This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge
More and more cash-strapped Americans are reportedly seeking “alternative” ways to cover themselves with cheaper healthcare, as an exodus from traditional health insurance plans continues.
Traditional health plans are now pricing people out of the market and consumers are looking closely at alternatives. Many consumers are finding cost relief in alternatives like healthcare-sharing ministries, which are cost sharing plans usually rooted in local religious communities. A Bloomberg report found that the number of people joining these sharing ministries was up 74% from 2014 to 2016. More than 1 million people are participants in these programs.
The report details the story of one family, the Bergevins, who realized that they had to make some big changes in their healthcare when they were charged $7,000 in out-of-pocket expenses that their insurance didn’t cover after their son was born. Two years after the birth of their son, the couple ditched their health insurance plan, a move that helped them pay off the $7,000 debt.
As the couple prepares to have their second child, they have since decided not to go back to traditional coverage and instead to use a combination of a religious group and a primary care doctor that they can pay monthly. “I was so jaded with the whole health-care insurance situation,” the mother, Lindsie, told Bloomberg.
These monthly payment-style primary care clinics are also popping up more often. There are now almost 900 of them, up from “just a handful” in the early 2000‘s.
The sea change in plans for Americans comes at the same time that the number of people without traditional insurance is expected to increase as a result of the Trump administration‘s latest modification of the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). Eliminating the penalty for those who go without insurance, combined with pushing for shorter term healthcare products, have both acted as catalyst for people to leave their traditional plans.
Even though the ACA expanded coverage to 19 million Americans, 28 million people still remain uninsured.
The Bergevins utilized a calculator provided by insurer Aetna, prior to the birth of their first son, to estimate costs. They were initially informed that it would probably cost $3,000-$4,000 out-of-pocket. The actual bills wound up being almost double that. The couple then had another hardship in 2016, when Lindsie needed to have surgery of her own, tacking on several thousand dollars more in bills. The couple put these bills on a credit card that they are paying $300 a month toward.
There finally came a breaking point where the couple just couldn’t reconcile maintaining their traditional coverage:
“I couldn’t justify it,” she says. The cheapest policy she could find through the Affordable Care Act, she recalls, was $547 a month—more than half the family’s $875 monthly rent at the time. It had a high deductible that could leave them with out-of-pocket costs of more than $10,000.
“If something were to happen to us, we would have been in trouble,” she acknowledges. To hedge, the couple bought an inexpensive accident policy from Aflac that would cover some costs from an injury if, for example, Chris hurt himself working.
The couple instead enlisted the help of a small primary care clinic that was local to them. The doctor at the clinic, Julie Gunther, had also grown tired of the traditional healthcare system. Gunther was tired of working for a large hospital system and didn’t like the fact that she was paid based on the volume of her patients and services billed. The 15 minute appointment times made her feel “like a factory worker“ and she eventually got tired of apologizing to her patients for not having enough time for them.
“I was saying ‘I’m sorry’ all the time,” Gunther, 42, recalls. “I’m sorry I’m late, I’m sorry this didn’t get called in, I’m sorry this got forgotten, I’m sorry they didn’t give me the message.”
Gunther eventually quit her job and started her own practice, where the Bergevin family wound up. Gunther cares for about 600 patients, which is about 30% to 50% of the workload that a normal primary care physician cares for. Families like the Bergevins like the increased time that the doctor can spend with them as a result. “It was amazing. She sat down with me for an hour and talked about everything,” Lindsie told Bloomberg.
And while Gunther isn’t able to deal with severe injuries…
Gunther tells her patients that belonging to her practice is not a replacement for having health insurance.
“There’s a whole bunch of things I can’t take care of,” Gunther says. “If you’re not standing upright, or bleeding doesn’t stop, do not call me.”
…something as simple as an ear infection was dealt with quickly and on the cheap when it became an issue for the Bergevin family last year:
Last year, Lindsie Bergevin had a bad fever and what she described as “the worst pain I think I ever had in my head.” She called Gunther at 9:30 p.m. on a Saturday. Gunther met her at the clinic 15 minutes later. “She’s like, ‘Girl, you have a double ear infection, and the worst I’ve ever seen.’”
