Follow the money.
Unfortunately most Americans, primarily due to their own self-imposed ignorance cultivated by the corporate media of mass deception & distraction, have NO IDEA what’s really going on.
This sad reality of American mass ignorance will continue and expand as more-and-more children are home schooled and almost all Americans are oblivious to the fact that 90% of what is called “news” and entertainment is controlled by Six corporations. The goal of the ‘media companies’ as outlined in the 1988 book — (Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media - by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky ) — is to propagandize the American ‘sheeple’ into unquestioning <s>citizens</s> “consumers” of a debt-based consumption economy, overseen & owned by the political and corporate elites of the “military-industrial-media-complex”.
All of the nauseating RepubliKlan lies about the ‘Affordable Care Act’ propagated incessantly on <s>FOX</s> FAKE News, and to a lesser degree on the other corporate media telescreens mask the reality that the “Health Care Mafia” is becoming stupendously wealthier due to Obamacare. As the “Health Care Mafia” corporate chieftains cruise in their Gulfstream G650’s one can imagine their raucous laughter as they watch the tea-bagger politicos on the telescreens spewing vile insipid falsehoods about a “government takeover” of health care.
Look at the second bloc [QUOTED] Originally Posted On 09-12-2011 and look at the chart of the ETF (exchange traded fund) that consist of a top group of “Health Care Mafia” companies — PowerShare Dynamic HealthCare (PTH). You could have bought the stock @ 26. on the day I made the original post on 09-12-2011. If you had, your account value would have increased by 180% based on the current $47. Dollar price. For you non-numbers guys that means that if you put $100,000 into -PTH- your account balance would now be $180,762. If you bought the shares the day Obama was first inaugurated your account balance would be $247,361. Sure beats the ‘pennies in interest’ that the local neighborhood bank is offering the American ‘sheeple’.
So much for the republiklan propaganda about that U.S. economy killing, deleterious, socialist, Marxist, Kenyan, "spread-the-wealth" POTUS. Can you hear the laughter in the "reality-based" community?? I hear it every day here in zip code 10021.
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21 Ways the Canadian Health Care System is Better than Obamacare
by Ralph Nader | November 24, 2013 | http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/11...-health-care-system-is-better-than-obamacare/
Dear America:
Costly complexity is baked into Obamacare. No health insurance system is without problems but Canadian style single-payer full Medicare for all is simple, affordable, comprehensive and universal.
In the early 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson enrolled 20 million elderly Americans into Medicare in six months. There were no websites. They did it with index cards!
Below please find 21 Ways the Canadian Health Care System is Better than Obamacare.
Repeal Obamacare and replace it with the much more efficient single-payer, everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital.
Love, Canada
Number 21
In Canada, everyone is covered automatically at birth – everybody in, nobody out.
In the United States, under Obamacare, 31 million Americans will still be uninsured by 2023 and millions more will remain underinsured.
Number 20
In Canada, the health system is designed to put people, not profits, first.
In the United States, Obamacare will do little to curb insurance industry profits and will actually enhance insurance industry profits.
Number 19
In Canada, coverage is not tied to a job or dependent on your income – rich and poor are in the same system, the best guaranty of quality.
In the United States, under Obamacare, much still depends on your job or income. Lose your job or lose your income, and you might lose your existing health insurance or have to settle for lesser coverage.
Number 18
In Canada, health care coverage stays with you for your entire life.
In the United States, under Obamacare, for tens of millions of Americans, health care coverage stays with you for as long as you can afford your share.
Number 17
In Canada, you can freely choose your doctors and hospitals and keep them. There are no lists of “in-network” vendors and no extra hidden charges for going “out of network.”
In the United States, under Obamacare, the in-network list of places where you can get treated is shrinking – thus restricting freedom of choice – and if you want to go out of network, you pay for it.
Number 16
In Canada, the health care system is funded by income, sales and corporate taxes that, combined, are much lower than what Americans pay in premiums.
In the United States, under Obamacare, for thousands of Americans, it’s pay or die – if you can’t pay, you die. That’s why many thousands will still die every year under Obamacare from lack of health insurance to get diagnosed and treated in time.
Number 15
In Canada, there are no complex hospital or doctor bills. In fact, usually you don’t even see a bill.
In the United States, under Obamacare, hospital and doctor bills will still be terribly complex, making it impossible to discover the many costly overcharges.
Number 14
In Canada, costs are controlled. Canada pays 10 percent of its GDP for its health care system, covering everyone.
In the United States, under Obamacare, costs continue to skyrocket. The U.S. currently pays 18 percent of its GDP and still doesn’t cover tens of millions of people.
Number 13
In Canada, it is unheard of for anyone to go bankrupt due to health care costs.
In the United States, under Obamacare, health care driven bankruptcy will continue to plague Americans.
Number 12
In Canada, simplicity leads to major savings in administrative costs and overhead.
In the United States, under Obamacare, complexity will lead to ratcheting up administrative costs and overhead.
Number 11
In Canada, when you go to a doctor or hospital the first thing they ask you is “What’s wrong?”
In the United States, the first thing they ask you is “What kind of insurance do you have?”
Number 10
In Canada, the government negotiates drug prices so they are more affordable.
In the United States, under Obamacare, Congress made it specifically illegal for the government to negotiate drug prices for volume purchases, so they remain unaffordable.
Number 9
In Canada, the government health care funds are not profitably diverted to the top one percent.
In the United States, under Obamacare, health care funds will continue to flow to the top. In 2012, CEOs at six of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. received a total of $83.3 million in pay, plus benefits.
Number 8
In Canada, there are no necessary co-pays or deductibles.
In the United States, under Obamacare, the deductibles and co-pays will continue to be unaffordable for many millions of Americans.
Number 7
In Canada, the health care system contributes to social solidarity and national pride.
In the United States, Obamacare is divisive, with rich and poor in different systems and tens of millions left out or with sorely limited benefits.
Number 6
In Canada, delays in health care are not due to the cost of insurance.
In the United States, under Obamacare, patients without health insurance or who are underinsured will continue to delay or forgo care and put their lives at risk.
Number 5
In Canada, nobody dies due to lack of health insurance.
In the United States, under Obamacare, many thousands will continue to die every year due to lack of health insurance.
Number 4
In Canada, an increasing majority supports their health care system, which costs half as much, per person, as in the United States. And in Canada, everyone is covered.
In the United States, a majority – many for different reasons – oppose Obamacare.
Number 3
In Canada, the tax payments to fund the health care system are progressive – the lowest 20 percent pays 6 percent of income into the system while the highest 20 percent pays 8 percent.
In the United States, under Obamacare, the poor pay a larger share of their income for health care than the affluent.
Number 2
In Canada, the administration of the system is simple. You get a health care card when you are born. And you swipe it when you go to a doctor or hospital. End of story.
In the United States, Obamacare’s 2,500 pages plus regulations (the Canadian Medicare Bill was 13 pages) is so complex that then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said before passage “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.”
Number 1
In Canada, the majority of citizens love their health care system.
In the United States, the majority of citizens, physicians, and nurses prefer the Canadian type system – single-payer, free choice of doctor and hospital , everybody in, nobody out.
Originally Posted On 04-24-2013
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Originally Posted On 09-12-2011
Due to a RepubliKlan peep perpetually continuing a failing attempt to proffer the asinine notion that the 8 year BuShit economic record was anything but an unmitigated catastrophic failure, with damaging repercussions that will take at least a decade to recover from; this thread took a diversion from its stated topic about why soaring U.S. health care cost must be curbed.
The facts are not difficult….but…..you would never know that the facts are so boldly comprehensible because everyone including those who want to change the current system (like President Obama) have failed to simply explain to the American people how fucked up the current system is.
Health care costs are 18% of U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as of 2009, a cost of $2.5 trillion, the highest percentage in the OECD countries (the developed world)
The United States is the only OECD country that relies primarily on private insurance for healthcare financing and therefore has (as of June 2011) a whopping 58 million of it’s population uninsured.
Just like ALL THE OTHER OECD countries you have to take the profit motive out of basic healthcare. Even in Switzerland, the country with the highest per capita number of citizens who are millionaires; for profit basic healthcare is forbidden.
In Switzerland healthcare companies are private non-profit corporations, regulated by the Swiss government. There is no greater capitalist country than Switzerland. For them it’s all about ‘the money’. They were Hitler’s bankers. All the money and gold the Nazi’s stole from the Jews and others went into Swiss banks. Hitler did not invade Switzerland as he ruthlessly conquered Europe. The Swiss know what greed is.
What most clueless American citizens don’t realize is that a single payer or not-for-profit basic health care system does not preclude your ability, to go to the private doctor of your choice or purchase additional private health insurance if you have the money.
What a single payer or not-for-profit basic health care system does is provide all Americans basic health care coverage so that 58 million Americans would not be uninsured and skip going to a doctor for years.
Would anybody lose if the healthcare system that every other OECD country uses were implemented here??
Yes. The losers would be the “Health Care Mafia” corporations- those rapacious middle men — between — us and our doctors, who decide who lives and who dies while they stack $$$$$$$$$$$$$ billions. I documented their ruthless business practices HERE
Below is a 5 year chart of an ETF (exchange traded fund) that consist of a top group of “Health Care Mafia” companies, such as ,UnitedHealth Group Inc., Humana Inc., WellPoint Inc., etc. The fund is 46% Health Care Providers & Services and 25% Health Care Equipment & Supplies and the rest of the fund is Pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer.
