Nurse Pam Reveals Secret Costing You Big Bucks......
Drug Companies Pay Off CompetitionThe Supreme Court has decided not to review a federal appeals court ruling that allows drug companies to pay for delay, in the name of greedy profit. (1)
“Pay-for-delay” agreements are “win-win” for the companies: brand-name pharmaceutical prices stay high, and the brand and generic share the benefits of the brand’s monopoly profits.
Consumers lose, however: they miss out on generic prices that can be as much as 90% less than brand prices.
For example, brand-name medication that costs $300 per month might be sold as a generic for as little as $30 per month” (2)
Supreme Court Ignores People's NeedsThe Supreme Court has sided with pharmaceutical companies that pay other drug companies to not put their (less expensive) generic drugs on the market.
Of course this action allows the drug company with the name brand Rx to milk more money from Americans and America’s tax money that funds Medicare and Medicaid.
This just goes to show you who is really controlling America, because it’s not about you and me... it’s about the corporation.
Once again a ruling comes down on the side of almighty corporation. The people are expected to pony up to financial extortion, no matter what the cost.
“Pay-for-delay” agreements are “win-win” for the companies: brand-name pharmaceutical prices stay high, and the brand and generic share the benefits of the brand’s monopoly profits.
Consumers lose, however: they miss out on generic prices that can be as much as 90% less than brand prices.
For example, brand-name medication that costs $300 per month might be sold as a generic for as little as $30 per month” (2)
Supreme Court Ignores People's NeedsThe Supreme Court has sided with pharmaceutical companies that pay other drug companies to not put their (less expensive) generic drugs on the market.
Of course this action allows the drug company with the name brand Rx to milk more money from Americans and America’s tax money that funds Medicare and Medicaid.
This just goes to show you who is really controlling America, because it’s not about you and me... it’s about the corporation.
Once again a ruling comes down on the side of almighty corporation. The people are expected to pony up to financial extortion, no matter what the cost.
HEALTHCARE REFORM PRIVILEGE OR RIGHT?
Pam Brammann, R.N
Health Care Reform Privilege or Right? The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Is Health Care A Right or Privilege?This is a heart felt American debate. For the most part, our current system dictates that health care is a privilege, and part of the American population firmly believes that health care is a privilege.
Their opinion is health care’s an entity that enhances your life. One must be able to purchase health care from the rewards of hard work and making the right choices. If one does not work hard or makes poor choices, one must live with the consequences.
People who maintain the belief that health care is a privilege, strongly hold the opinion that people must be held accountable for their action or inaction. That’s all well and good, but let’s discusses this further.
Is Health Care a Privilege?If health care is a privilege, what about Joe Average who is the financial sole provider because his spouse has a chronic, severe condition that requires ongoing treatment and care, such as cancer.
Let’s say this family’s insurance policy has a $5000 annual deductible, in addition to co-pays that crush the family’s budget. Unfortunately Joe Average loses his job because the company closed their doors. Now what happens?
Well Joe can apply for COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) which is a continuation of employer healthcare benefits for a limited period of time, an average of 18 months, but the employer no longer picks up the tab.
So now the cost to Joe and his family is $750 monthly, in addition to a $5000 annual deductible and co-pays. Before Joe lost his job, he and his family was living pay check to pay check. They were barely making ends meet to begin with, and now cannot even start to afford to pay such costs. Unfortunately Joe made too much money to receive any government assistance.
Joe’s wife must adhere to the scheduled treatment plan in order to recover from the disease that is causing her illness, otherwise death is a certainty. If the treatments are interrupted or missed, this will push her her back to square one, which will lead to death.
With uninterrupted scheduled treatments, Joe’s wife has an excellent chance of full recovery. But inability to pay, through no fault of your own, a person has to die?
Believe it or not this scenario is not uncommon in America, and that’s a shameful disgrace!
Click here for Dr. Linda Pino's - why she quit working for Humana HMO
Click here for a father's story about his son
Click here for multiple health care denial clips
Click here for chilling excerpt by Tony Benn of Britian
Is Health Care a Right?Earlier you read a passage from "The Declaration of Independence" which clearly states that we as Americans have certain rights that should not be denied. Among these rights described is the pursuit of life, not death. Americans should also be able to pursue liberty which means freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. The story I just described denies the right to life, and it also denies the freedom to pursue life.
