This is how I feel. I would gladly sign a waiver that I will not go to a hospital for any viral illness. I have dealt enough with incompetent hospital staff, had nurses yell at me they my child was unable to wake up because he was being a brat and not because he needed fluids as I was demanding (tests proved me right and the nurse wrong) and three family members over my lifetime killed by medical mistakes so yeah, I'm happy to decline any medical care from these facilities and will call my functional medicine doctor instead.
I wouldn't trust anyone referred by any top university hospital. CC and Mayo were ready to charge us a fortune to abuse and torture our disable daughter who we finally figured out her DX on our own. We also were in Stanford which should be shut down for inpatient care due to the cruelty and abuse there.
I used to work with hospice and chronic care patients. Ive never seen more incompetent medical people in the field since the 90s. in my over 300+ ER visits, not including inpatient, 90% of The RNS and DRs we dealt with were incredibly psychopathic and sadistic or just lazy and apathetic and incompetent. I know EXACTLY how this RN spoke to you. Its disgusting.
Love Prof. Sisler's sense of humor; love your reference. Absolutely agree about medical insurance. However, as brave Djokovic is making quite clear to the world, these offensives have nothing to do with concern about a deadly disease and everything to do with punishing the non-compliant.
At this point, I want to say I don't consider being refused medical treatment to be a punishment, except-- sometimes it is. And yet (as when I began comparing public school districts for my children) there's not a single hospital I've found that I would willingly provide money to or choose to use. Not because I am anti-medicine or anti-doctors (or anti-education), but because I have so little say in what is happening there, and there is so much I have to say about it.
Demagoguery indeed. Forget Stephen Colbert, how about the lead counsel for OSHA? The ultimate Karen. As she "answers" questions by the various Justices she spouts disproven after disproven assertion about the efficacy and safety of the vaccines. Including but not at all limited to the notion that unvaxxed are a "danger" in the workplace. (forget that vaxxed have higher viral loads). She is propagandizing to sitting Supreme Court Justices. As if no one is following the data. OSHA and Pfizer et al are relying on lying and the ignorance of the targets of the lies to advance their money and power agendas. God help us.
..and those targets of lies?...the most powerful jurors on the planet who are proving to be the most ignorant officials yet... the Peter Principle and Dunning-Kreuger Syndrome wrapped and concentrated in one of DCs marble temples to false gods. Ugghh.
A friend in Austin, TX, double vaxxed so she could keep her job, broke her hand a few months ago. She went to the emergency room to get it set and forgot her vax card. Even tho she's a nurse they refused to treat her w/out proof so she had to get a Moderna jab that made her very sick.
Sotomayor only brought to mind how I thought she belongs on the view instead of the SC. Sure enough, those squawking magpies rejected the facts and went with the wise Latino narrative.
We already see healthcare being denied to the unvaxxed. People have been removed from organ waiting lists and surgeries. I recall the story of one such man being forced to vax for his transplant but died from the shot just prior. I’m so distrustful of hospitals now, I would rather take my chances on dying at home. They have admitted the shots don’t stop infection. When will the emperor’s butt freeze off?
It seems that it would be lawful for insurers to distinguish between vxxd and unvxxd. I'd expect unvxxd to have lower cost of claims and so they should, if the market is at all competitive, receive lower rates.
EU Parliament President has died in an Italian hospital where he had been treated since late December, his spokesman said. The official was suffering from a “serious complication” resulting from an immune system condition.
An Italian social democrat, Sassoli was hospitalized on December 26 due to serious immune system dysfunction, his office said, noting that he had ceased all “official activities” as the head of the EU Parliament during that time. The announcement came after Sassoli was treated for pneumonia at a hospital in Strasbourg, France last September. Though at the time his staff said he was in “good condition” and that he had tested negative for Covid-19, the illness nonetheless left him unable to work for some two months. Spokesman Roberto Cuillo declined to share additional details on Sassoli’s health earlier on Monday, though he did state the official would be unable to attend a plenary parliamentary session set for Strasbourg next week.
The unaffordable care act, the pandemic response - its all designed for one purpose - to take decisions out of the hands of the individual and give them to the government. The ACA is the whole reason why we were so unprepared for this pandemic. By letting the people pick and choose their healthcare plans and their physicians and hospitals - the spending in healthcare would be dramatically reduced.
The problem with American healthcare started way before the Affordable Care Act. It's because of our insurance-based health care system, exacerbated by regulatory capture.
As a self-employed person, the ACA was a lifesaver when something happened to me that I would not have been able to pay for myself, and I would not have been able to afford insurance otherwise. It was not perfect, of course — relatively better off middle-class people, as usual, are milked for all they're worth. But for a lot of us it beat the previous system.
