Quote:
Originally Posted by Fortoggie
The latest data about hospital charges came out last week. In our area, which has ten hospitals the charges for the same procedure varies greatly. In one case a heart procedure was $ 73,000.00 more than the exact same work thirty miles away. There is no rhyme nor reason as to what hospitals charge.
|
Your hospital system.....is a mish-mash of structured entities.
1] Government hospitals: No, I'm not talking about the VA system, or the federal government. I'm talking about municipalities, counties, universities and States.
What did your Supreme Court say about healthcare? Healthcare is
not Interstate Commerce.
Which part of "
Boston General" do stupid idiots not understand?
Cue stupid people:
What's the Republican Plan?
Cue your Supreme Court: Which part of
intra-State Commerce do you not understand?
Government gives itself away with names like
Boston General Hospital,
Sarasota MemorialHospital,
University of Detroit Medical Center,
University of Cincinnati Hospital,
Oak Ridge Municipal Hospital,
Dearborn County Hospital,
Longview State Hospital. etc etc etc.
Which is scarier: the fact that Americans are too dumb to understand, or the fact that those dumb Americans are allowed to vote?
It gets interesting....during the 1970s, many governments sold their interest in hospitals in whole or in part.
What does that mean? In some instances, the State, county, city, university or municipality still owns the building and the property, but a private group actually runs the hospital, usually a member of the American Hospital Association.
While in other instances, the hospital may be run jointly by the government and a private group.
Which brings us to "private groups."
Some private groups are For-Profit Hospitals, while others are For-Profit masquerading as a Non-Profit.
The latter is often the case when the American Hospital Association takes over a government hospital.
These private groups, of course, also run their own For-Profit Hospitals or For-Profit pretending to be Non-Profit. Charitable hospitals such as Sisters of Mercy or Franciscan Sister do not do anything for free or at cost.....they get a hefty profit.
This is all made worse by the fact that the American Hospital Association immorally and unethically grouped hospitals together in the late 1930s in an attempt to drive non-member hospitals out of business and gain monopoly control of hospitals (as though they were railroads or coal-mines or steel mills or shipyards or something). When I say non-member hospitals, I'm referring to either a hospital that was a member of the American Medical Association, or a hospital that was not affiliated with the AMA or AHA.
To gain monopoly control quicker, the American Hospital Association created the "
Out-of-Network" Clause.
Insurance companies as a general rule do not offer health insurance in the 1930s. If you want health plan coverage, then you must buy it from a hospital. If you buy it from a hospital that is a member of the American Hospital Association, then you can only use your health plan coverage at other hospitals that were also members of the American Hospital Association.
You were certainly free to go to a hospital that was a member of the American Medical Association or not a member of anything, but the American Hospital Association
would not pay your claims.
In 1946, when the American Hospital Association created the very first health insurance company -- the Blue Cross --- this
Out-of-Network" Clause was the center-piece/corner-stone for them.
Later that year, the American Medical Association created the Blue Shield health insurance company.
Some might remember that everyone had Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
No.....wrong freaking answer....you didn't "have" rather you "
got had."
The only way to guarantee that you were covered 100% and didn't get hit with "
Out-of-Network" fees and charges is to buy both.
How freaking sad is that?
1949 was a water-shed event with the Supreme Court decision
In Re: Inland Steel.
The Court's ruling sent a clear and convincing message that employer-sponsored group-based health plans were not just some passing fad created because the FDR levied a Wage & Price Freeze, rather it was here to stay.
Now, all the insurance jump into the game and damn near annihilate the American Hospital Association.
Why?
Two reasons:
1] the insurance companies used risk-based actuarial science, and so could offer plans much, much cheaper than the American Hospital Association's Blue Cross which was trapped into using a "Community Rating Scheme"; and
2] the insurance companies had real insurance, instead of fake insurance like that offered by the Blue Cross.
Here are your choices:
Choice #1: You can buy health plan coverage from the Blue Cross and pay premiums
every single month from the day you start working until the day you retire, at which point you're screwed and have no health insurance.....
....or....
Choice #2: You can purchase a $2 Million policy, pay premiums for 10 years/120 months, never pay again for the rest of your life, be covered your entire life, and when you die, give your children, grand-children or charities $2 Million.
Which is the better deal?
Think.......think.......think........think....
Choice #2 is the better deal.
Did I mention that if you take Choice #2, you also have the option of paying a lower monthly premium, but paying over 20 years/240 months instead of 10 years? Do you think that having an option of 10 years or 20 years allows you to work around your priorities and the things going on in your life?
Did I mention that if you take Choice #2, you also have an option of paying an even lower monthly premium, but paying over 30 years/360 months instead of 10 or 20 years? Do you think that having an option of 10 years or 20 years or 30 years allows you to work around your priorities and the things going on in your life?
Did I mention that you can borrow against that $2 Million? Or maybe you choose a $1 Million policy instead of $2 Million, but then maybe you choose a $2.5 Million or a $1.5 Million or a $1.25 Million policy?
Why do you suppose Liberals --- who are Pro-Choice about killing un-born children -- vehemently deny you the opportunity to make these very, very important health and financial choices about your life?
For one thing, this would allow the Black Man to build wealth and pass that wealth onto his children.
Nothing frightens a Liberal more than a minority not needing government help.
A Black Man leaving $1.5 Million to his grand-children so that they might go to college without needing Guaranteed Student Loans just scares Liberals to death.
The mere thought that a poor person of any Color might actually move up the socio-economic ladder sends Liberals into a total panic -- and the thought of government not being involved, causes Liberals to panic
and wet themselves.
Anyway, faced with a crushing defeat, the American Hospital Association ran to Congress and got this law enacted....
"Premiums paid by an employer on policies of group life insurance without cash surrender value covering the lives of his employees, or on policies of group health or accident insurance...do not constitute salary if such premiums are deductible by the employer under Section 23(a) of the IRS Code."
Source: Public Law 83-591, August 16, 1954; Internal Revenue Code of 1954, Section 106. For more information see the 1986 Internal Revenue Code.
Cash surrender value......that's the $2 Million.......$2 Million in health care payments, or $2 Million cash or a combination of $2 Million in cash
and health benefits.
That put an end to that.
This is what intelligent compassionate people mean when they say "Free Market" -- they want Americans to have the ability to choose what is best for them, and to perhaps even profit off of their own healthcare, and then pass that wealth onto their children and grand-children.
If you want to lower the price of medical services, which will in turn lower the costs of health plan coverage, then repeal all of the harmful legislation at the federal and State levels that prevent you from paying less and getting more.
Financially...
Mircea
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
we will find a way to stop their run away thievery.