We are in the deepest recession since the 1930’s. Due to massive unemployment and under-employment the amount of people paying monthly premiums to the “Health Care Mafia” through their employer or individually is at a record low.
The amount of uninsured Americans is at a record high- 58 million. So one would think that the “Health Care Mafia” is experiencing a slowdown or a loss in profits? No, not at all. The chart shows as overlay (the red line) of the S&P 500 versus the PTH health care ETF. As you can see PTH fully recovered to the 2007 highs and in fact exceeded the 2007 highs, while the S&P which is a proxy for the entire stock market has yet to make a new high. The "Health Care Mafia" is doing just $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ fine.
With Obama’s health care plan which has some very good reforms……but……no cost control hammer (public option, medicare buy-in, single payer) the “Health Care Mafia” is making more money than ever, still raising premiums, and still fighting any cost control regulations.
Where are we headed if the “Health Care Mafia’ companies are not regulated as they are in every other OECD country. 20% of U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) or 25% of U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) or 30% of U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) while other OECD countries spend 51% less and have their entire population covered with basic coverage.
So in less than 700 words I just told you what Obama, the Democrats, the RepubliKlans, the corporate television media has not told the American people in the last 3 years of this national health care debate. The current system is unsustainable…….and……..yes…….some capitalist will make less money as the U.S. migrates to a sustainable and less barbaric system.
Civilization or Barbarism?
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Originally Posted On 03-29-2013
Originally Posted On 03-08-2013
The car insurance analogy is good but…….everyone is forgetting the preeminent difference between auto insurance & health insurance. You can not drive legally if you don’t buy auto insurance; this means all drivers must be insured.
This is not the case with health insurance. You can deliberately NOT BUY health insurance and thanks to Ronald Reagan you just go to any hospital emergency room when you do get sick and due to Reagans law the must treat you albeit at the highest cost available. The cost of these uninsured emergency room patients is eventually paid by the government and of course the people who did pay insurance premiums.
The health insurance mandate that is part of Obamacare will over time get everyone to purchase a policy (with government paying a portion of the premium for the indigent). This government supported partial payment of health care premiums and expanded medicare for the states which some stupidly ideological RepubliKlan governors like Koch Brothers slave-bitch Wisconsin governor Scott Walker have rejected — but other RepubliKlan governors in Florida, Arizona, New Jersey — have accepted; this system will inevitably over time move toward some version of a single payer system.
What is the barrier to decisively breaking the uniquely American extremely high health care costs as outlined in the Time magazine article that started this thread? The piñata that must be smashed is the “Health Care Mafia” oligopoly. This oligopoly feasts on American health care consumers wallets like a school of piranhas. At senior vice president and levels above (Executive VP’s, President, CEO, Chairman) — working at a top “Health Care Mafia” company earns far more than 90% of all American doctors!
These people are the middlemen between you and your doctor —the pimp who decides if you live or die.
For this they are paid anywhere from $750,000 to as much as $2,000,000,000 in a yearly paycheck. A prominent “Park Ave” or “Beverly Hills” specialty doctor can make $4,000,000 a year; fully taxable on a W2 (wages) which means he pays in New York & California including all taxes, federal, state, local as much as 50% of his income in taxes.
Meanwhile the “Health Care Mafia” ‘executive will receive most of his compensation in stock options which when vested he will pay a 15% capital gains rate when he turns the stock into cash. Look at the compensation figures below for the top “health care mafia” executives at the major companies. Remember that at each company and at many more not listed you have hundreds of workers who are earning at least $1,000,000 a year, more than most M.D.’s.
<img src="http://i.minus.com/iDpxySCWlwKdd.JPG" width="900">
In Germany the men on the assembly line who made my Mercedes S Class auto earn $67.00 an hour. They all have health care provided by Germanys single payer system. Unlike here in the U.S. the executives who run the company don’t consider them expendable scum. In fact when they have Mercedes board of directors meetings guess who’s at the table? —the labor who builds and engineered the cars are sitting around the giant boardroom conference table. In fact German law mandates that company boards consist of 50% labor representatives. The same Pfizer medicine that the “Health Care Mafia” sells to the American sheeple @ $5.25 per tablet costs 27 cents per tablet in Germany.
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<div align="left"><!-- MSTableType="layout" --><br><img src="http://sg.wsj.net/public/resources/images/Reagan_Ronald-GC57101112004202930.gif" align="left">"Facts Are Stupid Things"
Ronald Reagan -1988
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