Did you all see this latest study? Outta control.
Since 1970, Medicare and Medicaid’s combined per-patient costs have risen from $344 to $8,955, while the combined per-patient costs of all other US health care have risen from $364 to $7,119.
Medicare and Medicaid used to cost $20 less per patient than other care. Now they cost $1,836 more. (And that’s even without the Medicare prescription-drug benefit.)
In fact, if the costs of Medicare and Medicaid had risen only as much as the costs of all other health care in America, then, instead of costing a combined $807 billion last year, they would’ve cost a combined $606 billion. That savings of $201 billion would have amounted to more than $1,750 per American household last year alone.
via GOV’T CARE COSTS MORE – New York Post.
How to cut healthcare costs? Easy – just check who is making the big profits. Then eliminate all the HBOs, insurance companies and all the other big business parasites in their shiny new office buildings who don’t actually treat patients or provide medicines but who are making billions off of the health care of American citizens – or just tax them at 90% to pay for universal health care for all citizens.
Healthcare in the US is controlled by greedy un-regulated (“free market”) big business profiteers like HBOs and insurance companies who are only interested in making lots of money for their bottom lines and paychecks and to hell with stupid US consumers.
The healthcare ‘industry’ is the only one still making billions in profits in this economy.
Unfortunatly, US politicians, on both sides, are controlled by big money.
This is the most one sided article I may have ever read. Here are the facts that Mr. Griffin does not want you to know. Home Medical Equipment companies are going out of business because of not being able to make a profit. American Home Patient has 350 stores nationwide and declaired bankruptcy several years ago. In the last quarter of 2008 they lost 6 million dollars. In the first quarter of 2009 they lost 4.5 million dollars. Apria which is the largest provider of Home Medical Equipment in the Nation has only been able to achieve a 5 percent profit. Both of these companies are public and the salaries and bonuses and expenses are public information. They are well managed and their executives are not overpaid. If the medical equipment companies are getting rich, then why is no one interested in buying a medical equipment company. Sleazy reporters such as Drew Griffin are looking to write articles that inflame. He is not interested in the truth. Home Medical Equipment represents 1 percent of healthcare. Home Medical Equipment keep people at home and help prevent the need for them to go to Nursing Homes. Home Health Care is part of the solution to the health care crisis. IT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT THE PROBLEM. Why are Home Medical Equipment companies going out of business? Why is the stock of Home Medical Equipment dealers and manufacturers on a downward trend and has been for years. The truth is that the Drew Griffins of the world are either stupid or cruel. They are definately not interested in the truth. The article was misleading. What about these facts: A Medical Equipment Company has to keep the product in stock, has to meet government regulations, has to be accredited with trained personnel, has to maintain repair facilities, has to maintain inventory, has to chase medical documentation, has to bill insurance companies, has to deliver, and has to maintain/repair the item for the entire time the patient has the item. How about the fact that the Home Medical Equipment Company has to wait months, at times, to get paid. How about the fact that the government is forcing the Home Medical Equipment Companies to rent the equipment and when the equipment disappears because it is lost or stolen, the Home Medical Equipment Company has to eat the loss. If the Home Medical Equipment Companies are getting rich, then why are you not in the business. The price from the internet are for cash and no ongoing support. The price on the internet is the cost that most Medical Equipment Companies have to pay for the product themselves. Did the guy on the internet give the patient with no insurance a free wheelchair when it was needed? I doubt it. But, the Home Medical Equipment Company provides free equipment on a regular basis. Before you buy off on an idiot journalist just looking for headlines, you might want to follow Paul Harvey and get “The Rest of the Story”