Bergevin walked out with an antibiotic and says that if Gunther hadn’t seen her, she would’ve gone to the emergency room, which could have resulted in a bill for hundreds or thousands of dollars.
But religious-based non-profits like Liberty HealthShare, the organization that the Bergevins joined, also come with their own sets of caveats. For instance, they won’t cover medical expenses from behaviors that they deem immoral, like drunk driving car crashes. They also won’t pay for contraception. In addition, they also limit coverage of pre-existing conditions for up to three years. Despite this, their deductible of $2,250 was found to be “a ton cheaper than a typical deductible“ by the family. Liberty also caps reimbursements at $1 million, while traditional insurers are not allowed to set such limits.
With the government obviously unable to provide the best course of action for everybody given their unique sets of circumstances, stories like the Bergevins seem to lend credence to the argument that each individual and each family should “buy their own” and do what they deem best for their own personal situations.
“You have to find something that’s going to work for you,” Lindsie told Bloomberg.
“Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door”
If no one is leaving the current path and beating a path to your door, maybe your mousetrap isn’t better.
That works in all directions, not just one.
Anon, Health care is a Monopoly, and everybody profits up and down the chain, but little ol’ you the patient and public.
Try setting up your own medical practice and playing pretend doctor and see how long it will take until you are arrested and in jail.
So the article is phony?
Serve in the Military 4 to 30 years
get free health care for life if you retire from the military.
TriCare for Life
and
VA Care for Life.
GI Bill for Free University
Service Brings Full Citizenship
Support your country
and earn rewards and a life time of thanks.
Be a low IQ dumb pawn with NO Morals in the military, protect Tyranny and Genocide, and Illegally invade other countries, be a part of Nation Destroying and get free heath care for life. Thats right be the most murderous thug gang in the world history and get free healthcare for life.
all because McCain, the putrid, traitorous, POS refused to stop obamacare.
I hope that bastards is smoking in hell as i type.
Yeah, cheaper health care, like living smart, exercise daily, eat good food, cut out junk foods and sugar which is cancer causing, cut the cable cord, get off the couch and get some physical projects done. Or you could live like the typical American fat slob and pay for high health insurance, because you treated your body like a septic system tank.
I’m 65 and on NO meds. Active and healthy all my life BUT the communist politicians buy votes with healthcare subsidies and so they have to soak somebody. As a small business owner one must shop healthcare every year to get the premiums workable.
My personal premium went from 376/mo to 897/mo because of that bastard, communist/muslim obamacare.
I pray he follows Mccain inot hell shortly after a long and painful illness!
Insurance is worthless.
$18,000.00 a year for health insurance.
$1,000 a month with a $6,000 deductible.
Needless to say, I dropped it and started a health savings account. My daughter broke her leg. It cost $256 at the local in and out clinic. That included an X-ray and the boot she had to wear.
If I used insurance it was going to be $1,500 that was applied to a deductible.
Insurance would only be worth it if you have cancer and it cost 1 million dollars for treatment.
I dumped all of my health insurance back in about 2010. Look at all the savings I saved since then…
Same with household insurance. Moved to my BOL 3.5 years ago, and I own it in full, so I ain’t getting scammed into any home insurance BS either.
My Mom said, oh you need home owners insurance, I said why?? Then I asked her how many times she filed a claim in the last 50 years,… Silence.. She never ever filed a claim ever and neither did I, even when I live in the city for 15 years, and after 4 hurricanes. But I had a Mortgage then and it was required. Another reason to dump your city house and go move out to the country pay cash, and be done with this insurance scam. I just got my new proposed property tax bill due in Nov. It went down 32%, And its now just about $80 per acre. WhoooHooooo!!! I’m rich. Go live off the grid live healthy and save a bundle.
I too dropped homeowners insurance. My mortgage is paid off, so it is no longer required.
I was paying $2250 year with a $4000 deductible.
It would only cost $5000 to replace my roof should a windstorm damage it.
Burglars can only steal about $2000 worth of stuff max, how many TVs can they carry off?
My only real risk is if my house burns down, but that is very unlikely as all my electrical is new and my kids don’t play with matches.
Insurance really is a scam, but it is a forced scam because mortgage companies require it.
Another reason to be debt free with no mortgage, with debt you have all these other attachments that rake you over the coals.