Personally I think Americans are the most overmedicated people on the planet, so I don't view lack of access to healthcare as a necessarily bad thing. We've been brainwashed into thinking that medication = health care. In the meantime for 40 years our government has been telling us to eat the very things that make us chronically ill and provide a never-ending spigot of profitability for Big Pharma. We need a system that focuses on the cause of illness, not giving us expensive treatments for the symptoms.
I know many people who had to take second jobs to avoid being fined by the ACA on their tax returns. I was self-employed when I lived in the US, and would have had to do something similarly drastic to be able to afford ACA insurance.
There were a whole swaths of people for whom it was not an improvement. I was one of the lucky ones who did benefit. Even if you couldn't afford ACA insurance, what are the chances you could've afforded regular insurance? Before the ACA I had regular insurance for a few years and the premium increased 30% every year.
Alas, on the fringes of the economy, I could afford no insurance. Bordering on disability, I was able to sustain myself working part time (though unable to collect any benefits).
Throughout my worklife in the US, health insurance went from being $28/month (1980's - I had a menu of choices for that, too) to $280 a month (2000's - non-drinking, non-smoking, only one plan available, take it or leave it!). Here in Aus, I get private cover (includes dental & perks) for about $40/month. It's going up here, now, though, too. It will always be cheaper here because of the government support of the medical system.
Without private cover, I pay a nominal fee to see doctors. GP has a list of diagnostics they can order which are covered. Specialists cost more, but when they order diagnostics, they are covered, too. Think "free MRI's." Most of my scripts are cost-limited to $35. If I land in hospital, no worries, mate. But if I need something quicker or extra, the private health layer is extraordinarily helpful. Plus it keeps my teeth clean (and dental emergencies, knock wood, aren't cheap!).
FUBAR may actually be a saving grace when it comes to mandates. This centralised system made it so easy to mandate, flip of a switch. Government pays for everything, government knows everything. Using the free medical "care" to rope in compliance. Doctors, too.
As our world changes, I reckon the FUBAR in the US may actually save lives. I know when I was in US, going to doctor was a major deal, and you waited until you couldn't wait anymore. I had a friend die because he wanted to wait until morning and go to Doc-in-a-Box instead of calling ambulance. It was heart attack (pre-COVID).
Thank you for your always clear, direct and concise accounting of the darkness that surrounds us. What a remarkable man, Prof Sisler. It is so uplifting to hear about people like him who saw the light.
The danger is - who makes such decisions, based on what criteria and with what authority to deny some individuals medical care, and what are the limits and safeguards to ensure once it is accepted that individuals can legally be denied care for failure to comply with one thing, more required things are not added to the list over time?
Once any State enforceable practice becomes established, it cannot be assumed in future only benevolent people will be in a position to use it for only the ‘right’ reasons, or to placate the mob. Power once taken, WILL be used.
Couldn’t agree more Mark…give me my premiums back! I’ll shop around and do just fine.
Unfortunately you are dreaming with the last paragraph. Blaring propaganda seems to escalate year by year to dystopian levels. CNN… (Ugh, I’d rather read Pravda) will of course remain on with effectively nil ratings but they can always count on a sedentary “wise Latina” in their audience.
My father worked in a car factory and we only had catastrophic insurance coverage. When I was 15, I broke my leg. My mother wrote the doctor a check. I think it was for $400.
after Obamacare passed i did the math on my grandfathered individual policy... inflated at double digit % annually (probably due to adverse selection)... prior to Obamacare my premiums were flat or increased single digit % annually (net of age related increases) last year blue shield discontinued my grandfathered plan... premiums still increasing double digit%.
anytime government ‘subsidizes’ anything ... like healthcare or education... the Prices go up because the subsidy creates increased demand without increased supply.
also, like you say, the ‘insurance’ itself has caused inflation... if a procedure is ‘covered’, doctors are more likely to prescribe it and patients more likely to demand it ( ditto for advertised drugs.)
there are so many distortions in the Medical-Industrial-Government Complex... one only need to review a Medicare ‘Explanation of Benefits’ statement for the final month of a loved one’s life at any hospital... zillions of non-descriptive line items with the summation of Billed Amounts $250,000.+, Medicare Paid $50,000. ... Q: guess who is subsidizing the deficiency? A: private and employer policies paying Grossly Inflated Rates for everything...
Prior to Obamacare, back when I could afford an insurance policy as a self-employed person, my premiums were going up 30% per year. The insurance industry was structured to squeeze out people with pre-existing conditions.
