re: paying 600 a month
 

Unless someone else was paying part of that you had catastrophic coverage.
Due to a pre-existing medical condition I could not buy a catastrophic policy-they would not sell it to me- and elect to self insure the rest. Our cost was 1200 a month.

Aside-my medical bills have not been high over my life.
While still on private insurance I was in the villages hospital for four days the bill was 50,000. My insurance company AETNA paid them 30,000 and that covered a 50,000 billing in FULL.

CLEARLY SOMETHING IN WRONG-as I mentioned above I had considered self-insuring. Had I done so not unlike other hospitals, my bill would have been 50,000 not the 30,000 that the insurance company paid.

Why is it that every other developed country on the planet essentially has "Medicare for all"? And most spend much more than half what we do per capita.

Doesn't the Constitution say "provide for the General Welfare"? I'd think that starts with health care.

All the rhetoric I hear about being such a great country seems to miss a few points.

The answer to your question is obsene profit in US system of healthcare. There is and has been a feeding frenzy for profit in all areas of medicine. Look around our own home town.

They ALSO don't have the research that goes on here. You want to pay 3rd world prices? Then you get 3rd world technology. We pay for the R and D that pay what they can. Proportionally, they pay more, as a percent of income, they pay more.

That's what mommy and daddy are for. Not a nation. If the founders only knew what a can of worms that phrase became. ALL the "welfare" programs use that for an excuse for their existence. You REALLY want cradle to grave care? Like we do for the minorities?

It WAS a great country, up until the 60s and "civil rights". Affirmative action and quotas destroyed our greatness and replaced it with whiners. Once wonderful neighborhoods were shattered by "diversity". It WAS a great country, now it's a bunch of squabbling minorities.

Yes...the problem with the COST of medicine...is the cost of medicine. EVERYONE connected to the medical field makes too much profit. They literally have your life in their hands, they can charge whatever we'll pay.

No, it doesn't. And if you were not so lazy, you and anyone else that needs health care would have it.

"Other countries" pay high taxes to cover socialized health care. EVERYONE pays those high taxes. I have been all over the world and have seen that "great" socialized medicine that idiot Americans say they want. It is cr@p! You want what Germany has? They have pretty good health care, right? Well, about 55% of EVERYONE'S paycheck is taxed. And then, even then some stuff is just not covered. Yes, wealthy Germans get better health care. How about Canada? Well, my nephew's wife is a nurse in Canada and she comes here for treatment. Up there, you had better have supplemental insurance to pay for ambulance and medications.

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, when you are a spoiled American.

Only good thing that could come of gov run socialized medicine in America is that it will put a million lawyers out of work and doctors will not have to purchase malpractice insurance. You won't be able to sue them for malpractice anymore. And that is what makes our health care cost so much anyway.

We do it's called public school and the emergency room.

Why not pay for everyone to get Ph.D.. Then we could invent another level to feed off the working stiffs.

Medicare parts A and B cover bothhodpital and doctor visits. Should you opt for a Medical policy as well, deductibles and copays are covered as well.

Obscene profit??? This just shows a complete lack of understanding of health care costs.

More than that, it's a failure of the system. Patent & Copyright laws, and more importantly big business with bags of money to "our" reps. Nope, they don't represent us. Our system is dying. Only the rich and powerful are represented anymore.

OMFG! There's no evidence for the value of R&D anymore. Take Statins for example.

atorvastatin (Lipitor),
fluvastatin (Lescol, Lescol XL),
lovastatin (Mevacor, Altoprev),
pravastatin (Pravachol),
rosuvastatin (Crestor),
simvastatin (Zocor), and.
pitavastatin (Livalo).

Every drug company has its own variety. They tweak the ingredients a little to obtain a patent for the monopoly control to set astronomical prices for years without competition. Of course, then there are those, like Bayer (Cerivastatin), that mess up. They withdraw from the market after people die. Oops! After most of the Statin patents run out, we'll see that Cholesterol suddenly isn't really a problem and something else will be pushed.

BTW, worthwhile or not, Statin prices elsewhere are reasonable everywhere else. Although I'm not sure many take them.

No more comments because I can see you're a coddled old white man based on "welfare", "civil rights", "diversity", and "squabbling minorities". Not sure what that has to do with anything here. Study up a bit and maybe you'll realize the Big Pharma Drug Pushers don't need your help.