The other thing is if some jerk comes onto your property slips and falls. I will be having some builders on my property coming up. I will make them all sign a full waiver to hold me 100% harmless if they are injured, and that they will be self insured.
In the city I was paying at one time about $5000 a year which included flood Ins, hazard and wind. and yes that was with a $4000 roof deductible. Total rip off. That’s a lot of money down a black hole you will never see again.
if you have all your stuff paid off then you should have everything in a trust. this way you will be 100% judgment proof. especially if you have no health insurance.
Johnny: I genuinely believe that SO, so much of what goes on within this ONCE great nation is a huge racket and it is truly about finding very creative & devious ways to drain every God damned stinking dollar out of our pockets. We the people have allowed the clown-ass, incompetent vile Gov’t & Corporate America to treat our bottoms like a blow-up doll’s mouth!! Think, think, think about it people. . .
Broken leg, no problem, cancer with a few hundred K in cost, problem, big big problem. Thats what you need insurance for.
Obamacare has not been repealed. You can buy the insurance when you are in the back of the ambulance.
THIS^^^
cancer is no big deal. can be cured through diet, exercise and herbal treatments. It’s ALL a scam.
Geico just sent me my new Auto Ins Policy. I calculated it out to be a 5% increase. I called and asked why the increase? They claimed they raised all premiums across the board 5%. Claimed the Auto body shops cost more.
I asked them do they go get 3 competitive bids like we used to do, or do they just settle use the regular Dealership body shops, because they provide an office space for their damage appraiser? Silence like crickets is the response I got. You see, Geico doesn’t do any competitive bids. It phony BS rip off.
Blow: Insurance all the way around is a huge racket and a complete f-ing ripoff to us all!! I work for one of the largest pig, greedy, immoral insurance outfits and they even screw us, the employees every single opportunity they get! For God sakes, even our medical so called “benefits” well SUCK, yes SUCK, the place is garbage and it’s United HealthCare – avoid them like the plague or I assure you, you will regret it and your wallet and you will have very sore ‘bottoms’ for a good long time!! Greedy no good twats they are. . .
Wait until they get medicare. The average premium the year is $134 a month and you pay 20 percent of all bills. There is no out of pocket max. If your share is $100,000, so be it. They had better be ready to pay for Medicare and extra insurance as well. Fortunately, I have the VA and don’t use my medicare at all.
jas: Yes, Medicare is typical Gov’t rip-off garbage just like the rest people. ALL of us need to tell this vile, immoral criminal organizations to suck it and will NOT ever send them another stinking penny!!!! See how long say United Healthcare’s $hit stock hovers over $250+ per stinking share…no good trash I tell you.
Your Medicare at $134/month is a bargain you’re over 65 and anything can happen. It also gets you a 75% discount. Most medical discounts are now based on Medicare and negotiated up.
If you want a stop Loss on the 80/20 buy a HDF which gives you a $2240 stop loss. Cost are around $40/month. It’s really a plan F and pays 100% of your cost above what Medicare pays. FYI on original Medicare you have a $180 deductible for part B I think I would take that too.
medicare folks also get the “addon” plans to cover the 20% and that is about $112. still less than i paid all my working life for health ins.
Agree the obese, smokers, heavy drinkers, and druggies should pay thru the nose for ANY insurance or DIE off!
if you don’t have health ins…
if you need a major medical–ask for the cash price.
if you are poor or elderly, say so and ask for charity.
you will find many Drs/hospitals that will reduce or write your expenses off as charity.
How do I know?? My sister did just that.
Amish and Mennonites do it all the time.
Grandee
My sister is a billing supervisor at a major mid-west hospital.
They do not give cash discounts.
If you personally own anything tangible, get ready to lose it, to pay the bill. (I talked to a local bankruptcy lawyer about the bankruptcy option).
If you qualify for medicaid, you are poor, and they still get paid.
It may vary where you live, and you can pull it off. Most people I know fly to Thailand to get major ( optional) work done such as Joint replacements, dental implants, et al.
Private prescription coverage is a scam. The copay for most of the medicines is MORE than the total price if you buy it at an internet pharmacy. Yes, even brand names with current patents.