Neither system is perfect. I think the whole insurance paradigm is non-functional for the consumer.
had a serious pre-existing condition when i was in college. in those days there was a ‘waiting period’ when you applied for private insurance of a number of months (can’t remember the exact #, many decades ago, but it was less than a year) but they did accept you with a precondition. throughout my career i maintained my private policy because of my initial experience in college... when my employer provided insurance I had two policies going at the same time... how absurd is that... but insurance being non-portable, was always concerned about the difficulty of going through underwriting and, over the ensuing years, saw the insurance industry become so fixated on denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions (to the point where teenage acne was a ‘preexisting condition’.) there were ‘high risk pools’ and the ability to obtain coverage through the state, and i think this was a very reasonable model... really would have been a far, far, way better basis for reform than ‘socialized, expensive Obamacare for everyone’... directing the funding to the specific population not able to access employer plan or private insurance. yes, the insurance industry is rotten, but government generally has made it even worse. most don’t realize that Medicare/Medicaid is enabled by cost shifting to the private sector and is not sustainable in its current form, let alone ‘Medicare for all including non-citizens.’ also the role of true ‘insurance’ is catastrophic coverage, not everyday ‘maintenance’ or that which you can reasonably save for... they also made ‘health savings accounts’ illegal in my blue state so just gross everything up for payment in after tax dollars... ouch.
"there were ‘high risk pools’ and the ability to obtain coverage through the state, and i think this was a very reasonable model... " Not for me it wasn't. The high risk pools in Wyoming were prohibitively expensive.
I'm not saying Obamacare was the answer, just said it was a huge improvement for people in my particular circumstance.
In an ideal world, people would be given good information about how to live a healthy, reasonable lifestyle free of influence from big Pharma, Big Ag, etc. That would make everything a whole lot less expensive right there.
As it is, the powers that be have a vested interest in keeping us sick. You think I'm exaggerating? I have a quote somewhere from a pharmaceutical industry magazine where a pharma executive says, right out loud, they could find a cure for MS tomorrow except that would endanger a valuable income stream.
My grandmother has the receipts from her Los Angeles hospital birth in 1939, she was premature and The bill was $100, her father made payments of $10. The bill we were sent for the birth of our last in 2005, absolutely no medical intervention other than the doctor catching my son, was $10,000. I was in the hospital less than 24 hours.
My mother was born in 1930, at home, with no doctor present. $0. I was born in a county hospital in 1958. A GP was present. $250. My daughter was born in a university hospital in 1994. An OB-GYN, two nurses, and an intern present. Uncomplicated birth. Discharged less than 24 hours. $24,500. If something doesn't change, my granddaughter will be born at home with no doctor present. Yep, sure is progress.
Something the bureaucracy and their brainwashed minions never discuss or think about…having insurance doesn’t guarantee access to quality, effective healthcare. It only guarantees you pay a premium.
Sounds familiar…I think that was how my parents handled my broken arm around age 10. We obviously need to return as much as possible to this pay for service model.
The ACA of course was a huge racket after a series of ever escalating the players involved and massive costs as you detail nicely.
Reminds me of PJ O’Rourke’s timeless quip regarding the proposed Hillary-care, “If you think health care is expensive now, wait till you see how much it costs when it’s free.”
One of the costs of free medical care is one payer knows all. There is no privacy, the government knows everything you have ever had done, because they paid for it. Additionally, the socialised medical system runs by algorithm - eliminating the possibility of second opinions - because they all use the same top-down algorithm. Doctors in Australia are terrified of deviating from this algorithm in any way.
When I had a major laparotomy (before the ACÁ) and was in the hospital for three days (private room, bed for my mother who stayed with me, food, medicine, three attending physicians, a resident, pathology [tumor], anesthesiology, et al) total cost to me was a little over $2000. I was uninsured. The bill, if it had run through insurance (they gave me the references), would have been over $40,000. While I was in the hospital recovering, two representatives from charities (both religious) came to see me to ask if I needed financial assistance. This was a Catholic teaching hospital.
Compare to last year, minimally invasive arthroscopy, no overnight, no pathology, at an outpatient facility, run through insurance was nearly $15000. Uninsured cost was around $8000 (with flexible hospital provided payment plan). No insurance through the ACÁ market that was anywhere near affordable (<$500 monthly) had deductibles or out of pocket expenses less than $8000, so using insurance would have cost more after considering the premiums. This is the nightmare of insurance based healthcare.
This also doesn’t even go into the weeds of auto insurance fault medical payments or malpractice insurance. We really just need to throw out all existing regulations and start from scratch, with the patient being the absolute priority in care and protection.
True. We haven’t even discussed getting pre-approval for procedures and medications from your insurer. I have chronic Lyme’s disease. My insurance has denied several treatments and medications because they said they didn’t meet CDC treatment protocols. Fortunately, Im under the care of a functional, holistic physician, he’s able to work around all their baloney.
Doesn't help that officially they don't even acknowledge chronic Lyme exists. Have you had any luck getting your functional doctor costs covered by insurance?
My sister lives in the Bay Area with her family and her husband’s extended family. The family has been in CA for several generations.
Right now in CA they are looking at moving to single payer healthcare in the state. The Dems have a super-super majority, so there’s really no accountability or pushback that could stop them.