Medicare and Medicaid Are Socialized Health Care ProgramsFor those who are not aware, Medicare and Medicaid are NOT for-profit health care entities; they are government run health care systems. Yes that's right, Medicare and Medicaid are socialized medicine or socialized health care programs.
If you are very poor, you may qualify for Medicaid. Most seniors have Medicare and they cherish this program. Everyone in between is at the mercy of a privatized, for-profit health care company. America is the only industrialized country in the world that implements and maintains a for-profit health care insurance system.
American for-profit health care insurance companies have a net profit margin of around 2% – 3%, which may not seem like much.
However that’s their profit margin after paying for things like corporate jets, meetings held at luxurious resorts, millions of dollars of special interest money to politicians to buy influence, expensive marketing programs, etc. And let's not forget about other executives' obscene salaries that usually include bonuses of tens of millions (and sometimes hundreds of millions) of dollars, and still, each of these companies have a left over profit of hundreds of millions of dollars (or more) annually.
According to Forbes.com the CEO of a major health care insurance company, during the year 2005, was paid $124 million ($124,000,000).
If this CEO was compensated for a 40 hour week on hourly bases, as most Americans are paid, this CEO would have been paid $59,615 per hour.
Break this down to per minute numbers and we discover that this CEO was handed $993.58 every minute, that’s every minute of an eight hour work day in a forty hour work week.
And if that wasn’t outrageous enough, the company wanted to fork over $1,000,000,000 (yes that's one billion dollars) to this guy when he left the company! That’s your insurance premium dollars at work. www.rmmag.com/Magazine/PrintTemplate.cfm?AID=3582
$56,000 vs. $124,000,000During the year 2009, the annual median household income was roughly around $56,000. That’s $56,000 per year for a typical family of four and a CEO, one person, is being paid more per hour, than a typical family makes in one year. It's so obvious that there is something seriously wrong with this picture!
What is difficult for me to understand is why, why a corporation makes such a reckless business decision to pay one person more in one hour, than an average family of four lives on in one year?
I’m pretty sure that $124.8 million could have paid for care within a reasonably sized community hospital for at least one year. Just think of all the people that could have received health care for $128 million. That’s not even counting the fact that there are additional executives within these companies that are paid huge compensation packages as well.
Click here for politician health care reform secrets
Click here to see pay packages from the year 1996 for HMO executives.
Click here for health care insurance CEO pay from 2009.
If health care insurance companies decided to indulge in more responsible business practices, is it possible that health care insurance premiums could have been reduced for their customers? This certainly would make health care insurance more affordable! But this goes against their motto, which is maximizing profit.
That’s the top line, the bottom line and everything in between.
It’s not about you, it’s about making money, period.
Let’s not forget about all the numerous, generous cash donations to help fund a politician’s campaign. According to http://www.opensecrets.org one health care insurance company in one year donated $1,986,471 to their choice of politicians and that money went directly into the politician’s campaign fund.
While insurance companies continue to deny care to in order to gain profit, some of that profit is being used for campaign donations to politicians, to help persuade the politician’s vote to ensure favorable regulation concerning the health care insurance industry.
If you think that they care a hill of beans about you in their endeavors, you’d better think again. It’s the shareholders that they care about, which is how a for-profit business operates. Concerning any for-profit industry, their number one priority is profit.
These examples only scrap the tip of the iceberg regarding explanation of runaway costs that are passed on to us, the consumer. After all this, these companies want us to believe that they aren’t making much money… seriously?
Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel It goes without say that drug companies must make profit to stay on the cutting edge of health care. But at what point does profit become extortion?
This leads me to a question; why is it that Americans and their insurance companies are forced to pay far more for prescription drugs, than anywhere else in the world?
I have heard excuses such as the pharmaceutical companies have to pay for research. Of course this is true, however this does not explain why one particular pill costs far less in say, Canada or China.
Is it possible that the drug companies are taking advantage of America’s free market system, because other countries have government rules set forth to protect the people from harmful business practices?
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
One of the largest and probably the most influential lobbying firms in Washington is known as Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. This company represents over 40 pharmaceutical companies. Click here to discover an abundance of information that you may find disturbing.
Click here to uncover how you are being ripped off.
