341–350 of 383 posts
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So you're prepared to invalidate close to 100% of all employment contracts in the US?
Quite the contrary. Those are entered into willfully and not coercively.
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Yeah, it's pretty crappy in NC. First year of ACA we only had one company even offering any insurance in my county. And yeah, it's county-based for some reason - if I lived 2 miles in another direction I'd have had multiple options about 10-15% cheaper than what I had available. Second year we had another option in our county which was about 15% higher than BCBS (which had gone up about 25% from the year before). App…
> Apparently some/much of this has to do with our state choosing to opt out of dealing with increased medicaid funding, so... yay... I guess they get to show obama how bad ACA is by... digging in their heels while we all just pay insanely increasing pricing? Let's be fair here. The ACA said that the feds would match the expanded medicaid enrollment for a few years, but after that the states would need to continue to…
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> "that's why you need to take the market out of it and have single payer." It's a consistent argument only if you believe that you'd be better off with single payer. No, it's a consistent argument for those who think beyond themselves; it's good for society as a whole. One doesn't have to believe one personally benefits, that's now how liberals work. > A good market would be one where you paid your doctor A good mar…
other "socialist" civilized countries, you know, like the ones that regularly innovate and push the boundaries of science and attract millions of people each year because of a higher standard of living and less taxes. oh, wait... The "market" is just a synonym for individuals co-operating together for their mutual benefit. The "public" option is one where a faceless bureaucracy with a monopoly on power steps in and d…
No you didn't.
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"It's no coincidence that laser eye surgery, teeth whitening, cosmetic surgery is all generally affordable -- markets and competition have formed." This isn't the best example to have chosen. All of these procedures are discretionary and nonessential. If I find the cost of an elective nose job too pricey, I can take my time and shop around. Or I can just go without a nose job altogether and be totally fine. The only…
Most medicine doesn’t happen on an emergency basis. E.g. if you’re diagnosed with cancer, or find out you should get a heart bypass, you have time to shop around for doctors.
This is the source of the problem. There is no 'market' to speak of. There needs to be laws requiring hospitals to provide prices up front and honor them after the fact.
Personal experience with ACA: As of 2016, we're onto our 3rd insurer. Each prior one has dropped our local doctors, physicians groups and hospital. With each insurance change, our deductible has gone up, our premium has increased and our co-pay, co-insurance has increased. In effect, our ACA plan has become an extremely expensive catastrophic insurance plan.
Comparing to my "free market" insurance before the ACA was passed, I had much more coverage (it was real insurance: eg: pay in advance against a risk, rather than covering pre-existing conditions which violates the definition of insurance, since you're not pooling money against risk, but paying for current liabilities.) ..... and not only did I have more coverage, but my deductibles were 1/5th what they are now and t…
What a joke of opinion. Reality won't stop you from making up non-sense, will it?
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You've had a good experience, many others haven't. I personally had two family members die from NHS incompetence, and no compensation. There are horror stories like mine every day. I'd much rather have the US system, with all its flaws.
Can you elaborate? two deaths in the same family for negligence with no recourse to get compensation sounds sounds wrong.
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Can you elaborate? two deaths in the same family for negligence with no recourse to get compensation sounds sounds wrong.
My mother's second husband's stomach trouble was misdiagnosed. Because of the long waiting times to see a specialist, the cancer was too far gone by the time they found out what it was, and he died when he was 50. My wife's sister was taken to hospital with a gallbladder infection. Despite being extremely weak, the staff let her walk and she fell. She broke her pelvis, but they missed it. Despite being in severe pain…
You sue to get compensation.
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Morphine? Why not get a prescription for Imitrex?
Sumatriptan isn't a cure-all for migraines. I suffer from near-constant migraine-like headaches (sometimes diagnosed as migraines, some not - depends on the consultant), and they are actually worsened by sumatripan. Morphine seems a little strong, but having tried every offered non-opiate medication (amitriptalyne, sodium valproate, gabapentin, propranolol, topiramate etc.) and only had any success with opiates (tram…
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As a Canadian, I am astonished at how expensive even the cheapest of these plans are. My monthly healthcare cost amounts to $178, once you factor in the taxes I pay that go to healthcare. That's cheaper than any of the plans in this article. How do people find these prices bearable?
we don't. It is akin to a mafiosi stopping by every month asking for his "protection" money in case a terrorist group will take you hostage and ransack your place. In all other "normal" cases where you need security that said mafiosi says you have to pay for it yourself. The ACA proponent gladly accepts this outrageous proposition.
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People have written about this before, but basically the US subsidizes medical expenses for the entire world. That was able to happen because, unlike virtually anywhere else in the world, medical insurance in the US is private. If the US changes that (which will never happen) I would expect medical costs to go up everywhere else to compensate, either that or research slows down. One thing that might, might, help is f…
It's true that the US has historically been a leader in medical research, but that largely comes from the federal government through the NIH ($32 billion in 2016.)
To be fair, this statement doesn't really tell us anything. Pfizer's foreign market profit might be 2% of sale price, and their US profit 98% of sale price. So despite that figure, the majority of their R&D investment might still come from sales in the US.