Soaring cost of healthcare sets a record

[bemildred]

Source: LA Times

Reporting from Washington - In a stark reminder of growing costs, the government has released a new estimate that healthcare spending grew to a record 17.3% of the U.S. economy last year, marking the largest one-year jump in its share of the economy since the government started keeping such records half a century ago.

The almost $2.5 trillion spent in 2009 was $134 billion more than the previous year, when healthcare consumed 16.2% of the gross domestic product, according to an annual report by independent actuaries at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, scheduled for release Thursday.

The nonpartisan accounting agency also projected that as early as next year, the country could mark another milestone as government picks up more than half of the nation's total healthcare tab for the first time.

The rise in current costs, driven in part by surging spending in Medicare and Medicaid, and the bleak projections for the future do not take into account changes that may come if Democrats revive their healthcare overhaul legislation.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-healthcare4-2010feb04,0,1362585.story

[Rozlee]

1. I'm lovin' it !

I just finished getting into a fight with a winger at this mission that we volunteer at here in San Antonio. She said that she agreed with the Heritage Foundation that we just needed to reduce
spending on healthcare and I pointed out that since she's almost 76, did that mean that she wanted
her Medicare cut so that she couldn't afford to have more doctor's visits and to be kicked out into
the streets when her kids couldn't afford to keep her at home since they all work and she'd need a nursing home and no dinero in the government for it? Wingers hate it when you point out to them how
dependent they are on the government. My day has just been made!

:evilgrin:

[Beavker]

7. Check out Krugman's link to the American Prospect

On his blog...though it would created all sorts of Human tragedy to do this widespread, I'd love Obama to just do this nationwide. Go on National TV and say okay, so you Tagbaggers don't want the Government involved, and that the GOP is right. We'll find out how Corporate America treats you as you fend for yourself for a month. All Government funding has now stopped. Go pay for it yourself...

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=02&year=2010&base_name=when_i_first_became_a#118279

[lonestarnot]

14. That could awaken a few.

:D

[JHB]

58. Very few: check the comments there...

They're blaming public employee unions (and the pensions and health care coverage negotiated by same) for the red ink.

[loudsue]

60. They should be blaming, for one, the thieves who are overcharging medicare

and stealing billions every month. All they need to do is start treating thieves of government money and over-billing like they do some poor dude with a couple of ounces of pot....throw 'em in jail forever....and there would be a whale of a lot of medicare money left over to actually help people.

When the government does not prosecute the biggest white collar crooks, it destroys the entire system.

[apnu]

61. ...or the private health insurance industry in general...

... My, Republican controlled, non-union, free-market solves all, loves all company just had their health insurance rates jump 40% across the board. The Excuse from Blue Cross/Blue Shield? "To off-set the coming costs of the HCR bill, and bring us in compliance with the bill." This was in the House at the time, this happened before the Senate shit bill. For my family, my insurance jumped a whopping $600/month, or I had to take a really crappy HMO that none of our doctors (especially my son's pediatrician) would touch. We even looked around our neighborhood at other doctors and none of them would touch any BC/BS HMO plan.

Now, at my company, we have nobody, on the company plan, that is chronically ill or has an expensive condition to treat. The owner of the company, his daughter has leukemia but he pays for his own insurance (because he hates any of our plans), and the president of the company is diabetic, but his wife has a nice union backed plan that is 100% better than anything we have here, so his meds are on that plan.

Which brings me to this point: BC/BS just jacked our rates because they can.

[newtothegame]

22. She probably hates that she ever let herself get dependent on the government.

It's left her virtually helpless.

[me b zola]

27. That's what Boner, Rush and any other republican would say

I guess you forgot your :sarcasm: tag.

[No Elephants]

62. I doubt the poster forgot the sarcasm emote.

Some screen names just stick out, based on the consistency of their posts.

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. and what was her reply?

[Rozlee]

37. What else? She stomped off. There never is a reply with these people.

She'll probably be at the next Tea Party with a sign reading: KEEP YOUR GOVERNMENT HANDS OFF MEDICARE. The irony is too delicious.

[No Elephants]

63. You're right. They never do reply when you get to them. I've not

consciously noted that. But, now that you mention it, yes. That's what happens. They just shut up.

[EFerrari]

55. I can't imagine saying anything like that to a 75 year old person

or how my day would be "made" that way.

