Riddle me this about the US healthcare system

quote:

---

So, if all this is true….where is our money going?

---

Short answer? Politicians.

Long answer? Middlemen, bankers, lawyers and politicians

quote:

---

So, if all this is true….where is our money going? Somebody is making bank, yet almost groups within the healthcare industry say their bank account is barren.

---

HMOs and insurance companies are making bank.

quote:

---

Only alternative explanation is that Americans are unhealthy as hell and their treatment is where all the money is going

---

Poor Americans are unhealthy as hell so the middle class and wealthy pay for their treatment.


Our current insurance model is absurd. Most doctor visits should be paid out of pocket and insurance should be reserved for major injury or illness.

I'll bet a big part of it is medical malpractice insurance. That, and Medicare pays health providers pennies on the dollar on their billing. That said, they aren't poor. They just think they should be making more than they do.

quote:

---

Only alternative explanation is that Americans are unhealthy as hell and their treatment is where all the money is going

---

Even with low margins the problem with health insurance could be the bureaucratic bloat. Medical billing departments alone within provider systems is a whole other bureaucratic mess.

I would say that you might be able to draw a parallel between the medical system and public education. School boards can eat up a lot of funds before the actual educators and schools themselves are factored in. Same with the medical system. The actual providers of care get crowded out by all the non care related labor in the system.

What about all the uninsured going to the ER? That is being paid for by everyone else.

Check to see what U.S. hospital administrators make compared to the rest of the industrialized world. Not a bad gig for paper pu$her$

quote:

---

Only alternative explanation is that Americans are unhealthy as hell and their treatment is where all the money is going

---

This is part of it and why RFK (who I’m sure you hate) should receive a lot more support than he has. He’s the first person in my lifetime in such a high profile role seeking to treat the cause instead of the symptoms.

Fraud / overtesting

Coding / billing

Naming rights for stadiums

Insurance Companies period

quote:

---

This is in regards to the nurse strike up in Massachusetts

Americans pay up the wazoo for their health insurance, yet:

1) nurses cry poor
2) doctors cry poor (sometimes)
3) hospitals regularly write to congress claiming they are losing money
4) health insurance profit margins are usually only 5-10%, in line with economy-wide returns.


So, if all this is true….where is our money going? Somebody is making bank, yet almost groups within the healthcare industry say their bank account is barren.


Only alternative explanation is that Americans are unhealthy as hell and their treatment is where all the money is going

---

Good post. Part of the issue is drug companies. That whole system needs to be looked at. Taxpayers pay for the research and then the pharmaceutical companies act like they need to recoup all that money. Gross oversimplification but you get the point.

Ask anyone in the business and you will get it all boiled down to:

1. lawsuit prevention cost a trillion dollars and provides poorer care to the patient.

2. Insurance companies dictating what they will pay for, which often leads to crap like you have to exhaust all of these treatments before they will pay for surgery when the patient and the doctor both knew it was going to end with surgery in the end. Wasted money. More pain and suffering for the patient.

Throw on top of all that the pharmacutical companies have taken over what doctors are being taught in school now. The mantra is now why fix what you can treat for a lifetime!