What If Our Fire Dept Was Operated Like Our Health Care System?If you have a fire station in your community, you have socialized fire protection services. In America, we currently support fire department services through taxes because this is something that is needed by all.
Just like health care, everyone needs fire protection. When each individual is responsible for financially supporting a system, everyone benefits. When all citizens pay a small amount, no one is left paying far more, while others receive services for free. Everyone is assured that if the need for fire protection arises, help will be there for you. Thus we have socialized fire protection services.
What if our socialized fire department was run like our current health care industry? Well that would mean that you would have to shop for fire protection insurance, because maybe you can’t get fire protection insurance through your employer because it’s not offered. So you open the yellow pages of your local phone book or go to the internet to find choices to call and investigate. You must decide which fire insurance protection fits you best, so you call until you find a company that will offer services, at a price you can afford.
When you finally decide on an affordable plan, then you must pick a suitable fire protection department that will work with your insurance agency. That means that your insurance agency must approve your choice of fire protection, otherwise they may not pay if something were to happen. Initially when shopping for fire protection services, you wanted to hire Acme Fire Department because they’re located just 2 blocks away. Unfortunately your fire insurance company said that they will only pay for Budget Fire Company.
Since you cannot afford to pay directly out of pocket for fire services if needed, you certainly cannot afford Acme Fire Services. Therefore you don’t have much choice. You end up hiring Budget Fire Company located fifteen miles away, because they’re within the Fire Maintenance Organization (FMO) network that is approved by your fire protection insurance company.
Now let’s imagine for a moment that years later your house is on fire and the fire department arrives on the scene. When they arrive, the first thing they do is check your ability to pay for their services because many fire protection insurance companies require pre-authorization before they will pay a dime, and of course some people do not have fire protection services or insurance. After all, the fire protection insurance companies have a lot of overhead to pay for like advertising, stockholders’ dividends, a corporate CEO who makes $40 million a year, etc.
The fire department puts out the fire, and eventually all is well again. Thereafter a bill arrives, of which you owe a deductible of $1000. This is a sample of comparison billing to our current health care system. Of course a hospital stay will incur a bill that is much larger and more detailed, including page after page of single item charges. But the below comparison makes a valid point.
Health Care Reform Privilege or Right? The Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Is Health Care A Right or Privilege?This is a heart felt American debate. For the most part, our current system dictates that health care is a privilege, and part of the American population firmly believes that health care is a privilege.
Their opinion is health care’s an entity that enhances your life. One must be able to purchase health care from the rewards of hard work and making the right choices. If one does not work hard or makes poor choices, one must live with the consequences.
People who maintain the belief that health care is a privilege, strongly hold the opinion that people must be held accountable for their action or inaction. That’s all well and good, but let’s discusses this further.
Is Health Care a Privilege?If health care is a privilege, what about Joe Average who is the financial sole provider because his spouse has a chronic, severe condition that requires ongoing treatment and care, such as cancer.
Let’s say this family’s insurance policy has a $5000 annual deductible, in addition to co-pays that crush the family’s budget. Unfortunately Joe Average loses his job because the company closed their doors. Now what happens?
Well Joe can apply for COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) which is a continuation of employer healthcare benefits for a limited period of time, an average of 18 months, but the employer no longer picks up the tab.
So now the cost to Joe and his family is $750 monthly, in addition to a $5000 annual deductible and co-pays. Before Joe lost his job, he and his family was living pay check to pay check. They were barely making ends meet to begin with, and now cannot even start to afford to pay such costs. Unfortunately Joe made too much money to receive any government assistance.
Joe’s wife must adhere to the scheduled treatment plan in order to recover from the disease that is causing her illness, otherwise death is a certainty. If the treatments are interrupted or missed, this will push her her back to square one, which will lead to death.
With uninterrupted scheduled treatments, Joe’s wife has an excellent chance of full recovery. But inability to pay, through no fault of your own, a person has to die?
Believe it or not this scenario is not uncommon in America, and that’s a shameful disgrace!
Click here for Dr. Linda Pino's - why she quit working for Humana HMO
Click here for a father's story about his son
Click here for multiple health care denial clips
Click here for chilling excerpt by Tony Benn of Britian
Is Health Care a Right?Earlier you read a passage from "The Declaration of Independence" which clearly states that we as Americans have certain rights that should not be denied. Among these rights described is the pursuit of life, not death. Americans should also be able to pursue liberty which means freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. The story I just described denies the right to life, and it also denies the freedom to pursue life.
