U.S. Health Care Is Even More Broken Than We Thought

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-03/u-s-health-care-is-even-more-broken-than-we-thought.html

The cover story of last week’s Time magazine wasn’t the usual fare, such as “Marco Rubio: Savior of the Republican Party.”

“Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us” is a serious, exhaustively reported piece about the scam the U.S. health-care system has become. The article, by Steven Brill, has created unusual buzz in Washington; it spares no vested interest.

Nonprofit hospitals, the cornerstone of many communities, capriciously overcharge patients, sticking the powerless with exorbitant bills, while paying lavish salaries to their executives; drug companies, which charge humongous markups to American customers, rake in huge profits; trial lawyers, with the threat of legal action, add to the cost of defensive medicine; President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act does little to bend the cost curve, and while conservatives rail against Medicare, the government-run program is more efficient and customer-friendly than the private system.

None of this is new. Yet it resonates for several reasons: Brill documents the particulars more forcefully, and, as health- care spending approaches 20 percent of the U.S. economy, almost every American is affected and the debate is politically polarizing.

When asked to respond to these charges, most of the system’s stakeholders react in similar ways: Many of these criticisms are valid -- except when it applies to us.

[pinto]

1. It's a great, well-documented piece.

[Trillo]

2. No mention of the Hospital-to-Prison pipeline? NT

[liberalhistorian]

4. I'm curious

as to what you mean by that, I haven't heard of that. I've heard of the school-to-prison pipeline, but not hospital to prison.

[Trillo]

8. Perhaps it's a part of history that has been ignored for business and profit.

Last edited Tue Mar 5, 2013, 09:54 AM - Edit history (2)

Here's but one example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Department_of_Health_and_Hospitals_Police
There appears to be a close association between hospital corporations, their staff, and police. Very similar to the calls to put armed police in schools (which has already happened in some places). Is it any different from the School to Prison pipeline?

Edit: Or how about this one:

Littleton Adventist hospital dumped psych patients to jail, feds say
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22711156/littleton-adventist-hospital-dumped-psych-patients-jail-feds

If you look around for those stories, it seems there are a lot of them. Surely there is something to this "Hospital-to-prison pipeline" pattern.

Edit2 (also changed title):

FROM PRISONS TO HOSPITALS - AND BACK :

THE CRIMINALIZATION OF MENTAL ILLNESS

I. Overview

Two hundred years ago, American jails were commonly used to house seriously mentally ill citizens. The inhumanity of that system led advocates in the 1800’s to undertake reforms in the care of the mentally ill. Modern mental hospitals run by State governments evolved in mid-20th century America with the promise of professional medical treatment and rehabilitation.

more@
http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/menbrief.html

[riderinthestorm]

3. Big K&R nt

[99Forever]

5. Please don't question our Health Care Corporations.

They have only your best interests at heart. ALL Executives are worth every penny they EARN. After all, they work really, REALLY hard, doncha know?

[Safetykitten]

6. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The nightmare is just begining.

[Egalitarian Thug]

10. Gee, if only someone had pointed this out before.

Say, about four years ago... oh, wait.

[xchrom]

11. +1

[hunter]

7. The more money flowing through the health care system...

... the more money crooks who contribute nothing to our health, who in fact are harmful to our heath, can skim off for themselves.

It's that simple.

Entire sectors of the system need to be nationalized, wealthy crooks need to be tried and thrown in prison if found guilty, and a single payer national health plan established.

[NV Whino]

9. Having read that article, and...

Last edited Mon Mar 4, 2013, 08:23 PM - Edit history (1)

Having had my own experience with the exorbitant fees my local hospital charges, I went in search of executive salaries. The hospital is nonprofit, which means all that is available to the public.

The annual report had all sorts of nice pictures and stories and one graph showing where the money (shown as percentages) came from and how it was allocated, but there was no P&L nor actual financial report to be found.

What prompted the search was the fact that they have recently layed of 40 people and the CEO'S salary is reputed to be at least a million. Also the fact that I see a Vice President of something or other wander the halls, and have yet to figure out what he does. Coincidently, he is a personal friend of the CEO's.

Color me one of the pissed off.

[Egalitarian Thug]

12. Are you here in Sin City?

I learned through tragic experience that is you're actually sick, you must get the hell out of here, even if you have to walk. If you break your leg or are shot by the cops, Vegas is health care is fine, but if you are seriously ill your odds of survival plummet faster than house prices here.

Apparently, if you graduated at the bottom of your class from a mail-order medical school, Las Vegas wants you.

[NV Whino]

15. No, Napa Valley, CA

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. Ah, good for you and thanks for answering. n/t

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

13. K&R

[Cleita]

14. Physicians for a National Health Plan have been covering this

for over a decade now, yet they were refused a seat at the table when the ACA was being debated by Congress. So what has taken the rest of the nation so long to get it?

http://www.pnhp.org