Is the US HC system finally toast?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

If you're going to penalize people for being obese then you should be required to do genetic testing and insurance companies can deny coverage if you are high risk for certain diseases and choose to have children anyway. Because why should healthy people pay the same amount as you do for your sick kid you chose to have? It's a very slippery slope when you start pointing fingers at who deserves to have health insurance and who doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

Did they really ban charging obese people more? That’s infuriating. People need to take some basic responsibility for themselves and their families. Entitlement everywhere!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

Are you kidding me?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

It's not freedom if you have no alternatives. We subsidize lots of people's bad health decisions and outcomes. Why should being fat be treated any differently than heavy drinking? Eating fried foods? Not exercising? I know plenty of skinny people who do all the above and have shitty health because of it. But you wouldn't care because it's not actually about health, it's about you having an axe to grind about fat people.

[Anonymous]

Toast for who? Rich people still have good healthcare. Only a problem for people who don’t have wealth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

Did they really ban charging obese people more? That’s infuriating. People need to take some basic responsibility for themselves and their families. Entitlement everywhere!!

Telling people they are fat and act clearly is not very effective at promoting lifestyle changes or the adult obesity rate in the US would not be around 40%. Yes people are making bad decisions with their diets, but that doesn’t change the fact that obesity cost taxpayers hundreds of billions a year. Are we really going to refuse to treat people and let them die of a heart attack in the hospital because they had a bad diet? The answer is no and most people don’t want to live in a society like that either. At the end of the day, results are the only thing that matters and the status quo of lecturing people about their lifestyle is not working. At this point, the US government should just buy the patent rights to Ozempic, Wegovy, and Monjaro, and offer free prescriptions for any US resident 18+ that is obese or overweight. It would only cost around $10 Billion a year for the US government to produce enough ozempic doses to provide medication for all 100 million obese people in the US (if government owns patent). The cost savings to the healthcare system would greatly exceed 10 billion per year. Just make ozempic over the counter and let everyone sign up, then provide it for free. Even if every adult in the US signs up for it, it would still only cost 25 billion a year which is less than 2% of discretionary federal budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

Did they really ban charging obese people more? That’s infuriating. People need to take some basic responsibility for themselves and their families. Entitlement everywhere!!

Telling people they are fat and act clearly is not very effective at promoting lifestyle changes or the adult obesity rate in the US would not be around 40%. Yes people are making bad decisions with their diets, but that doesn’t change the fact that obesity cost taxpayers hundreds of billions a year. Are we really going to refuse to treat people and let them die of a heart attack in the hospital because they had a bad diet? The answer is no and most people don’t want to live in a society like that either. At the end of the day, results are the only thing that matters and the status quo of lecturing people about their lifestyle is not working. At this point, the US government should just buy the patent rights to Ozempic, Wegovy, and Monjaro, and offer free prescriptions for any US resident 18+ that is obese or overweight. It would only cost around $10 Billion a year for the US government to produce enough ozempic doses to provide medication for all 100 million obese people in the US (if government owns patent). The cost savings to the healthcare system would greatly exceed 10 billion per year. Just make ozempic over the counter and let everyone sign up, then provide it for free. Even if every adult in the US signs up for it, it would still only cost 25 billion a year which is less than 2% of discretionary federal budget.

They can call it UBO, universal basic ozempic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Health care is not "unaffordable". It's expensive, which is different. People often choose to go without insurance, or with low value insurance, because at the time they make those elections they are not consuming health care and prefer to spend their money on other things. That's understandably tempting, but also foolish. People need to prioritize health insurance when they choose among employment options, and when they budget for expenses. Too many people do neither, and then expect "others" to pick up the costs if they later need care.

