Quote:
Originally Posted by Blueblaze
Obamacare didn't ruin medical care in America. It just drove the last nail in the coffin.
The road to ruin started in WW2 when the gooberment enacted wage and price controls when all the labor was off fighting a war. Business used the only tool in the toolshed to attract workers -- free hospitalization insurance. To this day, we remain the only country in the world where most people get their health insurance through their employer.
... Which meant that the moment someone retired, they lost their medical insurance, right at the moment when they needed it most. So the gooberment stuck a bandaid on it and created Medicare. Like all other medical insurance at the time, it only covered hospitalization.
Then, in the 80's the bright boys at Blue Cross came up with a brilliant scheme to sell everybody on the lunatic notion that we should buy insurance to cover ordinary doctor visits. It was like buying insurance for groceries, but like the rubes in any scam, we all bought into the idea of "free stuff" and joined an HMO.
...Which, in addition to driving the paperwork costs through the ceiling, caused doctors to notice the deep pockets of the insurance companies. Prices were adjusted accordingly, and now NOBODY could afford a doctor without a "healthcare" plan. For instance, the "well baby" appointments for my 1981 daughter prior to the invention of the HMO was $15. Once we were forced to join "Prucare", it still cost $15 -- but now the doctor billed Blue Cross another $100, which was equivalent to about $500 in the 80's.
"Heathcare" became so outrageously expensive that Bush expended Medicare to include doctors visits -- and started charging seniors the cost of a doctor's visit every month for the privilege.
Then, Obama noticed that the average "healthcare" policy in America was over $15,000, and about half the people in America couldn't afford it unless they worked for a fortune-500 company who could. So he nailed the last nail, and created Obamacare, to "insure" that every home in America was forced to pay at least $5000 a year (or a $500 fine) for a $10,000 deductible and a "network" of the worst doctors in America.
Now, everybody's gotten into the act. I just paid $3000 to a vet to remove a splinter from my dog's throat, because I don't carry pet "health" insurance. My Dentist just charged United $450 to clean my teeth and presented me with a $5000 "treatment plan" to replace a bridge that hasn't caused me a moment's problem in 40 years.
Boy, I can't wait for some moron to suggest that we need insurance for groceries in this high-inflation environment that our googerment created. How about you?
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As I was reading through your post, I began thinking of how much it costs for Vet expenses each year for our dogs and sure enough, you mentioned it later in your post. Our dog had a bout with a auto-immune disorder called IMPA last year, and I am happy he recovered but 3 days in the pet hospital and testing, treatment and medicine cost about $9,000. Even if they stay healthy, the annual cost of checkups, vaccines, heartworm, flea and tick prevention....we honestly spend more on our dogs' healthcare than we do our own (knock on wood).
I worked in the health insurance business for 25 years. In my opinion, there are too many profit centers in the health care delivery universe. I am not anti-capitalist, and anyone who has invested in health insurance companies in this century has made a lot of money. But it is simply a fact that when so many publicly-traded companies such as drug companies, durable medical equipment, ambulance, even for profit hospitals and many more all have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, patient care cannot be the number one priority. So many physician groups are being bought up by hospital systems and conglomerates. We are not headed in the right direction.
You are 100% right, in my opinion, about tying health insurance to your job. It shouldn't be and in 2023, there is no logical reason for that.