If the state moves forward, the cost of SPHC would push the state income tax to 18%! And there’s a strong possibility, if passed, that medical care will be denied to the unvaccinated. My sister’s husband and his brothers are meeting in the next couple weeks to come up with a contingency plan to flee CA if that becomes reality. The family has a lot of real estate there, handed down over generations, and deep roots in the area … it would be devastating to leave everything behind, but it’s looking more and more like it’s only a matter of time.
YES! I'm stuck in Washington and we're all quite nervous about tomorrow's legislative session. Mandatory vaccines in order to attend school and childcare and involuntary detainment for those that refuse to comply with testing/treatment and vaccines. I may end up in quarantine camp if this passes.
The perspective of such people is neither technical or nuanced. Let me translate into plain English:
"I want a culturally- and state- sanctioned way to kill the people I hate."
That's it. That's all this is. This is apes wanting to crush other apes' skulls with rocks except rocks are declasse this millennium.
These are people who hate you and want you dead. It's a story as old as time. Stop wasting time figuring out why. Just know the apes who want you dead, and figure out how to kill them first or get out of their reach.
I'm also mocking those naive, weak people who think that taking medical insurance away from me will kill me. I'm in excellent physical condition b/c I know how to eat, I do physical work for a living and work out, not b/c I rely on doctors or drugs.
It's all true. It's simply mostly details that make it look like a legal, medical, scientific, or ethical challenge when it's just hate and violence.
Nothing you said is wrong. I'd sign up for your "let me instead reinvest my medical expenses into living a more healthful life" plan in a heartbeat. But you and I both know we won't get it, short of the Healthcare industry itself collapsing at the societal level.
My personal problem is that it was so obviously all a scam- every aspect of it from the NPIs to the vaccine mandates to the wet market bullshit- that I find it hard to articulate to people "how did/do you actually know and aren't just a psycho being proved provisionally right?"
I have a very dear friend who, in our entire decades-long acquaintance, I have only heard say bad words about one person (a truly evil real estate agent).
So I was shocked when, during a phone conversation recently, he said for all he cares, the unvaccinated could be refused any sort of medical treatment and they can all just die.
Society has sunk to a really deplorable state when a normally kind person could say such a thing.
There is at least part that doesn't have to be a fantasy.
The direct payment model is growing. I found there are a lot more cash-friendly doctors than I expected. The AAPS has a search (https://aapsonline.org/direct-payment-cash-friendly-practices/), and there are others. I found clinics near near me complete with pharmacy at wholesale price. Surgical centers and more are increasingly available. Overall, I expect switching to this and a very high deductible disaster plan will cut my routine cost by a third or more. And, that's with a chronic illness requiring fairly expensive medications. Someone without an existing condition would come out even further ahead. Bonus: I get to make decisions without interference and I'm not tied to my employer's coverage or that garbage COBRA.
The establishment AMA model is a payment plan with an enormous surcharge, not insurance. It is another part of the WEF "you will own nothing" system. The good news is we have much more choice than they lead us to believe.
I just did some checking, and yeah, it was reduced to 0 in 2018. There are 5 areas which have some form of penalty from what I see: Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia
I'd think worth checking into at least. The clinic I'm leaning towards is flat-rate $75/mo for non-smokers, $100 for smokers, unlimited visits and majorly discounted labs and meds. The flat rate makes sense for me, but there are others who are fee for service. I easily pay 4 times that for my employer plan, the difference I can slam into savings for specialists and meeting a high deductible if needed.
It's really part of a total refit of how I think about money and savings in general. I spent most of my life spending faster than I made it. I was a conditioned consumer. A few years ago I started to shift, and the covid insanity really brought it into focus. Savings is freedom and choice. It is independence when I need it most. I put away at least 20% of my income now and don't feel the least deprived. I compare wants to the security I could have instead. And it snowballs fast.
This is how I feel. I would gladly sign a waiver that I will not go to a hospital for any viral illness. I have dealt enough with incompetent hospital staff, had nurses yell at me they my child was unable to wake up because he was being a brat and not because he needed fluids as I was demanding (tests proved me right and the nurse wrong) and three family members over my lifetime killed by medical mistakes so yeah, I'm happy to decline any medical care from these facilities and will call my functional medicine doctor instead.
Completely agree. But what is a “functional medicine doctor” and where can you find one?
Basically a holistic doctor that looks at the whole person to figure out the root of call of illnesses. I found mine by just searching the word and my city. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/functional-medicine
Osteopathic physicians, but not all, may be another choice.
I wouldn't trust anyone referred by any top university hospital. CC and Mayo were ready to charge us a fortune to abuse and torture our disable daughter who we finally figured out her DX on our own. We also were in Stanford which should be shut down for inpatient care due to the cruelty and abuse there.
I used to work with hospice and chronic care patients. Ive never seen more incompetent medical people in the field since the 90s. in my over 300+ ER visits, not including inpatient, 90% of The RNS and DRs we dealt with were incredibly psychopathic and sadistic or just lazy and apathetic and incompetent. I know EXACTLY how this RN spoke to you. Its disgusting.
