Karl Denninger has produced this video presentation that lays it on the line about how medical costs are crippling the US economy and our government’s budget. He hasn’t made up a thing – he uses official US government figures. You need to watch this, carefully.
Makes you think, doesn’t it?
Of course, there’s the question of how to do it. Our current crop of politicians won’t – they’ve been bought and paid for by corporate lobbyists. Just look at the top ten business sectors in terms of how much they spent on lobbying in the 2014 fiscal year. Four out of the top ten are medical groups. If you think they’re throwing away tens of millions of dollars each year out of the goodness of their hearts, you need help.
The only way we’re going to change this is to hold our representatives and Senators accountable. Tell them, bluntly, that we won’t support them for re-election unless they do something to fix this; and then act on that promise when the time comes. Insist that those who want to replace them should commit to doing something about this problem, and un-elect them in their turn if they fail to keep their promises.
Of course, that would require an informed, involved, active electorate . . . something that’s in short supply in this country right now.
Peter
Sadly true… and those figures ARE low!
There is a bit of a disconnect in that video, though.
While list prices for medical services run about ten times what they ought to be… that's at least partly because the third-party payers have special deals (those conspiracies in restraint of trade) to pay only 10% of list.
Medicare is an active participant in this.
So, returning list prices to sanity, and eliminating the special deals for third-party payers, might not reduce Medicare spending at all.
(Then factor in some of the horror stories one hears about Medicaid paying providers below actual cost, and one might suspect that a massive dose of sunlight is required, to determine where all the money is actually going.)