Here is an example of the thievery in a recent transaction:
Amount: 510.49
You pay: 134.65
Ins pays: 375.84
This brand name medication can be purchased online for $125.00. It’s outright theft.
I imagine government copays are in the neighborhood of $1 for scrips.
jrs: You are right – that prescription situation is a monster of a rip-off Sally!! MY God, what a criminal racket if there ever was one!!
What good is heathcare when tens of millions of American people can’t afford any of it? The prices mentioned are a complete scam, capitalism at its finest. This is grossly extreme gouging by people who sit around in air conditioned offices waiting for the next victim to deal out medicine man tactics by those in a corrupt medical system who place themselves above reproach.
this is NOT capitalism. Medical insurance and medical care is so expensive because of govt socialist programs.
Don’t blame capatilism for fascism’s failures.
Traitor John McCain just stopped his cancer treatment. He will be going to his just rewards soon. For those of you that don’t know, when he was a POW, he gave in and made an anti-American broadcast. Like Jane Fonda. Also, while in the Senate he stopped money for MIA searches. He almost sank the USS Forestal, killing over 100 sailors. He returned home from Viet Nam and dumped the wife who waited for him all that time and married the big money girl, so she could pay for his political campaigns. He posed as a conservative for his entire political life. It was all a lie. He is a globalist. An anti-American. All globalists are anti-American. Lucifer, please give him the heavy shovel.
Him: I hope that vile, immoral pig mutt John McCain suffers like no tomorrow as that goblin in his empty brain feasts on everything in it’s entire path!!!! Oh Johnny boy, may your last days be filled with NOTHING! (but pain & misery & despair)
True indeed!!
The individual mandate for ObamaDON’Tcare expires the first of next year. Should be interesting to see what happens with health care and medical coverage then. But if my premiums take a big hike, I’ll drop the coverage like a pile of shit. I can put the savings towards preps.
More Americans Forced to Drop Traditional Health Insurance In Favor Of Cheaper Alternatives
Not sure why most people in this country need Health Insurance, after all – they have Jesus to heal the sick and the blind. Is this the cheaper alternative they speak of?
May need our local professional theologian Maranatha to explain this in precise detail.
There is only one sin that Jesus will not forgive. You are a horrible sinner and don’t deserve mercy. But Jesus will rescue you and do a mighty work in your life.
The only thing preventing this miracle is YOU. YOU are the problem. You are the obstacle to your success.
I may be a sinner in your view, but not with Jesus. Want to know why? – and this is the only reason I like the fictional Jesus.
Jesus defied the J3ws.
Hitler defied the J3ws.
I defy the J3ws.
According to Jesus, I’m on his side of things. You and others who defend and who are loyal to the J3ws are not.
Jesus knew who his true enemies were in biblical times, and yet. 200+ years later – the problem still exists.
edit: 2000
Good point!
You dolt. Jesus was an Israelite! You are an enemy to Israelites.
You’re batting a thousand, Chump.
You have nothing to teach, but if you bothered to listen, you yet may figure things out prepper wise and get saved.
If there is even any type of real and genuine GOd of any kind, why is this country and the world so vile and disgusting and filled with nothing but $hit from corner to corner to corner and back again?? Folks, there is NO GOD, no Nothing!
It won’t be long until magic mushrooms are available by prescription. Then magic mushroom dispensaries will start popping up. Just another big money making venture for the ilk.
Actually magic shrooms are very good for a variety of mind/spiritual issues. They have been used for thousands of years to be closer to the creator. Only people with severe mental issues to start with have problems with them. Try some, you might learn something.
Once we had a working health insurance system in which just about every blue collar man could acquire a job to get health insurance for their family. And it was not expensive. And the primary rationale was for our wives who got pregnant and all of the many expenses associated with that.
Unless your family had an accident or the rare serious illness, there were not many claims. People avoided the emergency rooms and typically scheduled appointments.
And then Free Trade happened. The Globalists wanted to use cheap foreign slave labor and then they destroyed the industrial base and this whittled away at an existing robust health insurance system.
That was bad enough, but then Obummer had to stick his beak in. Now that bozo promised a lower amount for health insurance that a cell phone bill!
NOPE. He single handedly DESTROYED American healthcare.