- Obviously a family in this situation will not have the opportunity to pursue liberty and happiness, as declared by "The Declaration of Independence". This family doesn’t have enough money.
Medicare and Medicaid Are Socialized Health Care ProgramsFor those who are not aware, Medicare and Medicaid are NOT for-profit health care entities; they are government run health care systems. Yes that's right, Medicare and Medicaid are socialized medicine or socialized health care programs.
If you are very poor, you may qualify for Medicaid. Most seniors have Medicare and they cherish this program. Everyone in between is at the mercy of a privatized, for-profit health care company. America is the only industrialized country in the world that implements and maintains a for-profit health care insurance system.
American for-profit health care insurance companies have a net profit margin of around 2% – 3%, which may not seem like much.
However that’s their profit margin after paying for things like corporate jets, meetings held at luxurious resorts, millions of dollars of special interest money to politicians to buy influence, expensive marketing programs, etc. And let's not forget about other executives' obscene salaries that usually include bonuses of tens of millions (and sometimes hundreds of millions) of dollars, and still, each of these companies have a left over profit of hundreds of millions of dollars (or more) annually.
According to Forbes.com the CEO of a major health care insurance company, during the year 2005, was paid $124 million ($124,000,000).
If this CEO was compensated for a 40 hour week on hourly bases, as most Americans are paid, this CEO would have been paid $59,615 per hour.
Break this down to per minute numbers and we discover that this CEO was handed $993.58 every minute, that’s every minute of an eight hour work day in a forty hour work week.
And if that wasn’t outrageous enough, the company wanted to fork over $1,000,000,000 (yes that's one billion dollars) to this guy when he left the company! That’s your insurance premium dollars at work. www.rmmag.com/Magazine/PrintTemplate.cfm?AID=3582
$56,000 vs. $124,000,000During the year 2009, the annual median household income was roughly around $56,000. That’s $56,000 per year for a typical family of four and a CEO, one person, is being paid more per hour, than a typical family makes in one year. It's so obvious that there is something seriously wrong with this picture!
What is difficult for me to understand is why, why a corporation makes such a reckless business decision to pay one person more in one hour, than an average family of four lives on in one year?
I’m pretty sure that $124.8 million could have paid for care within a reasonably sized community hospital for at least one year. Just think of all the people that could have received health care for $128 million. That’s not even counting the fact that there are additional executives within these companies that are paid huge compensation packages as well.
Click here for politician health care reform secrets
Click here to see pay packages from the year 1996 for HMO executives.
Click here for health care insurance CEO pay from 2009.
If health care insurance companies decided to indulge in more responsible business practices, is it possible that health care insurance premiums could have been reduced for their customers? This certainly would make health care insurance more affordable! But this goes against their motto, which is maximizing profit.
That’s the top line, the bottom line and everything in between.
It’s not about you, it’s about making money, period.
Let’s not forget about all the numerous, generous cash donations to help fund a politician’s campaign. According to http://www.opensecrets.org one health care insurance company in one year donated $1,986,471 to their choice of politicians and that money went directly into the politician’s campaign fund.
While insurance companies continue to deny care to in order to gain profit, some of that profit is being used for campaign donations to politicians, to help persuade the politician’s vote to ensure favorable regulation concerning the health care insurance industry.
If you think that they care a hill of beans about you in their endeavors, you’d better think again. It’s the shareholders that they care about, which is how a for-profit business operates. Concerning any for-profit industry, their number one priority is profit.
These examples only scrap the tip of the iceberg regarding explanation of runaway costs that are passed on to us, the consumer. After all this, these companies want us to believe that they aren’t making much money… seriously?
Pharmaceutical Drug Cartel It goes without say that drug companies must make profit to stay on the cutting edge of health care. But at what point does profit become extortion?
This leads me to a question; why is it that Americans and their insurance companies are forced to pay far more for prescription drugs, than anywhere else in the world?
I have heard excuses such as the pharmaceutical companies have to pay for research. Of course this is true, however this does not explain why one particular pill costs far less in say, Canada or China.
Is it possible that the drug companies are taking advantage of America’s free market system, because other countries have government rules set forth to protect the people from harmful business practices?
