Health care costs have DOUBLED over the past ten years

[eridani]

All while the average person's income is shrinking.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/07/147985/health-care-increasingly-out-of.html#storylink=cpy

Tens of millions of adults under age 65 – both those with insurance and those without – saw their access to health care worsen dramatically over the past decade, according to a study abstract released Monday.

The findings suggest that more privately insured Americans are delaying treatment because of rising out-of-pocket costs, while safety-net programs for the poor and uninsured are failing to keep up with demand for care, say Urban Institute researchers who wrote the report.

Overall, the study published in the journal Health Affairs found that one in five American adults under 65 had an “unmet medical need” because of costs in 2010, compared with one in eight in 2000. They also had a harder time accessing dental care, according to the analysis based on data from annual federal surveys of adults.

<snip>

RAND’s Kellermann noted that even as the nation’s total health care bill doubled in the past decade to $2.6 trillion, many Americans had difficulty getting treated.
“We’re paying more and more and getting less and less,” he said.


Asked if there was any good news in her report, Kenney said that in contrast to adults, millions more children gained access to care in the past decade, likely because of the availability of public coverage for children through Medicaid and CHIP. The study found the percent of children who had been to a doctor in the past year rose to 92 percent in 2010, from 89 percent in 2000.

[Zalatix]

1. It's amazing that no one can find a way to control those prices.

Any people look at me funny when I say this is a concerted effort to cull the working class???

[Quantess]

2. I don't disagree with you, but

disenfranchising the working class is not the main objective, it's the biproduct. It's one of the end results, but not the motivating factor.

[Zalatix]

3. I'm not talking about disenfranchising. I'm talking about a real culling.

This is an effort to kill off people, especially the poor.

President Obama was being precise when he talked publicly about the onset of, in his own words, social Darwinism; social Darwinism is specifically about the elimination of the "unfit". In this case, those who are not rich.

Social Darwinism is much more extreme and odious than people are willing to let themselves realize.

[BlueIris]

11. I won't 'look at you funny,' as you put it. I think it's obvious.

The chaos in the healthcare system is just one mechanism the elite are using to enact this culling, although it may be the most pernicious and effective one.

[Selatius]

4. I think this is the result of too much profit-seeking from health insurance companies and hospitals.

In the past, more hospitals were owned and operated by municipalities and churches and were run as non-profit, but most hospitals today are owned and operated by private corporations, and they have shareholders to satisfy and executives to pay. Most health insurance companies in the US are also privately run and for-profit with their own set of executives to pay and shareholders to satisfy. Worse yet, anti-trust laws, especially with health insurance, do not apply, the by-product of an aborted attempt at health care reform back in the 1930s. The compromise was that states and not the fed would regulate the market against anti-trust activity, but states largely reneged on that deal but kept the exemption.

If you look at it from a market-based perspective, both hospitals and health insurance companies are good examples of markets where competition is very weak or non-existent. With lax competition comes the temptation to implicitly collude on pricing structures with health insurance premiums, and if you are, for instance, a gun-shot victim, you don't have time to pick and choose which hospital you're going to want based on pricing. You simply want to go to the nearest hospital for service.

The health care system in the United States is a good example of everybody wanting a cut and nobody listening to the patient. Greed has come before the patient, and I do not see the system changing regardless if you required everybody to participate. As long as price-control mechanisms remain trivial, it'll just get worse.

[Cosmocat]

14. Nope, it is Obamacare

That is what the republicans will scream, that is what they "liberal media" will legitimize by parroting and not actually being journalists and filtering out the BS that gets passed to the public, and that will be what the public, with the attention span of about 1 second will come to believe.

But, your post is the reality.

I would also note an article from Fareed Zakaria that explains it pretty well.

http://www.fareedzakaria.com/home/Articles/Entries/2012/3/19_Health_Insurance_Is_for_Everyone.html

[progressoid]

16. Well...

Since "Obamacare" relies on insurance from for profit insurance companies, it will be considered part of the problem.

Zakaria's article plainly shows that the better way to keep costs down is not to emulate the Swiss plan but rather the Taiwanese plan (universal HC). And he conveniently ignores that Switzerland is a much wealthier population than the US. But even they are starting to bitch about increased (60%) HC costs over the last decade.

[Cosmocat]

17. I have NO doubt

had he had a congress that would have put Universal or single payer on his desk, BO would have signed it in a heartbeat.

The bastardization that is HCR is what could get done - only in America can we convince so many people that we need the very thing that most contributes to the cost without bringing any value to healthcare as the fulcrum of the system.

I think where Zakaria is coming from is what the US MIGHT be willing to do ...

The next step, at least.

[Skittles]

5. they're doing it because - who exactly is going to stop them???

[woo me with science]

18. Who, INDEED.

Good to see you here.

[Skittles]

20. ALWAYS GOOD TO SEE YOU WMWS

[DontTreadOnMe]

6. When companies STOP offerring Health Benefits...

and instead they will "increase" your salary, so you can get your own health plan. A HUGE amount of people who will just keep the money and not get health insurance. This will result in a dramatic decrease in Health Insurance Company revenue, and they will HAVE to lower prices to remain competitive, and attract new customers.

Currently, the Insurance Companies (profits) are driving up the costs of healthcare. Doctors and healthcare workers salaries have not DOUBLED over the past ten years, but Insurance profits have MORE THAN DOUBLED.

[HiPointDem]

7. no, we will all have to buy health insurance.

[Skittles]

8. that will do nothing to control costs

THEY CAN CHARGE WHAT THEY WANT - NOTHING ADDRESSES COSTS

[HiPointDem]

9. they don't *want* to control costs. they wouldn't make as much money.

[eridani]

22. The American health care business model illustrated

[eridani]

21. And increase your salary??

BWAHHHHAHHHAHHHHAAAA!

[Skittles]

23. I laughed at that too

[bl968]

10. What did profits do

What did industry profits do during the same time period. What do you wanna bet they close to doubled.

[David__77]

12. Are "we getting less?"

I'm curious if that's true. Many new drugs and medical procedures have come into being, and many that were experimental before, are now mainstream. Pharmaceuticals are the big thing here. In a sense, I have mixed feelings, because price discrimination against US consumers helps keep prices lower in developing countries.

[Fawke Em]

19. We are getting less simply because

many don't have access to the healthcare system (no insurance and no money).

It's not that there hasn't been medical break-throughs, but if people don't have access to them, what are they getting exactly?

[xchrom]

13. Du rec. Nt

[Cosmocat]

15. It is Obama care!

That will be what the republicans scream, what the "liberal media" will legitimize by mindlessly parroting and not doing its job of filtering out BS thrown into the public forum, and what the general populace, with an attention span of about 2 seconds will come to believe.

Fareed Zakaria spells it out pretty clearly.

[link:http://www.fareedzakaria.com/home/Articles/Entries/2012/3/19_Health_Insurance_Is_for_Everyone.html|

We have the most bass ackwards system on the planet, flat out.