{"id":140475,"date":"2015-08-19T13:08:45","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T13:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/08\/19\/the-healthcare-business-is-probably-the-most\/"},"modified":"2015-08-19T13:08:45","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T13:08:45","slug":"the-healthcare-business-is-probably-the-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/08\/19\/the-healthcare-business-is-probably-the-most\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

The healthcare business is probably the most distressing example of what happens when we \u2018let the market decide.\u2019 Health care for profit means delivering the least amount of health care service for the maximum amount of money.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

(Paul D’Amato)<\/i><\/p>\n

This topic gets me so wound. \u00a0Forgive the verbal spew in advance, reader.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more insidious than what\u2019s written above, though! \u00a0When you\u2019re having a heart attack, are you shopping around for the cheapest ambulance ride? \u00a0Are you making sure the ER they\u2019re rushing you to is in network? How about your attending doctor? \u00a0Their consulting cardiologist? \u00a0The anaesthetician? \u00a0(Yes, all of these services are billed separately. \u00a0Yes, they can be from different care networks. \u00a0Messed up, yes?)<\/p>\n

The healthcare system in america is designed to keep the healthy people healthy under the terms listed above, and then to utterly bankrupt and ruin those individuals or families unfortunate enough to face a genuine emergency or chronic illness. \u00a0Most families in America are one car crash, one cancer diagnosis, or one heart attack away from poverty. \u00a0And nobody really wants to talk about this, because it means confronting the inevitability of one\u2019s own eventual decline and death.<\/p>\n

Barring sudden demise, everyone reading this post will at one point or another require some form of terminal medical treatment. \u00a0And when the hospital bills start mounting up, and the 80\/20 cost split begins to pile on\u2013 assuming you\u2019re fortunate enough to have insurance\u2026 single payer health insurance will start sounding pretty good.<\/p>\n

But nobody will want to listen to you then, because they\u2019re healthy. \u00a0They don\u2019t want to pay for your illness. \u00a0Why should they have to cover the costs of your care?<\/p>\n

The vast majority of people in my generation are going to die not only penniless, but in massive amounts of debt. \u00a0The institutional poverty that the working and middle classes have escaped for the better part of the last century? \u00a0That\u2019s going to come creeping back one bankrupt estate at a time.<\/p>\n

People are fooling themselves if they imagine this isn\u2019t by design. \u00a0This is why expansions to Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare are crucial in the near term, and a total revolution in our national health care system is required in the long term.<\/p>\n

My kid\u2019s college education shouldn\u2019t disappear because my wife had to have spinal surgery. My retirement savings shouldn\u2019t disappear because she had to take medical leave from work. \u00a0They did. \u00a0Were it not for my privileged birth and repeated intercession by my wealthy parents we wouldn\u2019t have a house, a car, any money in the bank, functional credit\u2026 none of that. \u00a0<\/p>\n

My kid\u2019s education is highly at risk and my retirement is just gone. \u00a0Ten years of work on my 401k evaporated. \u00a0And I am one of the lucky ones.<\/p>\n

(via adhocavenger<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The healthcare business is probably the most distressing example of what happens when we \u2018let the market decide.\u2019 Health care for profit means delivering the least amount of health care service for the maximum amount of money. (Paul D’Amato) This topic gets me so wound. \u00a0Forgive the verbal spew in advance, reader. It\u2019s more insidious … <\/p>\n

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