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
One of the largest and probably the most influential lobbying firms in Washington is known as Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. This company represents over 40 pharmaceutical companies. Click here to discover an abundance of information that you may find disturbing.
Click here to uncover how you are being ripped off.
- We’ve heard plenty of terrible stories about socialized medicine or socialized health care (universal health care or a single payer system) vs. what we currently have in place. So let’s examine this by comparing an interesting, thought provoking, fictional story written below.
What If Our Fire Dept Was Operated Like Our Health Care System?If you have a fire station in your community, you have socialized fire protection services. In America, we currently support fire department services through taxes because this is something that is needed by all.
Just like health care, everyone needs fire protection. When each individual is responsible for financially supporting a system, everyone benefits. When all citizens pay a small amount, no one is left paying far more, while others receive services for free. Everyone is assured that if the need for fire protection arises, help will be there for you. Thus we have socialized fire protection services.
What if our socialized fire department was run like our current health care industry? Well that would mean that you would have to shop for fire protection insurance, because maybe you can’t get fire protection insurance through your employer because it’s not offered. So you open the yellow pages of your local phone book or go to the internet to find choices to call and investigate. You must decide which fire insurance protection fits you best, so you call until you find a company that will offer services, at a price you can afford.
When you finally decide on an affordable plan, then you must pick a suitable fire protection department that will work with your insurance agency. That means that your insurance agency must approve your choice of fire protection, otherwise they may not pay if something were to happen. Initially when shopping for fire protection services, you wanted to hire Acme Fire Department because they’re located just 2 blocks away. Unfortunately your fire insurance company said that they will only pay for Budget Fire Company.
Since you cannot afford to pay directly out of pocket for fire services if needed, you certainly cannot afford Acme Fire Services. Therefore you don’t have much choice. You end up hiring Budget Fire Company located fifteen miles away, because they’re within the Fire Maintenance Organization (FMO) network that is approved by your fire protection insurance company.
Now let’s imagine for a moment that years later your house is on fire and the fire department arrives on the scene. When they arrive, the first thing they do is check your ability to pay for their services because many fire protection insurance companies require pre-authorization before they will pay a dime, and of course some people do not have fire protection services or insurance. After all, the fire protection insurance companies have a lot of overhead to pay for like advertising, stockholders’ dividends, a corporate CEO who makes $40 million a year, etc.
The fire department puts out the fire, and eventually all is well again. Thereafter a bill arrives, of which you owe a deductible of $1000. This is a sample of comparison billing to our current health care system. Of course a hospital stay will incur a bill that is much larger and more detailed, including page after page of single item charges. But the below comparison makes a valid point.
American LIfe Expectancy Falls Again.....
Guest Contributor: Pam Brammann, R.N
life expectancy fell again. Click here for details.
The media frequently reminds us that America has the best healthcare in the world. Wow... really?
How is this possible when tens of thousands of Americans die every year because they do not have enough money to buy the necessary treatment to live?
How is this possible when so many Americans have scarce access to mental healthcare because their insurance policy severly limits office visits and treatment, plus they may have to wait months to see a doctor?
How is this possible when so many Americans are forced to decide between buying food and buying medications?
How is this possible when people who have insurance still can't afford to go to the doctor?
America is currently in a downward spiral in so many areas and healthcare is the leader. We are lagging further and further behind in life expectancy compared to other nations around the world, simply because people are being priced out of receiving care.
To the people that preach America has the best healthcare, and I am pretty sure we know who you are, please explain how our current health care system is the best for average joes, which is a majority of Americans.
Myth 1) We don’t ration healthcare like other countries. Where did that lie come from? Are you aware that people (and doctors) in other countries do NOT want our healthcare system because we are the king of rationing healthcare! People in other countries don’t want a system that allows people to die because they are denied care, or can’t afford to pay for treatment on their own!
People in other countries don’t want a system that allows for-profit corporations to extort their hard earned cash to treat even simple healthcare problems. Today we have millions of Americans who can’t afford to go to the doctor for simple things like high blood pressure, or chronic headaches. Isn’t that rationing care?
My friends who live in other countries tell me time and time again, their healthcare is not rationed.