Love Prof. Sisler's sense of humor; love your reference. Absolutely agree about medical insurance. However, as brave Djokovic is making quite clear to the world, these offensives have nothing to do with concern about a deadly disease and everything to do with punishing the non-compliant.
At this point, I want to say I don't consider being refused medical treatment to be a punishment, except-- sometimes it is. And yet (as when I began comparing public school districts for my children) there's not a single hospital I've found that I would willingly provide money to or choose to use. Not because I am anti-medicine or anti-doctors (or anti-education), but because I have so little say in what is happening there, and there is so much I have to say about it.
Demagoguery indeed. Forget Stephen Colbert, how about the lead counsel for OSHA? The ultimate Karen. As she "answers" questions by the various Justices she spouts disproven after disproven assertion about the efficacy and safety of the vaccines. Including but not at all limited to the notion that unvaxxed are a "danger" in the workplace. (forget that vaxxed have higher viral loads). She is propagandizing to sitting Supreme Court Justices. As if no one is following the data. OSHA and Pfizer et al are relying on lying and the ignorance of the targets of the lies to advance their money and power agendas. God help us.
..and those targets of lies?...the most powerful jurors on the planet who are proving to be the most ignorant officials yet... the Peter Principle and Dunning-Kreuger Syndrome wrapped and concentrated in one of DCs marble temples to false gods. Ugghh.
Definitely not substack subscribers.
A friend in Austin, TX, double vaxxed so she could keep her job, broke her hand a few months ago. She went to the emergency room to get it set and forgot her vax card. Even tho she's a nurse they refused to treat her w/out proof so she had to get a Moderna jab that made her very sick.
She should write that story and post it.
Is she sends it to me, I'll post it.
forecheck32 at gmail
this is an absolute violation of informed consent and ER care in the US. She needs to find a lawyer ASAP to sue. 2 years to file legally
Why wasn’t it placed in her care everywhere chart? That was terrible.😔
No way!!😱
Sotomayor only brought to mind how I thought she belongs on the view instead of the SC. Sure enough, those squawking magpies rejected the facts and went with the wise Latino narrative.
We already see healthcare being denied to the unvaxxed. People have been removed from organ waiting lists and surgeries. I recall the story of one such man being forced to vax for his transplant but died from the shot just prior. I’m so distrustful of hospitals now, I would rather take my chances on dying at home. They have admitted the shots don’t stop infection. When will the emperor’s butt freeze off?
when a few of the big ones die from the shots. being harmed is obviously not enough
Kind of reminds us of the crime waves of recent. Beverly Hills doesn’t seem to have a tolerance for it when it happens to them.
If I were an insurance company, I would know the truth....
That the vaccinated will become a drain on the system, because pharma doesn't pay for their destruction.
And that the first waves were not deadly, before the vaccine, cv death average age was around life expectancy..
The virus? Well who knows,
But the shots? Definitely costly to medical insurance...
https://drsambailey.com/2022/01/05/why-nobody-can-find-a-virus/
It seems that it would be lawful for insurers to distinguish between vxxd and unvxxd. I'd expect unvxxd to have lower cost of claims and so they should, if the market is at all competitive, receive lower rates.
ADE ADE ... boom goes his brain!!!
EU Parliament President has died in an Italian hospital where he had been treated since late December, his spokesman said. The official was suffering from a “serious complication” resulting from an immune system condition.
An Italian social democrat, Sassoli was hospitalized on December 26 due to serious immune system dysfunction, his office said, noting that he had ceased all “official activities” as the head of the EU Parliament during that time. The announcement came after Sassoli was treated for pneumonia at a hospital in Strasbourg, France last September. Though at the time his staff said he was in “good condition” and that he had tested negative for Covid-19, the illness nonetheless left him unable to work for some two months. Spokesman Roberto Cuillo declined to share additional details on Sassoli’s health earlier on Monday, though he did state the official would be unable to attend a plenary parliamentary session set for Strasbourg next week.
https://www.rt.com/news/545642-eu-parliament-president-died/
100% that will be the Injection :)
The unaffordable care act, the pandemic response - its all designed for one purpose - to take decisions out of the hands of the individual and give them to the government. The ACA is the whole reason why we were so unprepared for this pandemic. By letting the people pick and choose their healthcare plans and their physicians and hospitals - the spending in healthcare would be dramatically reduced.
The problem with American healthcare started way before the Affordable Care Act. It's because of our insurance-based health care system, exacerbated by regulatory capture.
As a self-employed person, the ACA was a lifesaver when something happened to me that I would not have been able to pay for myself, and I would not have been able to afford insurance otherwise. It was not perfect, of course — relatively better off middle-class people, as usual, are milked for all they're worth. But for a lot of us it beat the previous system.