There are many problems. But third party payer is major. Most importantly, "profit-making" 3rd parties. Nowhere else is health care a private profit business. Unlike a typical commercial business, there is no measure for "too much profit". The cost of producing a product or service in healthcare is nebulous at best.

Lazy? Actually, if you had a clear mind you'd realize that few people "work" much anymore. Giving you the benefit that you've been through as much as I, you must realize that physical labor is all but over. You probably don't appreciate the next step, but work overall is on the way out. AI, learning machines, Self-driving vehicles, 3D Printing, on and on. Our problem is getting together and not letting the owner/executive class take it all and continue to make slaves of everyone else.

The only countries that pay higher taxes than the U.S. are those that receive the most benefits. Scandinavia comes to mind. Maybe Socialism isn't so bad. I too wonder if our military aggressiveness doesn't hurt us.

I don't know all about healthcare around the world. But I know I have 2 Canadian snowbird neighbors and you won't see them here more than 180 days. They don't want to lose their healthcare. Canada pays less than half what we pay, and I think they are free to buy extra coverage out of pocket.

Sometimes I think there's a conspiracy to distract all us common folk, while those in control reap the rewards. Why do people here argue for the status quo that clear is working against us?

Don't you think we all miss out if we don't provide advanced education for the young genius? Education is a business, unfortunately. We've gone down the wrong path and made it another capitalist system. Wouldn't it be nice to develop those rare young individuals that stand out with superior intelligence, even if they weren't advantaged? Most everyone else is probably better off with on-the-job training after basic education. A four-year undergraduate degree has little value now. As jobs disappear, we're seeing it's all about who you know, not what you know.

Explain Health care cost, please.

You should give credit to low information voter
 

it is not your thought.
Re: Stupid.....................

Re: Medicare the government dictates the choices
 

It does not matter who you buy supplements from they are all the same and the price is the same within about $5.00.
I recently qualified for medicare. Due to having had a good income, I pay twice the minimum for medicare part A. Also, I do not get the inflation protection. RE; a good income before all you liberals chime in. If, you were employed by a firm, you paid 7% as FICA-social security- your employer paid the other half of your social security AND THAT MONEY WAS TAX FREE TO YOU. I was self employed so I paid 13% of my income to social security.
LIKE MOST TAX WE ARE FORCED TO PAY SOCIAL SECURITY IS A PROGRESSIVE TAX-the more you earn the more you pay-YOU DO NOT GET ANY BETTER CARE FOR THE HIGHER AMOUNT PAID.
All this arguing is truly a waste of time. We are not given any choice but to pay in. A ways back someone pointed out what they could have gotten had they not been forced into the social security ponzi scheme. YOU WERE NOT OFFERED THAT CHOICE-SO IT IS MEANINGLESS.

Can you please explain my complete lack of understanding of impact of for profit healthcare and it's relationship to cost. I have to disagree with you unless you have something else to offer.

You didn't get it. You pay all your working life for Medicare A only. Medicare B supplement you have to pay another $105 per month, which is taken out of your Social Security. That is why Medicare sucks.

I can't believe any american would vote for a clinton. They are both liars, and she keeps doing more and more. You know who started the kkk-- the democrates

I think the political fourm full of over achievers. They all are know it alls:boom:

Correct...so stop them by NEVER voting for another corrupt D or R again.

There is...they use the TV to distract us, to lie to us.

NO MORE Ds or Rs...ever.

EVERYTHING has become "for profit", even prisons.

You're not going to find your "genius" in the inner city projects, nor in the barrio.

"Education" is wasted on idiots now, ANYONE can go to school because money is easy to get. Now we have 100,000 people going for 10,000 jobs. Lawanda or Lamar from the projects doesn't have a chance, it's a waste of everyones time, effort, and money to "educate" them.

The KKK has been looking out for YOU and your country...as you've been actively giving it away to those animals.

Actually, there are a lot of overachievers here, most villagers did quite well to be able to live here.

And now SOME want to open it up for brown people...why? Why ruin a great thing, a great place with "diversity"?

I can't believe anyone would vote. Arrogant, obnoxious, self-centered, racism Billionaire OR lying, cheating, corrupt, criminal Politician.

How could you choice?

So much for this thread. This thread is dead.