[hunter]

2. Our Congress is absolutely terrified of disrupting the current health care system.

That's a huge chunk of our economy, and a huge part of their campaign financing.

Congress would rather make it mandatory for everyone to buy into this broken and corrupt system than implement any true health care reform such as opening up and improving the medicare system to everyone.

Our current health care "system" is like a giant tumor on the body of our economy, and it even controls our media.

"...driven in part by surging spending in Medicare and Medicaid..."??? I think not. The increases in Medicare and Medicaid costs are a direct consequence of the cancerous rot in the profit driven health care industry itself.

[phantom power]

9. +=1

[Juche]

13. There is some truth to that

We are getting older, so more people are on medicare. Not only that but we are getting poorer with fewer jobs offering health benefits, so more medicaid enrollment since people who used to get insurance at work are forced to rely on medicaid.

I think those 2 programs & SCHIP cost a trillion dollars a year in state & federal spending.

[daleanime]

16. Yes there is 'some' truth to that...

but it's a small sliver compared to the record profits that insurance companies have been racking up, not to mention the insane levels of compensation for the upper positions in those companies.


Single payer-still the best program for this nation.:bounce:

[Juche]

20. Single payer would save $400 billion a year

Plus if it was run intelligently it would dramatically slow the rate of medical expense growth by rewarding better health rather than the most expensive medications and procedures, which our current system does.

Insurance profits aren't really the problem IMO. It is the fact that our system is structured to reward the most expensive interventions possible. Pharma reps try to push doctors to prescribe drugs that cost $500 a month that do not work better than the drugs that cost $4 a month. We need to financially reward good health and cost saving interventions rather than reward racking up the highest bills possible. Our current system is backwards.

But either way, I'm not badmouthing medicare or medicaid. I'm just saying more people are relying on those programs that in the past, so naturally their costs will go up.

[daleanime]

23. True, true...

Now, how do we get there? And I admit that I do tend to be a bit 'knee-jerk' about the profits, but that's because I see it as the rust on the wheel keeping us going where we need to. Stop rewarding 'the most expensive interventions'? No that would hurt our profits. Go to single payer and save lives and a large part of the national debt? No it would hurt our profits. Congress has shown time and again that they will take money now over the will of the American People.

We write letters, we make phone calls, we donate sweat and money(last August during the town halls some of us came close to donating blood) but it does no good.

Didn't mean to unload on you but it's getting really discouraging.


:rant:

[No Elephants]

64. You're on the money. (No pun intended.) Our calls and emails are ignored.

I get a form letter reply. Most of the time I hear nothing back. The idea that my communications are actually affecting anyone's vote would be a delusion.

Corporate money makes our donations a joke--and that is before the Citizens United case.

There's only one other way I can think of.

[BrklynLiberal]

51. and the irony is that they make these huge profits merely by standing between patients and their

treatments. They provide NOTHING that could not be achieved by direct contact between patient and doctor...

They are middlemen who make millions merely by standing in the middle and collecting money from each side.

Their only goals are to maintain a huge profit and to maintain their own existence.

[valerief]

30. I'll bet some of them also don't want "the brakes to fail" on their cars. nt

[rfranklin]

3. Have they never heard of "cost controls?"

Health care seems to be treated like "defense" spending--no limits. We pay 30-40% more than most civilized countries for health care and get results that are far down the scale in comparison. When will the insanity stop?

[dotymed]

6. It is amazing.

We are the only "civilized" nation with Corporate financed elections. Since the SCOTUS sell out, now more than ever. We are the only "civilized" nation who does not negotiate pharmaceutical costs. We are the only "civilized" nation that does not have a National Health care service that provides health care for all of it's citizen's. We are the only nation in the world whose health care costs are even close to 20% of it's GDP. Does anything jump out at you? :wtf:

[skyounkin]

25. Also, aren't we the only

civilized country that has an "electoral college"?

Everyone else wins because they got the most votes.

Popular vote NOW!

[No Elephants]

65. How would that fix rising health care costs?

[skyounkin]

71. Didn't say it would

just building on thoughts from the poster I replied to.

[alp227]

38. That's "American exceptionalism" right there.

We're the only civilized nation in the world doing all these things, yet we're letting Canada and European nations kick our asses in health care and education! I wonder how the atrocities you described are worth celebrating with fireworks every July 4.