Personally I think Americans are the most overmedicated people on the planet, so I don't view lack of access to healthcare as a necessarily bad thing. We've been brainwashed into thinking that medication = health care. In the meantime for 40 years our government has been telling us to eat the very things that make us chronically ill and provide a never-ending spigot of profitability for Big Pharma. We need a system that focuses on the cause of illness, not giving us expensive treatments for the symptoms.
I know many people who had to take second jobs to avoid being fined by the ACA on their tax returns. I was self-employed when I lived in the US, and would have had to do something similarly drastic to be able to afford ACA insurance.
There were a whole swaths of people for whom it was not an improvement. I was one of the lucky ones who did benefit. Even if you couldn't afford ACA insurance, what are the chances you could've afforded regular insurance? Before the ACA I had regular insurance for a few years and the premium increased 30% every year.
Alas, on the fringes of the economy, I could afford no insurance. Bordering on disability, I was able to sustain myself working part time (though unable to collect any benefits).
Throughout my worklife in the US, health insurance went from being $28/month (1980's - I had a menu of choices for that, too) to $280 a month (2000's - non-drinking, non-smoking, only one plan available, take it or leave it!). Here in Aus, I get private cover (includes dental & perks) for about $40/month. It's going up here, now, though, too. It will always be cheaper here because of the government support of the medical system.
Without private cover, I pay a nominal fee to see doctors. GP has a list of diagnostics they can order which are covered. Specialists cost more, but when they order diagnostics, they are covered, too. Think "free MRI's." Most of my scripts are cost-limited to $35. If I land in hospital, no worries, mate. But if I need something quicker or extra, the private health layer is extraordinarily helpful. Plus it keeps my teeth clean (and dental emergencies, knock wood, aren't cheap!).
Medical system here in the United States is fubar. We look with envy on more enlightened parts of the world.
FUBAR may actually be a saving grace when it comes to mandates. This centralised system made it so easy to mandate, flip of a switch. Government pays for everything, government knows everything. Using the free medical "care" to rope in compliance. Doctors, too.
As our world changes, I reckon the FUBAR in the US may actually save lives. I know when I was in US, going to doctor was a major deal, and you waited until you couldn't wait anymore. I had a friend die because he wanted to wait until morning and go to Doc-in-a-Box instead of calling ambulance. It was heart attack (pre-COVID).
So there are pro's and cons on each side.
Thank you for your always clear, direct and concise accounting of the darkness that surrounds us. What a remarkable man, Prof Sisler. It is so uplifting to hear about people like him who saw the light.
The danger is - who makes such decisions, based on what criteria and with what authority to deny some individuals medical care, and what are the limits and safeguards to ensure once it is accepted that individuals can legally be denied care for failure to comply with one thing, more required things are not added to the list over time?
Once any State enforceable practice becomes established, it cannot be assumed in future only benevolent people will be in a position to use it for only the ‘right’ reasons, or to placate the mob. Power once taken, WILL be used.
Couldn’t agree more Mark…give me my premiums back! I’ll shop around and do just fine.
Unfortunately you are dreaming with the last paragraph. Blaring propaganda seems to escalate year by year to dystopian levels. CNN… (Ugh, I’d rather read Pravda) will of course remain on with effectively nil ratings but they can always count on a sedentary “wise Latina” in their audience.
My father worked in a car factory and we only had catastrophic insurance coverage. When I was 15, I broke my leg. My mother wrote the doctor a check. I think it was for $400.
Med insurance has created tremendous inflation.
after Obamacare passed i did the math on my grandfathered individual policy... inflated at double digit % annually (probably due to adverse selection)... prior to Obamacare my premiums were flat or increased single digit % annually (net of age related increases) last year blue shield discontinued my grandfathered plan... premiums still increasing double digit%.
anytime government ‘subsidizes’ anything ... like healthcare or education... the Prices go up because the subsidy creates increased demand without increased supply.
also, like you say, the ‘insurance’ itself has caused inflation... if a procedure is ‘covered’, doctors are more likely to prescribe it and patients more likely to demand it ( ditto for advertised drugs.)
there are so many distortions in the Medical-Industrial-Government Complex... one only need to review a Medicare ‘Explanation of Benefits’ statement for the final month of a loved one’s life at any hospital... zillions of non-descriptive line items with the summation of Billed Amounts $250,000.+, Medicare Paid $50,000. ... Q: guess who is subsidizing the deficiency? A: private and employer policies paying Grossly Inflated Rates for everything...
THIS is the definition of a CESSPOOL.
Prior to Obamacare, back when I could afford an insurance policy as a self-employed person, my premiums were going up 30% per year. The insurance industry was structured to squeeze out people with pre-existing conditions.
