America Has the Highest Cost of “Health Care” in the World and it Will Escalate Even Higher Under the New ‘Health Care Law’. The Cause? Your Government! America is the sickest country of any modern democracy in the world. Sickness is America’s largest industry. Americans spends more on sickness, $2.6 trillion per year, than any other country up 300 percent in the last 20 years). America spends $7016 on sickness for each of its 305 million people each year, the highest in the world. Yet we have a lower life span and a higher child death per 1000 than any other modern country. This article will show you the main causes of America’s Health Care Crisis. Your Government enables them all!
Medicare and Medicaid: It all began July 30, 1965 when President LB Johnson signed the Medicare Law as part if his “Great Society”. This was to be funded by taxing the Social Security payments of the elderly. This new socialistic law also included Medicaid. Prior to that, nearly every American could afford health care and, as a whole, Americans were healthy. Doctors house calls were frequent. The family doctor treated 75 percent of illnesses. Doctors visits were $5 to $10, now $125 and up. Child birth was $400, now averages $12,000. Appendectomies were $350, now $7,000. Hospital rooms went for $50 to $100 per day, now $1000 and up.
Only 2 percent of Americans had Health Insurance. Families helped families with their health costs and charities helped the poor. Medicare and Medicaid began the burgeoning cost of health care that has grown 800 percent since 1965, far more than inflation for goods or deflation of the dollar. Health Care consumes a whopping 15.3 percent of the GDP. Your government at work.
Drug Companies: In 1997 congress, at the urging of the drug company’s lobbyists, passed a law allowing the drug companies to advertise directly to the public. The only country in the modern world that allows this. Now nearly every other ad on TV is for a prescription drug. New drugs are invented for new ‘diseases’. 1 in 6 Americans are deemed to be “mentally ill”. Drug company profits have soared 400 percent in a little over a decade. Patients are prescribed a drug, that they have seen on TV, 62 percent of the time when they ask their doctor for it, sometimes circumventing the decision of the doctor.
America spends twice as much for prescription drugs and more people take drugs than any other country. Yet, because of the vast amount of money given to politicians by the drug lobbyists, congress will continue to refuse to negotiate drug prices even for Medicare and Medicaid. Your government at work.
The Medicare Prescription Drug Law: This law was rammed through congress in 2003 at the insistence of the drug lobbyists and produced the largest overhaul of Medicare in the public health program’s 38-year history. This bill was initially given a 15 minute vote. At the end of that time frame, the bill was defeated by 15 votes. The vote was extended and lasted for 3 hours. Rep Billy Tauzin, the leader of the bill, spent that time twisting arms in the House until the law passed by one vote. Tauzin retired soon after to take a $2 million job as CEO of Pharma, a huge drug company organization.
Prior to this law, Medicare patients paid for their own drugs. But this new law gave the drug companies a blank check to the already depleted Medicare fund and the drug companies’ profits continued to soar at the cost of the taxpayer. Again, no drug price negotiations.Your government at work!
Lawyers: In 1977, the Supreme Court ruled that Lawyers had the right to advertise their services. Then the TV ads started, which amount to legal “ambulance chasing”. As a direct result, America has more lawyers than all the other nations in the world combined and America has become the ‘law suit capital of the world’. A neurosurgeon can pay as much as $200,000 per year for malpractice insurance and, of course, this egregious premium must be recovered by raising his fees, thus passing it on to his patients and increasing the over all costs of health care. In addition, the doctors are forced to take multiple unnecessary tests and procedures just to cover their ass from law suites, adding even more to health care costs.
Many doctors have quit practice because of the potentiality of law suits. In court, win or lose, the lawyer gets paid. Legislation has been drafted for “Tort Reform” to put a cap on lawsuits and to force the attorneys to pay the court costs when losing a lawsuit. Many other countries have these laws. But, because of the lawyer’s heavy donations to politicians and the fact the a great percentage of politicians are lawyers, these laws have as much of a chance of passing as the proverbial flying pig. Your government at work.
Only Congress makes the laws for America, and in doing so, only they can be held accountable for the mess our country is in. If you think our health care system is bad now, wait ‘til the new one kicks in! We will have our last chance to throw the crooks out in November and end the agenda that would destroy America!
Dr G