He wanted everyone to have healthcare and now….NOBODY who’s blue collar or white collar can afford healthcare.
Now me, I exercised just about all my life and ate right. I take no medicines while just about everyone I know is taking multiple pills.
I take no heart medication,no thyroid medicines, no blood pressure medicines, no type 2 diabetes, no depression, no arthritis, NOTHING.
Unless I am hit by a car, I have no worries. Heck, I can still rock climb and outwrestle lots of people several decades younger.
You don’t have to your health decline. You let things slip and you ignore what your body tells you.
Now, if Americans were honest, then half the problems are letting themselves go and being noncompliant on their medications. We could easily cut expenses in HALF if people were responsible as our ancestors were responsible.
Our ancestors, EXCEPT for smoking, were healthier. We could be as healthy as them or better. In fact in the early eighties and nineties, practically everyone I knew was working out at the gym. That is hardly the case now.
we have become big pHARMa addicts due to the drug dealing doctors. they offer every pill instead of mandatory diet and exercise change. it is so much easier to scribble a script than counsel on HEALTH. the vast majority of health issues can be “cured” with lifestyle changes, but that takes effort and dedication. society today is addicted to crap food and TV.
You’re describing the Nanny state where no one has to workout or behave normally. Were you can eat complete fast food meals at 2000 cal each just because its available. I think unions, government jobs, education and lack of physical activity has enhanced this behavior. No there is no incentive to watch after ones health. The aging process is creating this huge domain on technology to fix our problems. FYI extreme exercise that is the norm isn’t great either eventually you can get Asthma Afib Joint Damage and general aches. Our answer is to clear the food pyramid, restrictions on GMO, Restructuring HFCS and all carbohydrates. New plant and small animal proteins. Less Fossil Fuels, less Drugs, fewer toxins and no modifications to high glutton plants. The guy that invented hybrid wheat has a Nobel peace prize for feeding the masses.
Back in the 50s and 60s, insurance was for hospitalization, not for seeing the doctor, buying prescriptions, or seeing the dentist. Since all these “benefits” have been added (why is a story in itself), costs have skyrocketed.
Along with the advent of “better living through chemistry”, both pharmaceutical and farming have changed and not necessarily for the better. The health of the U.S. populace reflects these changes.
Back in the day, people made sure they ate well. That’s where the old adage of eating an apple a day to keep the doctor away came from. They cooked their meals at home; every woman knew the basics of a balanced meal and it was from mom’s advice not the government food pyramid which is skewed to carbs (bad idea).
Yes. In my region, wives historically were chosen based upon being raised up to be Proverbs 31 ladies who could cook delicious homecooked meals and were frugal as well. Many were homemakers which meant we had lots of husbands being sole breadwinners until 1990 or so. I honestly believe this coupling of devout Christianity in the Bible Belt with normal married life fostered a very health mental outlook which had built in safeguards for well being.
Feminism was mild and largely a late arrival here. In Western Kentucky, it was not over until 2005 or so.
Anyway, people were not overweight and physically active and could easily afford health insurance up until that time.
I did all kinds of physically active things outdoors, so my biggest risk was an accident. That never happened as I have common sense.
What I did was insist on an annual physical. Most do not…but it’s the greatest chance for early detection of issues. Bates Physical Examination is the standard book in medical school and it takes 45 minutes to do a genuine physical examination. So if one scheduled a yearly thorough exam, ate right, exercised, then barring accidents (which typically happen out of a lack of common sense) or bad genes, then you could stay healthy for decades.
You expected to have presbyopia as you aged, and ultimately both near and far sightedness…but that isn’t expensive with prescription lens.
You expected gradual hearing loss that might need attention at 75.
If you took care of your teeth(brushing and flossing), then an annual visit to the dentist was suffice.
The only family expense was pregnancy, an extra OB/GYN exam for your wife, immunizations for children, and well baby checkups.
Some people had very minimal health insurance and did just fine.
Routine medications were largely unheard of. Polypharmacy was practically unknown until 1990 or so as a coping strategy.
The biggest contributors were arthritis, cardiac disease, lung impairment, general obesity, depression, hypothyroidism, and cancer. These tended to affect some in their seventies prior to 1990.
