Memphismaster61
Posts: 9
Joined: 6/10/2012
Status: offline
|
Okay folks, I said in my introduction post when I have something to say, you'd better pay attention. This is one of those posts. So, go relieve yourself, get a fresh cup of coffee, sit down, pull your head out of your politics and prepare for a ride.
First and foremost, I wish this to be clear: HEALTHCARE IS NOT A RIGHT. You, as a human being do have certain, God given (not government given) rights. Example: You have the right to defend yourself, family and possessions against attack. If someone raises their fist towards you or yours, you have the OBLIGATION to grab whatever is handy (fist, object, firearm, etc) and hit them back first. That is a law of the jungle. That subject will be another post.
Healthcare is not a right, because you must depend on someone else to provide a service to you. You do not have the right to force someone else to provide that service if they do not want to offer it. In today's world, it takes a maximum effort commitment of 8-10 years and upwards of $100,000 to become a doctor. Just remember, no doctors, no healthcare. The tests and treatments involved in today's healthcare are also very expensive. An MRI machine can easily cost over $2 million, just for the machine. Not to mention the maintenance and repair costs associated with it. I was on a medication for 10 years that retailed for $830 a month. Luckily I had insurance, so I didn't have to pay that price.
Healthcare is expensive simply because we have tests and treatments today that didn't exist 20 years ago. If you developed cancer when I was growing up, it was a death sentence. Sure, they could cut out what they could, but it just grew back and still killed you. Today, you can through modern treatments, beat cancer multiple times.
Someone invested millions of dollars into developing these tests and treatments, and they expect to recoup that cost and make a profit as well. That drug I mentioned above? It probably took 10 years and upwards of $50 million (or more) from initial conception, testing, marketing and production to produce and bring to market. Sure, the generic is cheap once the patent expires, because the generic manufacturers didn't have the capital outlay that the inventors did.
Healthcare is a big, expensive business. If you take the money out of it, no one will do it, and then where is your precious "right?"
Second. Let me provide you a context as to the current status of the balance of healthcare. Let me state for the record that this is an abstraction, and any attempt to carry the example too far will cause it to break down.
Here you have a plot of land that 100 farmers work on and grow the food for a village of 1,000 people. Everything is stable in the fact that the land provides enough food to feed everybody and nobody goes hungry. Outside of the village, you have a group of undetermined size of hunter-gatherers that are hungry pretty much all of the time. Sometimes they get into the villages food supply and steal some food. This makes the farmers work harder and the people of the village have to go a little hungry and have smaller portions until the balance is restored.
Now, one day, the villagers get the notion to "help" the hunter-gatherers by inviting them to become members of the village. So, the new people are brought into the village. Mind you, the amount of farming land and number of farmers remain the same as before. With more people to feed, but with the same amount of food, portions must be smaller. It's a math issue. No wishing otherwise will make more food grow on the same amount of land. So, now everyone, villagers and hunter-gatherers start to go hungry. On top of that, 2 farmers decide to quit and not work on the land any more because they were against bringing the new group into the village. So now you have more people, less famers and the same amount of land. This will cause the amount of food produced to go down, so everyone will get hungrier. More farmland and farmers must be found or eventually people will starve and die off until a balance is reached again.
That (within the confines of the example) is the current state of the medical field. When we add "13 million" uninsured people into our already strained and overloaded healthcare system, the amount of healthcare that each individual receives will necessarily be smaller. Unless we find a way to add more hospitals, doctors and support staff, rationing will be the result. Add onto that the fact that doctors are getting out of the Medicare/Medicaid system, which will further reduce the capacity in the face of increasing demand. If you think that there won't be at least some kind or form of rationing of healthcare, I want what you're smoking.
Medical insurance companies (in fact, any company) are in business to make money. Understand that. Take it to heart. Learn it, live it, love it.
Remember what insurance is: It's a bet that you make with the insurance company. You are betting that you will need catastrophic health insurance sometime in your life. They charge you an amount appropriate to their actuarial tables that would mean they would still make a profit on you, depending on what lifestyle you have (smoking, obese, etc). Again, they are selling you a service, and it is their right to not sell you that service if they think they won't make money from you. So, pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps are going to be there, no matter if you like it or not. If an insurance company doesn't make money, there is no reason for that company to exist in the first place.
With the Affordable Care Act being upheld, this is what we will start seeing. A large rock has been thrown into the pool, and the after effects will not be ripples, but tsunamis.
With the USSC stating that this is a tax, and "you don't have to pay the tax," let's see how many people decide to not file federal income taxes next year, based on that phrase. But I digress.
I also want a proponent for the ACA (that means someone who is in favor of) to point to me _three_ services provided by the Federal government that was/should be provided by the free market that didn't balloon out of control and cost many times more than what the initial cost was told to us.
The ACA will cost us $billions (if not even $trillions) more than the wildest expectations and projections of today. The Federal government has proven in every aspect of our lives that no matter how much we are taxed, they will spend that and more, way more.
To sell the idea of "unlimited healthcare" to everyone (and just in case you forgot, even with the ACA, and estimated 2.5 million Americans will still not receive any healthcare) is a lie. So even when "Everyone is insured," not everyone will receive insurance.
The costs associated with the ACA will skyrocket, and this may very well be the straw that broke the fiscal camels back and drive the United States into bankruptcy.
Only time will tell.
|
My take on the ACA - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread