation?
I know, let’s do what crazy Socialists want and have guaranteed income! Maybe guaranteed cars and groceries and drugs and houses. Hey just wholesale abandon capitalism! Why not so you can stay at home and eat your avocado toast in your jammies.
The Socialists dolts are even thinking of a 90% top tax rate! I am totally serious.
htt ps://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/01/figures-fake-indian-elizabeth-warren-promotes-list-of-human-rights-that-echoes-the-old-soviet-union/
…and right on cue PocahantasFake Warren promises exactly what I mocked.
This might genuinely be a problem they’re associated with yet.
Hope can easily use all of these funny DIY homemade Halloween costume ideas for Halloween in 2010.
This means you will be needing a blueprint.