Now, we have 40 year olds or younger with these formerly old people diseases. People walked everywhere and those under aged 25 rode bikes. This kept young people very healthy.
Children played outdoors in perfect security, didn’t have much in the way of computer games until in a near insignificant way until 1983 or so. And honestly it was not very prevalent until 1995. This meant children, especially in the summer, might play outside all day and into the night. They had chores and then lots of free time. This kept children and teens very lean until about 2005.
I read above some interesting statements.
The problem is not insurance it id all the LEACHES and Low Lives we have to pay for.
I had to take my wife in for a kidney stone problem and we gave them Our Blue Cross Blue shield card (this out fit SUCKS the BIG ONE). She paid the deductible, and they paid the rest. Found out that a girl that plays on her softball team had the same problem, and has no insurance but is on state aid. She PAID NOTHING!!!! So it looks like my Wife paid for hers also.
Now do you think an aspirin cost $5.00? it cost $5.00 bucks because the Give People don’t pay for it and the get it from us that work hard and pay for insurance.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t help people, but for Christ Sake ask us don’t tell us or make us.
Sgt.
This is why we have to look into alternative insurance.
A few years back I got a metal shaving in my eye. I was at the cabin and the closest place was a small town clinic 50 miles away. I went there and told them I had no insurance but would pay cash. They looked me over, probed, put antibiotic in my eye and gave me a tube of antibiotic eye meds. Out the door cost? 20 bux! Cash will save you mucho$$$
Q: Why are aspirin tablets white?
A: Because THEY WORK!
You got that right Sarge. All those people that brag about not carrying Insurance, then when they have a problem, which they will sooner or later the rest of us have to carry them. Trekker Out
Hey Sgt Hypocrite,, Tell us why US Tax payers need to pay for your Wife’s Health Insurance. She does not work for the Government like you do. She needs to pay her own health Ins. That another reason why ILLINOIS is Bankrupt. Too many tag along leaches sucking the system dry, like your wife.
I have no vested interest in Liberty Healthshare, other than being an extremely happy member of Liberty. I joined about a year ago and it is great. I also found Walk-in Labs that saves a ton of money on any lab test you need. Healthwarehouse.com saves me over $100 a month on my prescriptions compared to Walgreens, CVS, and even Walmart. I highly recommend all three.
“a religious group and a primary care doctor that they can pay monthly’
You can pay the doctors visit or the $10,000 bill; its the Major Medical $500,000 bill that bankrupts a family. Thats the coverage you need. Interestingly just having medial insurance drops the bill by 50%, sometimes more.
Home remedies are better than drugs. But when you need trauma care, you need a doctor. A County Hospital is where most gun shot patients are treated. They will save the patient and he fills out forms to cover the expense with medi-cal or some type of government insurance. This drives up the cost of insurance.
People cross the border pregnant, sign up for government assistance including government health care, have anchor babies. Twenty years later those babies cry foul, white privileged, racism, and tear down historical statues.
But whitey can’t find a job and hasn’t got health insurance; or, he has a job and his benefits are why he stays and puts up with the bull. Either way, whitey is on the shit end of the stick. And guess who is behind the scene creating this mess.
Btw: the msm is calling white genocide in South Africa a conspiracy theory.
The black savages eat the eyes of their white victims. It’s supposed to cure AIDS.
That’s health insurance I guess.
_
So where can I find doctors like Dr. Gunther here in Arizona? Also,I like the idea of insurance not paying for DUI car crashes. They should add drug overdoses,any injuries as a result of criminal activity. If they are onese,they have to agree to a better lifestyle. Knock off the soda,cigarettes,and junk food. Watch costs drop.
I’ll go for that plan as long as you apply the “no care” part to ALL “abusers”. diabetics, obesity, coronary, smokers, drinkers and especially all risk takers.. skiers, motorcycle, race cars, on and on…. then premiums will be less that a cell bill.
Look for “direct primary care” with your favorite search engine. I did before replying and it’s a lengthy list. Some of this used to be called concierge doctors so that’s another way to search.
So where can I find doctors like Dr. Gunther here in Arizona? Also,I like the idea of insurance not paying for DUI car crashes. They should add drug overdoses,any injuries as a result of criminal activity. If they are onese,they have to agree to a better lifestyle. Knock off the soda,cigarettes,and junk food. Watch costs drop.