Myth 2) Universal Healthcare means the government will make all your healthcare decisions for you.And this is true because….. I’m waiting….. I’m still a waiting to hear an answer. And I'm willing to bet I won't get an answer because this is not true!
But let’s discuss this for a minute. Doesn’t the insurance company decide what care you can receive, what doctor you can see, what hospital to use, even what medications you can have? And we are supposed to be happy with this arrangement?
Again, my friends who live in other countries HAVE Universal Healthcare through a single payer system and they wouldn't have it any other way.
They make one payment monthly in the form of a tax, rather than a premium payment to a for-profit company. And you know what? They pay a fraction of what we currently pay! That means they end up with more cash in their pocket, I think that's a good thing, don't you?
If you have to see a doctor or become a patient in the hospital, there are no co-pays, no deductibles, and the doctor is free to practice healthcare without having to answer to the insurance company. Believe me, American doctors like this idea which is why so many doctors support the public option, a single payer healthcare system.
Concerning a single payer system in other countries, the government most commonly mandates that all non-profit insurance companies will offer a basic package to all at a set price. And that is as far as the government imposes their will.
So where are these lies coming from? Well... if our country offers a single payer option for healthcare, the for-profit healthcare company’s free reign of financial extortion will be over.
What are your thoughts?
Your Opinion Is Wanted. Do You Want A Health Care Public Option Available To All Americans? Please respond via the PCA Discussion on the main page.
life expectancy fell again. Click here for details.
The media frequently reminds us that America has the best healthcare in the world. Wow... really?
How is this possible when tens of thousands of Americans die every year because they do not have enough money to buy the necessary treatment to live?
How is this possible when so many Americans have scarce access to mental healthcare because their insurance policy severly limits office visits and treatment, plus they may have to wait months to see a doctor?
How is this possible when so many Americans are forced to decide between buying food and buying medications?
How is this possible when people who have insurance still can't afford to go to the doctor?
America is currently in a downward spiral in so many areas and healthcare is the leader. We are lagging further and further behind in life expectancy compared to other nations around the world, simply because people are being priced out of receiving care.
To the people that preach America has the best healthcare, and I am pretty sure we know who you are, please explain how our current health care system is the best for average joes, which is a majority of Americans.
Myth 1) We don’t ration healthcare like other countries. Where did that lie come from? Are you aware that people (and doctors) in other countries do NOT want our healthcare system because we are the king of rationing healthcare! People in other countries don’t want a system that allows people to die because they are denied care, or can’t afford to pay for treatment on their own!
People in other countries don’t want a system that allows for-profit corporations to extort their hard earned cash to treat even simple healthcare problems. Today we have millions of Americans who can’t afford to go to the doctor for simple things like high blood pressure, or chronic headaches. Isn’t that rationing care?
My friends who live in other countries tell me time and time again, their healthcare is not rationed.
Myth 2) Universal Healthcare means the government will make all your healthcare decisions for you.And this is true because….. I’m waiting….. I’m still a waiting to hear an answer. And I'm willing to bet I won't get an answer because this is not true!
But let’s discuss this for a minute. Doesn’t the insurance company decide what care you can receive, what doctor you can see, what hospital to use, even what medications you can have? And we are supposed to be happy with this arrangement?
Again, my friends who live in other countries HAVE Universal Healthcare through a single payer system and they wouldn't have it any other way.
They make one payment monthly in the form of a tax, rather than a premium payment to a for-profit company. And you know what? They pay a fraction of what we currently pay! That means they end up with more cash in their pocket, I think that's a good thing, don't you?
If you have to see a doctor or become a patient in the hospital, there are no co-pays, no deductibles, and the doctor is free to practice healthcare without having to answer to the insurance company. Believe me, American doctors like this idea which is why so many doctors support the public option, a single payer healthcare system.
Concerning a single payer system in other countries, the government most commonly mandates that all non-profit insurance companies will offer a basic package to all at a set price. And that is as far as the government imposes their will.
So where are these lies coming from? Well... if our country offers a single payer option for healthcare, the for-profit healthcare company’s free reign of financial extortion will be over.
What are your thoughts?
Your Opinion Is Wanted. Do You Want A Health Care Public Option Available To All Americans? Please respond via the PCA Discussion on the main page.