[daleanime]

18. "Cost controls"?

That's somebody's profit your talking about!:puke: :sarcasm: :banghead:

[valerief]

31. Badda bing!!!!

[inna]

44. Actually, we pay TWICE as much per capita - while we are the only

industrialized country that doesn't provide universal health care to all of its citizens.

[groundloop]

4. And take a look at "socialist" countries like France, Switzerland, German, etc.

Those countries all spend around 10 or 11 percent of GDP on healthcare, yet manage to have a healthier population than the US.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. they should try decreasing costs that hospitals, doctors' offices charge

the price of medical equipment and mediciines is astronomical and there is no need to charge this. $100 for a pair of support stockings!!!!

[dotymed]

10. $20.00 for a box of tissues

that you leave at the hospital!!!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

36. S100 a stitch!

I don't know where they get $400-$1000 for a scan?

[dotymed]

48. Then.....to really humiliate us...

they give huge discounts to Insurance companies and charge uninsured individuals 5x more. The people who cannot afford basic care are charged 5x more than the insured......it should be just the opposite.

[hunter]

11. In the current system those who can pay subsidize those who can't.

The problem is there is a whole chain of greedy middlemen standing between them. By the time the $3 support stockings get to those who can pay they've been marked up $97 by middlemen who contribute absolutely nothing to the patient's care.

With any kind of reasonable health care system we might pay $6 for the stockings -- $3 for the stockings we need, and $3 in taxes for the stockings of our brothers and sisters who can't afford them.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

24. Yes, the middleman - I don't want to have to pay $100 for support stockings

especially when you need to replace them every 6 months and need at least 2 pairs.

That's $400 per year for support stockings! They are just made of elastic material!

[pattmarty]

8. Medicare for all!!!!!!!!

[valerief]

32. Now you're talking! nt

[avaistheone1]

33. Absolutely - now is our time!

[jtrockville]

49. +1: The only true solution is also the simplest.

[pattmarty]

70. AND, also much cheaper, by the way.

[madokie]

12. Trying to get in before the bell

[SOS]

15. US life expectancy now nearly as high as Cuba!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

[FarLeftFist]

17. Well at least the Dems always have the old....

"I told you so" mantra.

[No Elephants]

68. How about our "then why didn't you do the right thing in 2009, when you had the chance" mantra?

[grahamhgreen]

19. NO SENATE BILL. Medicare for all, or strong public option minimum.

[Blue_Tires]

21. someone ought to make THAT into a super bowl commercial

[rschop]

26. Japan has better care at 1/3 the cost

Japan has better health care and a much longer life expectancy that the US at 1/3 the cost of the American health care system. No other country has costs that are more than 1/2 our costs. Greedy doctors and out of control hospitals are absolutely raping our health system, and we are all going broke as a result.

Let’s have Japan or France take over our health care system, we are clearly too stupid or corrupt to ever run our own health care system.

[hunter]

34. It's not doctors and hospitals. Give me a break.

It's all the damned corporations gaming the system.

Kill the health insurance industry dead, reign in the pharmaceutical industry, and costs will fall dramatically.

As it stands now we don't have enough doctors because most are not paid what they are worth. The situation would be much, much worse if not for all the foreign doctors who arrive here without the staggering student debts U.S. trained doctors are burdened with.

Most hospitals are squeezed tight by the corporate financial gaming. Those hospitals that don't pay up and play get closed.

"Greedy doctors and out of control hospitals" are not the problem. That's a myth promoted by those who profit most from the corruption of our health care industry.

[No Elephants]

67. I spent 2 nights (3 days, though) in the hospital. The only meds were those I take

at home--vitamins and Nexium. Nothing fancy or expensive.

Never saw anyone above the level of resident, though the resident probably was in touch with her physician by phone. (It was over Thanksgiving.) I had an MRI. They thought I had a bowel obstruction. Turned out, they were wrong. I was released. No surgery, no treatment of any kind, just blood tests that were probably also unnecessary and the resident and intern dropping by daily.

Bill was over $12,000.

I don't think that's right.

[Cali_Democrat]

35. Greedy doctors and out of control hospitals? Bullshit.

The problem is covering the costs that the DRUG and INSURANCE COMPANIES are charging. The insurance companies provide no real benefit to our health care system except to skim dollars off of it. The doctors and hospitals provide real services.