Sugar is almost as addicting as nicotine. People giving it completely up go through physical changes (headaches, etc.).
If sugar or junk food were taxed heavily at least enough to make healthy choices cheaper in comparison, would it make a difference? Probably not.
Just thinking out loud.
Yahooie:
If artificial sweeteners were taken out of processed foods and replaced with real organic cane sugar or fruit juice, people’s addiction to sugar would be less severe. That’s because artificial sugar kills your taste bud’s sensitivity to sweetness. And that happens because artificial sugar is sweeter than natural sugar in real food. Artificial sugar is not food. It is just a chemical substance that tastes sweet. Sweet poison, if you will.
And, NO on the taxes. But, I admire your good intentions. No need to explain, just NO.
_
Sarge, I have neighbors on Social Security they all have “back problems”. One,I swear,has got to be 300-350 lbs.Doesn’t so much walk,but waddles.Has to stop frequently to catch his breath. Another sits on her butt all day smoking,drinking coffee,playing on her tablet or watching t.v.I am,you,and everyone on this site is paying them,every month. I’m just disgusted with the system.
Crack open some history books and witness what Americans used to look like. Mostly they are skinny as a rail. The guys often look like flyweight boxers. Sure there were some overweight folks but it was rare. Go back to the sixties and you might have a single fat kid in gym class.
Not anymore. We have a nation of lardbutts.
Well lardbutts won’t help themselves. Show me a lardbutt and 99% of the time they are depressed, helpless, useless people who checked out of the human race.
That didn’t happen overnight. Everyone thinks a physician and his staff can just prescribe a pill and make it go away. But he can’t. And then, this becomes the cornerstone strategy for American healthcare. And 70-80% of you dopes on prescription pills REFUSE to take them as prescribed and so an insufficient therapeutic dose is in your bloodstream…hence they are ineffective.
You DUMPED millions of new patients on physicians yet didn’t increase medical schools. Hey goofy, how is that going to work? You actually have lots of physicians saying, “Screw this clusterfrack!”
Why is that? Do you realize how LONG it takes to just be a family practice doc? Four years of college. Four years of medical school (basic sciences plus clinical rotations) three years of residency.
Guess what Sherlock? Wages have declined since the 1990s. You think it’s a lot of money but it costs a minimum of $250,000 but if you can’t get into a state university, then it’s $500,000 of medical debt to START.
During residency you make less than a checker at Walmart because you might work 80-120 hours a week.
What would you do if you had to skip all pay for EIGHT YEARS? You’re living off loans.
And then to set up and office, you need staff, rents, equipment including diagnostic.
Wait there is more. With managed care, imagine getting getting between 25 cents on the dollar to 75 cents on the dollar for billing. BOTH private and government insurance negotiate down and say, “This is what we will pay you. Take it or leave it.”
Say you’re a plumber. You bill the client and they pay you a quarter to three fourths what they owe you. Could you stay in business?
Wait it gets worse. Then the malpractice SOARS so much that obstetricians say “the heck with this mess.” They can’t afford to be sued as for eighteen years, that patient can blame something that happens to them on the physician. Typically it is settled out of court meaning the rates skyrocket.
Wait, there’s more. Ten percent of your patients might pay nothing on their bills and you have to write it off as uncollectable debt. Meanwhile you spent money trying to collect it. More money lost.
People are leaving the medical profession, doctors, nurses, technicians and that dope Obummer send millions MORE on a broken system and almost all of them are medicaid patients. That means working class folks are footing the bill. That is why rates SOARED.
It is asinine as many are just college educated dolts who have nothing wrong with them. Statistically young people, other than pregnancy and accidents, are healthier then the rest of the populace. This translates to giving unnecessary health insurance to healthy people who are poor and can’t afford it. Almost all the gains of millions of new patients fit this category. They are ALL medicaid patients and that program was designed to help the impoverished to the point of being indigent. It was not designed for all young college students. And what does this do but end up creating untold amounts of government workers managing unnecessary health insurance!
We already had SCHIP programs to cover women and children so this is not the primary issue. It’s money down a drain solving no problems but ruined heath insurance for ALL.