- Yes
- No
- Not Sure
For Profit Health Care vs. OMG
Guest Contributor: Pam Brammann, R.N
What's So Bad About Socialized Healthcare?The Declaration of Independence:We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. July 4, 1776
Is healthcare a right or a privilege? This is a heart felt American debate. For the most part, our current system dictates that healthcare is a privilege, and part of the American population firmly believes that healthcare is a privilege. Their opinion is healthcare’s an entity that enhances your life. One must be able to purchase healthcare from the rewards of hard work and making the right choices. If one does not work hard or makes poor choices, one must live with the consequences.
People who maintain the belief that healthcare is a privilege, strongly hold the opinion that people must be held accountable for their action or inaction. That’s all well and good, but let’s discusses this further.
If healthcare is a privilege, what about a Joe Average who is the financial sole provider because his spouse has a chronic, severe condition that requires ongoing treatment and care, such as cancer. Let’s say this family’s insurance policy has a $5000 annual deductible, in addition to co-pays that crush the family’s budget. Unfortunately Joe Average loses his job because the company closed their doors. Now what happens?
Well Joe can apply for COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) which is a continuation of employer healthcare benefits for a limited period of time, an average of 18 months, but the employer no longer picks up the tab. So now the cost to Joe and his family is $750 monthly, in addition to a $5000 annual deductible and co-pays. Before Joe lost his job, he and his family was living pay check to pay check. They were barely making ends meet to begin with, and now cannot even start to afford to pay such costs.
Unfortunately Joe made too much money to receive any government assistance. Joe’s wife must adhere to the scheduled treatment plan in order to recover from the disease that is making her ill, otherwise death is a certainty. If the treatments are interrupted or missed, this will put her back to square one, which will lead to death. With uninterrupted scheduled treatments, Joe’s wife has a very good chance of full recovery. But inability to pay, through no fault of your own, a person has to die? Believe it or not this scenario is not uncommon in America, and that’s a shameful disgrace!
Earlier you read a passage from The Declaration of Independence stating that we as Americans have certain rights that should not be denied. Among these rights described is the pursuit of life, not death. Americans should also be able to pursue liberty which means freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. The story I just described denies the right to life, and the freedom to pursue life. Obviously a family in this situation will not have the opportunity to pursue happiness, as declared by the Declaration of Independence. This family doesn’t have enough money.
America is the only industrialized country in the world that implements and maintains a for-profit health care insurance system. For those who are not aware, Medicare and Medicaid are not for-profit healthcare entities; they are government run health care systems. Medicare and Medicaid are socialized healthcare programs. If you are very poor, you may qualify for Medicaid. Most seniors have Medicare and they cherish this program. Everyone in between is at the mercy of a privatized healthcare company, our infamous for-profit healthcare system.
American for-profit health care insurance companies have a net profit margin of around 2% – 3%, which may not seem like much. However that’s their profit margin after paying for things like corporate jets, meetings held at luxurious resorts, their CEOs and other executives' salaries and bonuses of tens of millions (and sometimes hundreds of millions) of dollars, and still, these companies each have a left over profit of hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
According to Forbes.com the CEO of a major healthcare insurance company, during the year 2005, was paid $124 million ($124,000,000). If this CEO was compensated for a 40 hour week on hourly bases, as most Americans are paid, this CEO would have been paid $59,615 per hour. Break this down to per minute numbers and we discover that this CEO was handed $993.58 every minute, that’s every minute of an eight hour work day in a forty hour work week. And if that wasn’t outrageous enough, the company wanted to fork over $1,000,000,000,000 (yes that's one billion dollars) to this guy when he left the company! That’s your insurance premium dollars at work. http://www.rmmag.com/Magazine/PrintTemplate.cfm?AID=3582
In a few states during the year 2009, the annual median household income was around $56,000. That’s $56,000 per year for a typical family of four and a CEO, one person, is being paid more per hour, than a typical family makes in one year. There is something seriously wrong with that picture!
What is difficult for me to understand is why, why a corporation makes such a reckless business decision to pay one person more in one hour, than an average family of four lives on in one year? I’m pretty sure that $124.8 million could have been used to operate a reasonably sized community hospital for at least one year. Just think of all the people that could have received healthcare for $128 million. That’s not even counting the fact that there are additional executives within these companies that are paid huge compensation packages as well.
www.harp.org/hmoexecs.htm
www.fiercehealthcare.com/special-reports/total-package-health-plan-ceo-compensations-2008
www.everybodyinnobodyout.org/FAQ/dat_financ.htm
If healthcare insurance companies decided to indulge in more responsible business practices, is it possible that healthcare insurance premiums could have been reduced for their customers? This certainly would make healthcare insurance more affordable! But this goes against their motto, which is maximizing profit. That’s the bottom line. It’s not about you, it’s about making money, period.
