John Stossel and Whole Foods on Insurance

[ArtieBoy]

Tonight's John Stossel had an hour on ABC to defend the American healtcare industry.

He shows us some poor woman who's insurance had just ran out when she discovered she had breast cancer. Now she can't find an insurance company to take her on. She has to take chemo pills that cost $300 on a daily basis, at her own expense. Stossel had the doleful looks for her, but then the part of his report taped back at the studio explained how when people like her don't get covered...WE ALL SAVE MONEY!

Then we got some "expert" opinion from the guy who runs Whole Foods. At Whole Foods, the company gives you a heatlthcare savings account where you get...a whole $1,500 a year! That makes you more concerned about your own health, you see. What Stossel & Mr. Whole Foods failed to address is how you stretch that $1,500 to cover $300-a-day breast cancer pills.

As an aisde, I'm sure some here may defend him, but I have no use for that Whole Foods guy at all. He's nothing but your standard Texas Republican who tries to camoflauge his motives by surrounding himself with lots of "hippie-dippy" types.

Anyhow...Stossel's got it all wrong again, according to me.

[NJCher]

1. Stossel's an idiot and a sell-out, too

He has a long history of saying stupid things like what you quote in your post. I'll never forget his show on organic foods. It was full of scare tactics, like about how organic farmers grow food crops using manure as fertilizer! Now anyone who knows gardening will know why that statement is hilarious.

The jerk never seems to have heard of "composted cow manure."



Cher

[Hieronymus]

22. And so now he decides to interview the owner of a health food store. duh

[Deja Q]

2. WOw. I hope he gets cancer just after he loses his insurance.

How will he feel then? And will he continue singing the same song?

I genuinely don't wish cancer on anybody. I used it only for comparative purposes. It's easy to be un-Christian toward others, and breast cancer isn't quite something you can go out and get by choice.

Quite a society we've got; ditch the old people and everyone else saves money*. Surely the ones we ought to be listening to the most? Fortunately, John is getting up there in years too. Since the media has induced a teens-only culture for some time, anyone over 30 is rarely listened to at all. Given John's wrong in the first place, he's scored a double whammy tonight.


* and if the dollar's going down, what does that have to say about everything?

[Bolo Boffin]

3. Those healthcare accounts are a good way to handle expected expenses.

But it just can't be the only option you rely on. That's foolish.

[Yupster]

14. A health Savings Account

comes with a catastrophic policy to handle the big stuff. I have one myself.

[Bolo Boffin]

30. I don't have one.

The employers that have offered them also have offered me some great healthcare plans. I know I'm lucky in that regard. I'm single, and have very little expected healthcare, and I am lucky in that regard also. I personally have never seen the need for a HSA myself. But I can see the benefit in one, and I'm planning on getting Lasik next year, so I will probably open an account next year to make the costs manageable.

[sandnsea]

18. They're another scam

You pay money to health insurance companies, get huge deductibles so insurance never has to pay. You have to rely on your HSA, which is never enough to cover your illnesses, let alone the kind of preventive care people really need. It's a disaster and this woman with breast cancer is the exact reason why. Everybody needs full coverage.

[Bolo Boffin]

29. Don't get me wrong - we need universal single payer HI.

Until we get that, though, health savings accounts are good for people who know that they are going to go through their deductible and more in a year, or know they are going to have certain expenses (like Lasik surgery). For these people, it works out as if they'd gone to the electric company to get a flat bill every month.

I am not proposing this as the end solution. But there are definitely people who could benefit from using them now.

[sandnsea]

31. Oooh, rich people

Well sure. It always helps when rich people can shuffle money off into tax exempt accounts.

[leaninglib]

38. HSA's work for me.

I take care of the minor stuff, while my insurance is in place to cover the potential catastrophe.

[sandnsea]

42. Oooh, rich people

see above.

[glarius]

4. Did you notice Stossel never confronted Moore with any of the so-called

statistics or situations he ascribed to Canada's health care system? Michael Moore never had a chance to refute anything! The only thing Stossel said that was honest was that most Canadians like their system. That really should tell you all you need to know about whether our system works. The Canadian doctor, who no doubt would like to be making more money and the woman who went to the States for treatment (of course there will occasionally be people who fall through the cracks in a big country like this) do NOT represent the majority of our population. Stossel misrepresented the waiting times too. For serious or emergency situations people get prompt treatment. Most doctors are supportive of our system. This whole disgusting commercial for for-profit health care Stossel presented was nothing but a bad joke!

[Lasher]

28. The Canadian doctor does not represent the majority of the population....

True that. But I'll tell you who he (David Gratzer) does represent: The conservative Manhattan Institute, where he is a senior fellow. Stossel never mentioned that little tidbit.