Neither system is perfect. I think the whole insurance paradigm is non-functional for the consumer.
had a serious pre-existing condition when i was in college. in those days there was a ‘waiting period’ when you applied for private insurance of a number of months (can’t remember the exact #, many decades ago, but it was less than a year) but they did accept you with a precondition. throughout my career i maintained my private policy because of my initial experience in college... when my employer provided insurance I had two policies going at the same time... how absurd is that... but insurance being non-portable, was always concerned about the difficulty of going through underwriting and, over the ensuing years, saw the insurance industry become so fixated on denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions (to the point where teenage acne was a ‘preexisting condition’.) there were ‘high risk pools’ and the ability to obtain coverage through the state, and i think this was a very reasonable model... really would have been a far, far, way better basis for reform than ‘socialized, expensive Obamacare for everyone’... directing the funding to the specific population not able to access employer plan or private insurance. yes, the insurance industry is rotten, but government generally has made it even worse. most don’t realize that Medicare/Medicaid is enabled by cost shifting to the private sector and is not sustainable in its current form, let alone ‘Medicare for all including non-citizens.’ also the role of true ‘insurance’ is catastrophic coverage, not everyday ‘maintenance’ or that which you can reasonably save for... they also made ‘health savings accounts’ illegal in my blue state so just gross everything up for payment in after tax dollars... ouch.
"there were ‘high risk pools’ and the ability to obtain coverage through the state, and i think this was a very reasonable model... " Not for me it wasn't. The high risk pools in Wyoming were prohibitively expensive.
I'm not saying Obamacare was the answer, just said it was a huge improvement for people in my particular circumstance.
In an ideal world, people would be given good information about how to live a healthy, reasonable lifestyle free of influence from big Pharma, Big Ag, etc. That would make everything a whole lot less expensive right there.
As it is, the powers that be have a vested interest in keeping us sick. You think I'm exaggerating? I have a quote somewhere from a pharmaceutical industry magazine where a pharma executive says, right out loud, they could find a cure for MS tomorrow except that would endanger a valuable income stream.
My grandmother has the receipts from her Los Angeles hospital birth in 1939, she was premature and The bill was $100, her father made payments of $10. The bill we were sent for the birth of our last in 2005, absolutely no medical intervention other than the doctor catching my son, was $10,000. I was in the hospital less than 24 hours.
My mother was born in 1930, at home, with no doctor present. $0. I was born in a county hospital in 1958. A GP was present. $250. My daughter was born in a university hospital in 1994. An OB-GYN, two nurses, and an intern present. Uncomplicated birth. Discharged less than 24 hours. $24,500. If something doesn't change, my granddaughter will be born at home with no doctor present. Yep, sure is progress.
Something the bureaucracy and their brainwashed minions never discuss or think about…having insurance doesn’t guarantee access to quality, effective healthcare. It only guarantees you pay a premium.
Medical care is not the same as health care.
Sounds familiar…I think that was how my parents handled my broken arm around age 10. We obviously need to return as much as possible to this pay for service model.
The ACA of course was a huge racket after a series of ever escalating the players involved and massive costs as you detail nicely.
Reminds me of PJ O’Rourke’s timeless quip regarding the proposed Hillary-care, “If you think health care is expensive now, wait till you see how much it costs when it’s free.”
One of the costs of free medical care is one payer knows all. There is no privacy, the government knows everything you have ever had done, because they paid for it. Additionally, the socialised medical system runs by algorithm - eliminating the possibility of second opinions - because they all use the same top-down algorithm. Doctors in Australia are terrified of deviating from this algorithm in any way.
When I had a major laparotomy (before the ACÁ) and was in the hospital for three days (private room, bed for my mother who stayed with me, food, medicine, three attending physicians, a resident, pathology [tumor], anesthesiology, et al) total cost to me was a little over $2000. I was uninsured. The bill, if it had run through insurance (they gave me the references), would have been over $40,000. While I was in the hospital recovering, two representatives from charities (both religious) came to see me to ask if I needed financial assistance. This was a Catholic teaching hospital.
Compare to last year, minimally invasive arthroscopy, no overnight, no pathology, at an outpatient facility, run through insurance was nearly $15000. Uninsured cost was around $8000 (with flexible hospital provided payment plan). No insurance through the ACÁ market that was anywhere near affordable (<$500 monthly) had deductibles or out of pocket expenses less than $8000, so using insurance would have cost more after considering the premiums. This is the nightmare of insurance based healthcare.
This also doesn’t even go into the weeds of auto insurance fault medical payments or malpractice insurance. We really just need to throw out all existing regulations and start from scratch, with the patient being the absolute priority in care and protection.
True. We haven’t even discussed getting pre-approval for procedures and medications from your insurer. I have chronic Lyme’s disease. My insurance has denied several treatments and medications because they said they didn’t meet CDC treatment protocols. Fortunately, Im under the care of a functional, holistic physician, he’s able to work around all their baloney.
Doesn't help that officially they don't even acknowledge chronic Lyme exists. Have you had any luck getting your functional doctor costs covered by insurance?
We didn’t have insurance either. My mom used to take us to Edison Medical Group!