Medicaid addresses the truly impoverished and indigent disabled; Medicare addresses the elderly. Others are expected to provide for themselves, which is not really unreasonable. It does, however, require a mindset of self-sufficiency and prudent prioritizing of health insurance expenses and saving for emergencies over discretionary lifestyle choices, and many people lack the necessary discipline and foresight to do that.

this is exactly it, in america we have the freedom to make our own choices and if you choose not to pay monthly for health insurance that's your business. However on the flip side we shouldn't bail people out if they made that choice. Let the free market happen, in fact, I would love to be charged less because our family is healthy and takes care of ourselves and doesn't use the hospital except for true emergencies like a broken bone, etc, that happens once every few years but beuricrats have passed laws not allowing sliding scales for lifestyle and health issues. Why should an obese person pay the same as a non obese person?

I hate you and other uncaring people like you so, so much. Evil.

[Anonymous]

You have to be fair about the fat people - this country sells horrible groceries - all preservatives and fat. Other countries won't even sell it! The opportunities avail to most people are causing them the health issues - it's not like they had the choice to be healthier.

Our whole culture is about being lazy. We drive. We work to death. We text all day and don't sleep. 330M people live in this country.

There's no way to fix the system and no way we can do what other functional societies do. American philosophy is capitalism, freedom and independence. Everything about our identity as a nation conflicts with offering a HC system that's accessible for all. Think about it. We're stuck. Nobody wants to pay for other people who are sicker and more often sick like always sick!

If this isn't all bad enough, no way we have a functional nationalized HC system for all when we don't have enough HC professionals to service everyone. It has to be privatized for money as too many would need to be seen and there's not enough doctors for that.

[Anonymous]

Stop focusing on fat people! Healthcare keeps getting more expensive each year. Seems to be getting that way since the formation of HMOs and for profit health insurance companies. Take the profit out!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop focusing on fat people! Healthcare keeps getting more expensive each year. Seems to be getting that way since the formation of HMOs and for profit health insurance companies. Take the profit out!!!

You can't put the genie back in the bottle. Too many business with $$. It'll never fly to get them to take less $$. Ever. You would give money back that you earn would ya? lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Toast for who? Rich people still have good healthcare. Only a problem for people who don’t have wealth.

new flash the rich have better everything, i mean shouldnt everyone travel in private planes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed. If the only people buying healthcare is the very ill, it makes healthcare so expensive AND leaves hospitals in the lurch. We will see hospitals closing and collapsing under the economic burden.
At the same time, the elder healthcare burden demands attention. It’s not sustainable.
We need universal or required (affordable) healthcare for all, and free elder care options.

Affordable to you is not affordable to someone else. Plus, if it's required, what stops providers from raising prices to get more reimbursement out of the government?

When have so many other countries figured this out? They don't have runaway infinite costs because providers are raising prices to whatever they want.

Once again, America is too stupid and too obtuse to learn from what billions of other people have already figured out.

This. We were sold the delusion that our healthcare is somehow superior, when it's maybe true for the ultra-wealthy seeking cutting edge treatments, while the rest of us are overpaying for rather mediocre healthcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe a public plan for catastrophic health care. Stroke, heart attack, cancer, etc.

Everything else you pay out of pocket.

Good luck to the middle class. Dr's charge $120 for an office visit; mammos $200+. Broken bones trip to ER $1000+.

What's the alternative? Pay thousands per month and still having to pay most of this due to high deductible, which makes your healthcare out of pocket and makes your insurance premiums overpriced catastrophic plan. You don't need all these services monthly, but you pay premiums monthly. You come out way ahead paying out of pocket than having high deductible private insurance plans.

Employment tied insurance is the only affordable option if you aren't qualified for discounts. But it's simply wrong IMHO to tie insurance to full time salaried jobs. Many people cannot find these jobs with benefits, and some cannot work full time. It's also a burden on smaller employers. This system has become a form of "Indentured servitude" where many people would take on any low paying full time job with decent benefits just to get coverage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two obvious things we need to do first:

1) close the country, kick out the people who shouldn’t be here (at least who arrived in the past 5 years) and make it clear there will be no handouts to non-citizens ever (in law)

2) change the preexisting condition requirements to remove things that people choose to get. No coverage for obesity related conditions unless they have a thyroid or other underlying medical condition; no coverage for smokers or alcoholics, etc.

Then we can start talking about possible solutions.

Steve Miller is posting here again.