Summary: Good Morning America aired a preview of John Stossel's "Whose Body is it Anyway? Sick in America," which contained an interview with one expert, David Gratzer, whom Stossel identified only as an author and "Canadian doctor." Stossel failed to note that Gratzer is a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute or that the World Health Organization ranks Canada and Great Britain -- whose nationalized health systems he criticized for their long waits -- ahead of the United States in its ranking of world health systems. At the end of Stossel's report, Diane Sawyer told him: "It is so hard to get perspective on this. Thank heaven you're doing it."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200709150001?f=i_related

There's lots of people who don't like Canada's health care system. But I have noticed that almost none of them are Canadians.

[AX10]

5. I won't be shopping at Waco Foods anytime soon.

Libertarians can be worse than Republicans. Those around here who idolize Ron Paul better understand that he is anti-universal affordable healthcare, for privatizing social security, and would gut workplace safety standards. There is more than just this to him too.

[PlanetBev]

6. God, I hate Stossel

After he did that hit piece on John Edwards in 2004, my hate for that corporate sock puppet is infinite.

Hope he gets jungle rot of the crotch.

[Gabi Hayes]

8. if you haven't seen this, you're in for a treat. If you have, you're in for a treat....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35wyVQxXUA

[Mojorabbit]

9. I feel guilty

that I enjoyed that so much.

[fob]

10. How much would it cost to have that run on an infinite loop at the top

of at least the main page of DU?

"That's an open hand slap! You think that's fake? Where you going?"

Sleeveless T-shirt $5

Wrestling trunks $20

Slapping john stossell upside the head. Twice. Effing Priceless!!

[Kingshakabobo]

44. One of my all time favorite YouTube clips.......it DID, in fact, cost 400K.

Mr. Libertarian clogged up the court system with his frivolous law-suit. Something about a burst ear-drum.:rofl:

[Frank Cannon]

37. One of the great moments in television history

On days when I'm feeling low, I watch that video of Stossel getting his bell rung and I'm able to turn a frown upside-down.

[Wapsie B]

7. Stossel has sold out to the conservative movement long ago.

His objectivism fell by the wayside with the rise of the neocon movement. How dare we live in a country that is supposedly the greatest country in the world while we cannot provide the most basic levels of healthcare to its citizens. Stossel is just one of many who sees a fertile ground to explore in the conservative movement in this country.

[Fading Captain]

11. I love the Whole Foods salad bar

But god damn it, if they;re gonna charge top dollar (and then some), maybe they could can the glitzy decor and pay their workers.

Fuckers.

Never seen so many fucking Subarus in one parking lot.

[man4allcats]

12. I only went to Whole Foods a couple of times several years

ago and hated it. Bunch of flies in the store (hey, insects are "all natural"), and the service was terrible! I never went back.

[bullwinkle428]

13. Stossel was shoveling up the shit, chock full o'extra shitberries tonight!!

I could only stand so much of before I had to change the channel - he was serving up all kinds of crap, including some of the world's richest/most famous people coming to the U.S. for treatment, insisting we would never have new drugs without the profit motive in place, claiming that everyone would be running to the emergency room in the middle of the night if they suddenly discovered they had a hangnail... :mad:

[LibDemAlways]

19. How about the segment with the doc who doesn't accept

insurance and hands his patients a menu with prices for his various services. Let's see. The $50.00 splinter removal is within my budget. I'll have one of those, please. I'll just have to live with the cancer. Too pricey for me.

Oh, and the Whole Foods employees who are tickled pink that they have to pay for their own health care because now they are savvy consumers who ask what a procedure costs first. Hello, doctor. I'm having intense chest pains and I can't breathe. What do you charge to treat a heart attack? That much? Thanks, anyway.

Truly asinine. Stossel has out-Stosseled himself on this one.

[ThatsMyBarack]

45. "Chock full o'extra shitberries!"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[riverdeep]

15. For those who had the stomach/masochist tendencies to watch,

was Michael Moore on live? Did he get a chance to defend?

[Hieronymus]

16. I emailed Whole Foods to say I didn't know the CEO was a right

wing nut, and that I won't be shopping there.

[question everything]

17. He had some valid points, the others were sheer demagogery

Comparing health care to buying steaks? Or cars?

It is true that associating heath insurance to jobs is unhealthy. And it is true, in my mind, that one reason for the increase in health care costs is that most of us have no idea of the cost. We pay our deductibles and our co-payments and that's it.

And I don't think that anyone is holding it against the actual providers: doctors, nurses, technicians - to earn a decent living to, yes, making it rich, even. What most of us are mad at are the CEOs of the insurance companies that basically shuffle papers yet are making millions while they cut down on the doctors' reimbursements.

[Deja Q]

32. Well, if tv shows of the 1970s made a satire of the cost of a kleenex and an aspirin,

how much more does it cost for one aspirin today?

[Raine]

20. Stossel is an IDIOT

he always twist everything to fit his screwy view of things. :silly:

[LeftCoast]

21. In other words, Stossel is saying we ration health care based on ability to pay AND

that's a good thing.

Having seen other examples of Stossel's 'journalism' this doesn't surprise me in the least though.