My sister lives in the Bay Area with her family and her husband’s extended family. The family has been in CA for several generations.
Right now in CA they are looking at moving to single payer healthcare in the state. The Dems have a super-super majority, so there’s really no accountability or pushback that could stop them.
If the state moves forward, the cost of SPHC would push the state income tax to 18%! And there’s a strong possibility, if passed, that medical care will be denied to the unvaccinated. My sister’s husband and his brothers are meeting in the next couple weeks to come up with a contingency plan to flee CA if that becomes reality. The family has a lot of real estate there, handed down over generations, and deep roots in the area … it would be devastating to leave everything behind, but it’s looking more and more like it’s only a matter of time.
I really hate that for her family. Washington is proposing quarantine and basically forced vaccination. Come down south, it’s not too crazy yet.
YES! I'm stuck in Washington and we're all quite nervous about tomorrow's legislative session. Mandatory vaccines in order to attend school and childcare and involuntary detainment for those that refuse to comply with testing/treatment and vaccines. I may end up in quarantine camp if this passes.
Oh no! You need to get out of there ASAP! They have lost their minds!
Don't overcomplicate this. (Awesome article, though.)
The perspective of such people is neither technical or nuanced. Let me translate into plain English:
"I want a culturally- and state- sanctioned way to kill the people I hate."
That's it. That's all this is. This is apes wanting to crush other apes' skulls with rocks except rocks are declasse this millennium.
These are people who hate you and want you dead. It's a story as old as time. Stop wasting time figuring out why. Just know the apes who want you dead, and figure out how to kill them first or get out of their reach.
This has been a public service announcement.
I'm also mocking those naive, weak people who think that taking medical insurance away from me will kill me. I'm in excellent physical condition b/c I know how to eat, I do physical work for a living and work out, not b/c I rely on doctors or drugs.
99% of "health care" is "eat right, exercise, and don't poison yourself."
This is obviously true. I said so at the beginning and at the end.
It's all true. It's simply mostly details that make it look like a legal, medical, scientific, or ethical challenge when it's just hate and violence.
Nothing you said is wrong. I'd sign up for your "let me instead reinvest my medical expenses into living a more healthful life" plan in a heartbeat. But you and I both know we won't get it, short of the Healthcare industry itself collapsing at the societal level.
You're right that I, and many others, often think logically about this. And that's misguided b/c it's so obviously all a scam.
My personal problem is that it was so obviously all a scam- every aspect of it from the NPIs to the vaccine mandates to the wet market bullshit- that I find it hard to articulate to people "how did/do you actually know and aren't just a psycho being proved provisionally right?"
I have a very dear friend who, in our entire decades-long acquaintance, I have only heard say bad words about one person (a truly evil real estate agent).
So I was shocked when, during a phone conversation recently, he said for all he cares, the unvaccinated could be refused any sort of medical treatment and they can all just die.
Society has sunk to a really deplorable state when a normally kind person could say such a thing.
It is sad.
And also deeply misinformed.
There is at least part that doesn't have to be a fantasy.
The direct payment model is growing. I found there are a lot more cash-friendly doctors than I expected. The AAPS has a search (https://aapsonline.org/direct-payment-cash-friendly-practices/), and there are others. I found clinics near near me complete with pharmacy at wholesale price. Surgical centers and more are increasingly available. Overall, I expect switching to this and a very high deductible disaster plan will cut my routine cost by a third or more. And, that's with a chronic illness requiring fairly expensive medications. Someone without an existing condition would come out even further ahead. Bonus: I get to make decisions without interference and I'm not tied to my employer's coverage or that garbage COBRA.
The establishment AMA model is a payment plan with an enormous surcharge, not insurance. It is another part of the WEF "you will own nothing" system. The good news is we have much more choice than they lead us to believe.
This makes great sense. But how does one use this approach given the ACA mandate to have insurance?
If I recall, the current penalty was cut to $0 in order to get around the supremes. Even at the $900 it was, I still come out way ahead.
I just did some checking, and yeah, it was reduced to 0 in 2018. There are 5 areas which have some form of penalty from what I see: Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia
Thanks. Though I'm in NJ. One of the fascist states.
I'd think worth checking into at least. The clinic I'm leaning towards is flat-rate $75/mo for non-smokers, $100 for smokers, unlimited visits and majorly discounted labs and meds. The flat rate makes sense for me, but there are others who are fee for service. I easily pay 4 times that for my employer plan, the difference I can slam into savings for specialists and meeting a high deductible if needed.
It's really part of a total refit of how I think about money and savings in general. I spent most of my life spending faster than I made it. I was a conditioned consumer. A few years ago I started to shift, and the covid insanity really brought it into focus. Savings is freedom and choice. It is independence when I need it most. I put away at least 20% of my income now and don't feel the least deprived. I compare wants to the security I could have instead. And it snowballs fast.