In addition, let’s not forget about all the numerous, generous cash donations to help fund a politician’s campaign. According to www.opensecrets.org one healthcare insurance company in one year donated $1,986,471 to their choice of politicians that went directly into the politician’s campaign fund. While insurance companies continue to deny care to in order to gain profit, some of that profit is being used for campaign donations to politicians, to help persuade the politician’s vote to ensure favorable regulation concerning the health care insurance industry. And if you think that they care a hill of beans about you in their endeavors, you’d better think again because their bottom line is to continue growing their profit line, period. It’s the shareholders that they care about, which is how a for-profit business operates. Concerning any for profit industry, their number one priority is profit.
These examples only scrap the tip of the iceberg regarding explanation of runaway costs that are passed on to us, the consumer. After all this, these companies want us to believe that they aren’t making much money… seriously?
Another issue that I don’t understand is why Americans and their insurance companies are forced to pay far more for prescription drugs, than anywhere else in the world? I have heard excuses such as the pharmaceutical companies have to pay for research. If this is true it still doesn’t explain why one particular pill costs far less in say, Canada or China. Are Americans subsidizing prescription drugs for the rest of the world? Or is it possible that the drug companies are taking advantage of America’s free market system, because other countries have government rules set forth to protect the people from harmful business practices? Personally I am willing to bet that the term price discrimination is quite fitting as an explanation.
One of the largest and probably the most influential lobbying firms in Washington is known as Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. This company represents over 40 pharmaceutical companies. You can discover an abundance of information that you may find disturbing at the below website.
www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pharmaceutical_Research_and_Manufacturers_of_America
We’ve heard plenty of terrible stories about “socialized” healthcare (universal healthcare or a single payer system) vs. what we currently have in place. So let’s examine this by comparing an interesting, thought provoking, fictional story.
If you have a fire station in your community, more than likely, you have socialized fire protection services. In America, we currently support fire department services through taxes because this is something that is needed by all. When everyone pays a small fee, everyone is assured that if in need the fire department will be there for you. Thus we have socialized fire protection services.
What if our socialized fire department was run like our current health care industry? Well that would mean that you would have to shop for fire protection insurance, because maybe you can’t get fire protection insurance through your employer because it’s not offered. So you open the yellow pages of your local phone book or go to the internet to find choices to call and investigate. You must decide which fire insurance protection fits you best, so you call until you find a company that will offer services, at a price you can afford.
When you finally decide on an affordable plan, then you must pick a suitable fire protection department that will work with your insurance agency. That means that your insurance agency must approve your choice of fire protection, otherwise they may not pay if something were to happen. Initially when shopping for fire protection services, you wanted to hire Acme Fire Department because they’re located just 2 blocks away. Unfortunately your fire insurance company said that they will only pay for Budget Fire Company.
Since you cannot afford to pay directly out of pocket for fire services if needed, you certainly cannot afford Acme Fire Services. Therefore you don’t have much choice. You end up hiring Budget Fire Company located fifteen miles away, because they’re within the Fire Maintenance Organization (FMO) network that is approved by your fire protection insurance company.
Now let’s imagine for a moment that years later your house is on fire and the fire department arrives on the scene. When they arrive, the first thing they do is check your ability to pay for their services because many fire protection insurance companies require pre-authorization before they will pay a dime, and of course some people do not have fire protection services or insurance. After all, the fire protection insurance companies have a lot of overhead to pay for like advertising, stockholders’ dividends, a corporate CEO who makes $40 million a year, etc.
The fire department puts out the fire, and eventually all is well again. Thereafter a bill arrives, of which you owe a deductible of $1000. This is a sample of comparison billing to our current health care system. Of course a hospital stay will incur a bill that is much larger and more detailed, including page after page of single item charges. But the comparison makes a valid point.
See more at http://hubpages.com/hub/For-Profit-Healthcare-vs-OMG