[LibDemAlways]

23. Just as bad was the implication that a quick visit to

a nurse in a shopping mall "medi-stop" is all people really need to cure what ails them. No mention of the cost of diagnosing and treating a chronic illness. He dwelt on the minor stuff, pretending that all doctors do is treat ear infections and sore throats and that those symptoms are never signs of a more serious condition. It was a complete waste of an hour.

[LeftCoast]

25. 'Medi-stop' clinics are great, but they're not a substitute for insurance

What Stossel fails to realize is that we all pay higher costs because of uneven health care coverage. People that have long-term health problems such as diabetes or hypertension (high blood pressure) can ring up massive hospital bills if they don't get regular treatment. Hypertension for example, when untreated, leads to heart attacks, kidney failure, stroke. Any one of these can trigger an ER visit which will quickly lead to huge costs with the added insult of a poor outcome for the patient.

Even though the patient can't pay, those costs don't just vanish. They're passed on to all of us, either through higher premiums or through taxes.

[booley]

24. Disapointed that Whole Foods would buy into this crap

But then I use Whole Foods for..food. Not health care.

Besides that stossel is a grade A asshole, I am alaso continually annoyed at the way cons mispresent an issue.

Health insurence simply isn't like other insurence. You can't wait or do without good health, you can't simply stop living for a while or get a cheaper life. Disease simply doesn't care about costs.

[killbotfactory]

26. 18,000 PEOPLE A YEAR DEAD FROM LACK OF HEALTH INSURANCE

Every fucking goddamn year we go without universal health insurance.

Maybe Stossel can help convince their families what a good thing we've all got, while he helps bury them.

[Gonzo Gardener]

27. I had to turn it off

I can't stomach that much bullshit, ACK!

:puke:




Did Michael really get a chance to say anything?!!

:shrug:

[Sanctified]

33. Whole Foods gives free health insurance to their full time employees

in addition to the $1,500 wellness account. I can't see how this could possibly be a problem, I have never had an employer who gave me free insurance nor $1500 to pay for deductibles.

[sandnsea]

34. High deductibles = no preventative care

Early diagnosis and follow-up is key to reducing health care costs. These programs discourage medical care. People send money into an insurance company they don't get benefits from, put money into accounts for other people to make investment income from, and don't get health care in the process. Helluva scam.

[Sanctified]

35. A thousand dollar deductible is not that bad.

If you are getting $1500 a year you can easily meet the deductible and if you don't spend the money it rolls over to the next year. The other benefit is you can use that money for stuff most health insurance wouldn't cover like acupuncture and chiropractors.

[sandnsea]

36. Health care isn't an investment vehicle

Yet people will use it that way. They won't go to the doctor when they should in order to save the money. The more that gets saved up, the less people will want to use it. This is only beneficial for upper income people looking for another tax exempt shelter. Most people would be much better off with a traditional health insurance policy with a reasonable deductible and the HSA money going into a defined benefit retirement plan. They'd actually be better off with 100% health coverage through a percentage of their income, but people who have never had free health care generally can't comprehend the benefit of it.

[Sanctified]

43. I worked for a company that allowed you to invest in healthcare savings accounts.

They did not supply the money but would let you put the money in tax free and spend it on health care items that insurance did not cover. I used it all the time, I never tried to see how much money I could accrue in it because you could only use it on health care. I used it for Dr. Visits, Medication, Eye Glasses and Dental work and I used it regularly.

I just can't see the problem here, Whole Foods is offering a better insurance plan to their employees than most people get and they are getting kicked in the nuts simply because they have a $1000 deductible.

[sandnsea]

46. Paying more for less

You must never have known anything different, that's all I can figure. You used to get good benefits without having to pay the extra money into the HSA. Your premium paid for care. Now you're getting catastrophic insurance, which used to be dirt cheap and considered a scam - but you're paying top dollar for it. And paying for your routine care on top of it.

It's like 401K's. If you happen to get lucky and retire at the top of the market, great. If not, you took the risk you're entire working life, and don't even have a guaranteed retirement the way past generations had. And we gave it up willingly.

*sigh*

Life does work out perfectly for just enough people that the rest of us have to suffer the consequences for their lottery win.

[leaninglib]

39. High deductibles = You take care of the nickle-dime stuff,

while your insurance is in place to cover the potential catastrophe.

It's only way to go.

[sandnsea]

40. You avoid check-ups

and ignore early warnings. That's what it means.

$100 doctors visits, tests, medications - I love how anybody can call that nickel dime stuff. You obviously live in a different world than half the country.

[Solon]

47. That nickle and dime stuff can BANKRUPT the average person...

Especially if they have a chronic condition or more than one emergency a year. Hell, one of the first families that Michael Moore interviewed in SiCKO was a husband and wife who lost their house because they couldn't pay the deductibles, she developed breast cancer, and he had a heart attack, if memory serves me correctly.

[sendero]

41. Stossel is a Libertarian..

....and Libertarians are some sick puppies.