I really believe that the entire scheme/con/racket that the Muslim Invader, Non-U.S. Citizen, Barry Hussein O’Banana implemented: Was & still is unfortunately yet another nail in the coffin of the hard working American citizens and the entire stinking country for that matter. Let’s see, it doubled++++ people’s rates on day 1 of the brilliant “program” (con/rip-off). Blatantly LIED to & intentionally MISLED the American suckers once again. Remember this one: “You can keep YOUR Doctor” haha. That Barry Hussein and his ‘klan’ of clowns all, yes ALL truly deserve to HANG!!
This video explains exactly how the dumbed down, disease ridden, fat, addicted to EVERYTHING, drunken bum toxic dump American COWARDS were CONQUERED BY THE PSYCHOPATHS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spRLUW-O1bk
Doesn’t it make you warm and happy knowing Democrats & leftwung judges give free healthcare to illegals?
Americans cannot afford the western diet and a sedentary life. Doing all the right things and eating the right kind of diet does not guarantee health but not doing it long enough almost always guarantees illness. Typical American cannot afford health insurance. Can’t afford to get sick. Can’t afford to die. Can’t afford to live. What’s left?
I realize this is many decades ago, but growing up, we never had candy or soda pop at the house in any routine way. Like most Americans, my parents had a single carton of eight bottles of Coca Cola, but that was SPECIFCALLY for when company came to visit if they didn’t drink coffee. It often sat there for months.
I ate pizza for the first time at 15. We never ate carry out. The idea would have been shocking to my mom. She would have considered it to be outrageously wasteful and horribly expensive.
A cup of coffee was most often served in a tea cup in bone china ie very small. When serving a guest a soda, it was often in a “juice glass” ie very tiny short glasses used for a daily small amount of orange juice. That was never fresh, but frozen concentrate. Nobody had huge glasses of fruit juice.
Moms made pie once a week like clockwork and the family was not fat. Husbands expected fresh cobbler, cake, and pie especially for the first five years of marriage. My wife ordinarily baked us a small desert and if there was extra, I took it either to our parents or in to work.
I spent whole summers working on a farm. I thought my best friend’s dad was the wealthiest man in the world as everyone was healthy and attractive and were Christians and had a week of clothing to wear including dress clothes for Sunday. They were entirely wholesome and their countenance shined like the sun.
Nobody had huge soda pops when they went to get a burger. They were small. We were so healthy that if you met a pretty young lady when you were 15, you walked to her house and together walked to the downtown diner, and had an after school snack of a small burger and fries and small soda. You might share a shake or sundae.
And still be as thin as a rail as you got lots of exercise. Young ladies wanted to get married, seldom used any makeup to speak of save a tiny amount of lipstick when you rarely went dancing. This meant they were always thin and lovely with glowing healthy complexions.
The first time I saw ladies from the city wearing foundation, I thought they looked like prostitutes. Now, crazy teenaged girls wear foundation.
Heck, a teenage girl here might not get her ears pierced until she was 13 or 14 and it was a big deal. Nail polish was rare and mostly clear as it was something very rich ladies wore.
My gosh, if you only knew how DROP DEAD GORGEOUS they were in my youth and prior to the abomination of atheism and feminism and liberalism.
When I see young men today (such as they are) they look like pale shadows of what a man should look like. And young women seem totally unattractive and hardened as if intentionally trying to negate their femininity.
I know lots of physicians who are married to physicians and they make LESS money then doctors did in history due to all the reasons I mentioned. You have demonized an occupation so much that I don’t know any doctors who encourage their kids to become physicians. Quite the opposite.
Whereas in history, doctors often had children who took over their practice.
Why do you think you get five to ten minutes with them…if that lucky? They are scurrying around trying to see double the patient.load as they are making half was much. This means the only way to make money is on volume and through managed care contracts.
This hurts ALL except the insurance companies. They get huge profits by limiting healthcare and charging BOTH the patient for exorbitant insurance and charging the physician exorbitant malpractice insurance.
They are raping Americans.
But then Americans are abusing their bodies by becoming lardbutts. Then expect a magic pill, which they then fail to take 70-80% of the time, and this doesn’t work.
It’s become absurdist theatre.