[superconnected]

41. +1

[No Elephants]

69. Please see Reply # 67 and some of the other replies on this thread mentioning

specific charges.

Many hospitals simply are not chivalrous knights anymore.

[wordpix]

28. biggest issues here:

1) People are living longer, but often at the detriment of their quality of life. Example: when my dad was in intensive care, at one point he wanted to sign a do not resuscitate/no breathing tube/no extraordinary measures document but my stepmom wouldn't let him. He ended up getting two more major surgeries that killed him within 2 wks, at a very expensive cost to taxpayers. And why? He was of sound mind when he decided to give up on life, and he would have had a better end-of-life to not have the surgeries.

2) Docs and hospitals bill tremendous amounts of money for doing little. One doc billed my mom for an emergency dept. visit on a minor matter, and also billed for what he did while treating her. The hospital also billed for the ED visit. And she was billed $5 for one Tylenol. These high costs are passed onto Medicare and her AARP insurance, making her premiums quite high and costing taxpayers way too much.

3) Cost of drugs is absurd. Drug reimportation NOW!

[alp227]

39. Email this to your representatives!

They need to wake up and smell the pepper. It's about time that they stop dancing with lobbyists and start basing their legislative actions on the truth and what's good for the PEOPLE.

[Uncle Joe]

40. I wonder where our current global ranking in health care is among the developed world,

surely we must be number 1 by now?:shrug:

Thanks for the thread, bemildred.

[inna]

43. We were #37 in 2000, according to the WHO (which no longer

"produces such a ranking table, because of the complexity of the task" : http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html ) ...

During the last 10 years, the situation only deteriorated, so our current global ranking is undoubtedly even lower than #37. :(

Of course, we are the only industrialized country in the world that doesn't guarantee/provide health care to all of its citizens.

[Uncle Joe]

45. Thanks inna, but that seems like a specious reason for the WHO to discontinue

their rankings.

I wonder if they were pressured by the major contributor; U.S. (Bush Administration) to the UN to stop publishing inconvenient truths regarding global health care as this could stimulate serious reform which in turn would have an adverse effect on for profit "health" insurance corporations' bottom lines?

[BrklynLiberal]

52. There is no good news..

37 out of 50
http://www.washington.edu/alumni/columns/dec07/content/view/79/1/1/5/

US life expectancy #42 worldwide
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/933429/united_states_life_expectany_ranking.html?cat=5

preventable deaths. US worst
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN07651650

infant mortality
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db23.htm

[mbperrin]

42. Single payer would solve all of this.

Save a ton of money and provide real healthcare, too.

[slay]

46. K&R for Single Payer!

:kick: Go Alan Grayson woo-hoo! :bounce:

[ezmerelda39]

47. what else is new?

The article doesn't mention the possibility of the overall medical industry raising prices on everything in light of medical reform being on the agenda..just preparing for the worst, you see. Nor does it mention the increased profit percentages earned. Just what is the point here? It certainly cannot be that we are all seeking more and more care, in fact the opposite is true. Always nice to blame it on the nasty entitlement programs. Just preparing us for when they are no longer available, you see.

[lovuian]

50. We can't keep this up

Soon we will have to make a decision
Health or the Military

something has to give

[donheld]

53. My insurance (health) will either go up 300% or I'll have to settle for a lesser policy

:grr:

[suede1]

54. But, but - nazi!, socialism, communism! birth certificate! death panels! best heathcare in

the world! That is what matters.

Or so Faux told me.

[tclambert]

56. Hey, maybe we should have some sort of Health Care Reform!

If it costs so much and still doesn't cover every American, and every other industrialized country--every single one of them--covers everybody but spends less than America does, it just seems reasonable that we ought to, you know, change how we do things.

Ah, hell. Maybe in one of the parallel universes just a quantum or two away, that America has Universal Medicare.

[deacon]

57. And the GOP solution? Do NOTHING. Offer NOTHING. Just "no." Bastids. n/t

[No Elephants]

66. Dems been in control all year. What was their solution?

[4_TN_TITANS]

59. A great article in the local paper from the AP last night

pointed out that despite all the bruhaha over a government take over of healthcare, the damn government is STILL having to fork out 50% of the health care costs in the country.