The Rattlesnakes Are In Congress And The Hospital

And the Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries,

The story linked to provides an egregious example of why I am so adamant that ACA (Obamacare) is not worthy of being called reform. Any form of so called single payer systems will also have the same basic defect of overcharging and price gouging that is rampantly prevalent throughout the entire system.

So long as the medical industry in the United States enjoys protection from prosecution under the Sherman, Clayton and Robinson-Patman acts there exists no free market able to discover true price point or economic value in any real sense.

The political class, media and all manner of special interest groups propagandize that the "problem" is insurance affordability which is a Trojan horse that keeps the true nature of the problem from being tackled.

The true problem is unfettered Corruption, Price Collusion, Price Fixing, Price Gouging, No Fixed Pricing Quote, Charging Differently for Services ad nauseum which in turn make care unaffordable for uninsured patients and care for insured patients very expensive through inflated premiums.

The Rattlesnakes are in Congress and Hospitals

Robinson-Patman makes illegal price discrimination among like kind and quantity purchasers. Since the consumer of the commodity in question (rattlesnake antivenom) is the person who got bit (irrespective of how he or she pays) that appears facially to be a violation of said federal law.

The Sherman and Clayton Acts make any organized act to restrain trade or fix prices a federal felony carrying both criminal and (very large) civil penalties. By design the "health insurance" system fixes prices when on a statistical basis nobody could possibly pay the asking price without said "insurance."

If a majority of Americans understood the criminality of the entire medical industry and demanded true reform including jail terms for the most egregious then medical care would once again be in reach of most peoples budgets and only require low cost catastrophic insurance. Government paid care for the poor or indigents would not threaten to bankrupt the country in a matter of years and the Medicaid/medicare programs would stay solvent and affordable.

Calling for more insurance benefits under the current circumstances just feeds the beast.

a reply to: Phoenix

they totally pulled the wool over the public's eyes, marketing this as "reform"..

then to take it further, I see people saying "Obamacare is bringing healthcare to X number of people who didn't get it before"

LOL Okay.. anyone spitting out those numbers/facts obviously doesn't understand what Obamacare is all about. It's another racket, it creates more hurdles to jump through for a lot of people, and the simple fact of the matter is that it's all about the bottom line $$$$$$$$$$$

When will people finally wake up and question the BS they are being fed? For Pete's Sake

grrrrr
double post

a reply to: FamCore

Hoodwinked is a good term, the lobby controlling politicians is one of the largest if not the largest in Washington and each Statehouse.

The reform I'm looking for should have been something a Democratic "party for the little people" candidate should have championed - funny how that industry had the ACA all written, tied up, wrapped and ready to go though.

a reply to: Phoenix

$153,161 for a rattle snake bite.... and apparently there are 7,000 to 8,000 of these a year (according to CDC) Washington Post

That would mean between $ 1 billion, 72 million and $ 1 billion, 225 million dollars annually for rattlesnake treatments (if they were all billed to these amounts)

Talk about a scam.... wow that really puts it into perspective.

Tell me how a doctor working less than 20 hours a week gets paid $800,000 a year? Oh yeah, that's how.

I work at a very reputable hospital in New England and will tell you that they truly make a "killing" on the smallest of things. Very, very sickening

You know President Obama , Nancy Pelosi , Harry Reid ,had the best interest of the people in mind and can do no wrong.

a reply to: Phoenix

People are starting to figure out the criminality.

Think they might reform? No way. It's cheaper to pay traitor politicians to force mandatory treatments at gunpoint.
The clamp down is coming and the knuckle-dragging thug army is ready to do what they do best.

a reply to: InverseLookingGlass

Kina why I brought this to attention. People are caught up in arguing about something one should consider a symptom rather than getting to the root cause of high costs.

They're so proud of all the people who now have health insurance.

More to the point they're overjoyed they have even more customers to rape.

All enforced by the IRS!

Talk about a scam for private industry profits.

a reply to: FamCore

I also have inside knowledge of just how screwed up the billing is amongst hospitals, doctors, patients and insurers.

Because of that knowledge I've never once believed in the direction politicians went with so called reform.

When all it ended up being was further entrenchment of all that was wrong before reform.

All they did was throw a few bones out to public but in the main business as usual.

Btw, I think saw recent story that said same snake venom antidote was 400-500 dollars in Mexico.