21st Century Health Care in America: Paying More, Getting Less?

With the ongoing challenges which are now being raised in many states throughout the nation regarding the recent passage of the Obama Administration's Health Care Reform Act, this boomer has watched the progression in health care delivery from the 1960's to today, and can truthfully say that while costs have exploded in those four decades, the degree of care for the American public overall has seen better days.

In order to reduce costs for many of the public and private health care clinics and hospitals, more and more Americans are not receiving the care they deserve, but what will reduce the bottom lines for the nationalized corporatized health care system that is predominant across the nation after Nixon's HMO legislation passed in the 60's. Many even public clinics and hospitals are now "owned" through various contracts by "private" corporate entities as they have become privatized, even after their initial building costs and research grants were funded by the American public.

Upon even emergency room visits, more and more patients are being seen initially by not medical doctors or those with advanced diagnostic degrees, but by physician's assistants or other support staff but at costs that far exceed those fees and charges in the past for trained physicians and without the expertise to accurately diagnose complex medical conditions.

Throughout many states, there are even signs posted at many of these emergency clinics and hospitals advising that they are not accepting new Medicare patients. Thus, the future for the boomers and their offspring at this point in America's history has not even begun to be addressed by those in Washington or at the state levels in just why health care costs have risen so out of proportion to the cost of living even though the entire HMO concept and "free market" privatized clinics were sold to the public in order to reduce costs and provide better care when that legislation was proposed back in the 60's.

Instead, it has resulted in numerous trips to several different doctors or providers in order to get accurate diagnosis, or physicians more geared toward treating the symptoms rather than the disease and using medications which many times create even more problems or different health issues in concert due to drug interactions and complications.

Changes are needed, but not the changes that Washington appears to be focused on in merely consulting the "stakeholders" in corporatized medicine. But the American public that is paying a larger share than ever before for their health care costs, both nonemergency and emergency.

How much of the health care dollars now provided by the taxpayers and insurers are now being earmarked for all those ads on television mostly directed toward choosing a hospital for maternity and childbirth needs? Or elective procedures?

Or advertising their facilities and services for non-English speaking patients for all those federal and state grant monies in providing care for non-citizens at the general public's ultimate expense? Or the increased costs in those ten to twenty page bills passed on to the public for those highly paid lobbyists at the state capitols and Washington?

It appears to this boomer in the end, the Health Care Reform Act is more similar to the mandatory auto insurance laws throughout the nation, with the same mindset and ultimate costs in increased taxation for all in passing on governmental functions, such as the settlement of property claims, or life and death issues to the financial sector, banks and insurers who will be more concerned with THEIR bottom lines and business needs, rather than quality of care.

I mean, unlike mandatory auto insurance, an unpaid or disallowed claim has a greater likelihood and much higher percentage of eventually ending in death or bankruptcy rather than a fender bender so the analogy used in order to include that "mandatory" provision left much out in regulating both those costs, and the provision and most likely will also then, as with the insurance laws, end up again costing the taxpaying public more in providing all the courts that will be needed in order to address those "breach of contract" or "wrongful death" actions.

Progress in this area, as with it appears so many others in the new millineum to many Americans, just may come at a much greater cost than even in those Nixon years.

And it appears to this boomer that the great Health Care Reform Act just may become the precursor to the Great Health Care AND Bank bailout of 2025 or sooner, when this patient dies.

Ms. Pelosi: Stop Preaching And Do Your Job

On network news again this morning, the erstwhile Speaker of the House, Ms. Pelosi, was hogging the media in order to once again preach to the American public about the health care deform legislation that she and her political party are backing which is clearly simply another nonconsensual backdoor tax on the American people in its current form.

Especially by continuing to include those "mandatory" provisions, and fees and fines and extortion if those in this country who cannot afford it at its current levels, or even due to the fact that so many are now jobless and homeless by this and the prior Administration's industry favoring legislation, be able to afford it at any level.

No recognition or media coverage has pointed out the fact that all Americans are and have been actually supporting the health care and medical community for decades with their tax dollars, yet upon any treatment getting little, if any, recognition of all those publicly funded grants at the state, local and federal level that most of them receive since Nixon's "corportization" of the health care sector way back when.

Including even zoning and building fees and costs for a great many of those massive global and national hospitals and health care networks.

Better yet, Ms. Pelosi, how about you and those other 434 rogue Congressmen start actually doing your jobs, and change the focus to where it Constitutionally and truly belongs.

Regulating most of those national and global health care vipers sufficiently, and rescinding that bogus Act of Congress that was passed actually also precluding the states from so doing as a power move and play for those on the Hill and their corporate backers post Nixon?

3/4's of these health care providers, hospitals, and teaching institutions receive federal and state grant monies at the public's expense, yet Americans are forking out hundreds of thousands of dollars per year (and their unaffiliated employers) to carry this industry. Most of those hospitals and medical providers refuse to even give "good faith" estimates prior to treatment for non-emergency measures to begin with.

And a good many of them overcharge so that their take of the Medicare proceeds continues to escalate, rather than bearing any relationship whatsoever nationwide in the true cost of health care in this country.

Especially since many of those doctors now are also getting federal grant monies for their educations, or we are now outsourcing more and more to doctors who either are not Americans (such as the great many East Indian doctors now practicing in this country) or were educated free of charge at some of America's foremost medical colleges and universities.

With all the money going to medical research now also, are the costs of development of those new procedures and high tech gadgetry also being credited to the American public who paid for most of those procedures development?

The entire focus of this legislation is a**backward, in my and a great many Americans opinions, and Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Obama's posturing appears to now be "preaching to the choir," and a "choir" that is, from the tone throughout the country on this legislation progressively getting more and more outraged, and about to bring out those nooses.

Maybe also it would be nice if these press conferences would stop, and members start scrutinizing more and more of the past legislation that has lead to the "crisis" we are now facing.

Like bailing out all these industries at the public's expense, while the public then is raped on the personal level further when they engage their services (such as the increases now in bank fees and charges that are occurring nationwide, and 'creative" lending policies of those banks for mortgages getting even more outrageous - since a great many of those original loans in the West and Southwest for refinances or new home purchses weren't even based on the U.S. currency, but the British LIBOR rates).

Or the progressively lawyer industry favoring laws which have enriched a great many of the members of the Bar in the removal of punitive damage lids throughout the nation on medical malpractice claims and those even legitimate losses, and then costs for all those lawyers now employed by the health care sector that are also paid with those premium dollars in that totally unregulated industry which is actually simply another branch of the government itself - since all lawyers are inherently members of the judicial branch and have a monopoly also due to local court rules and regulations on it - since even what might be deemed small claims matters on some of these losses in coverages and benefits become civil and not small claims actions at higher costs.

Hogging air time to present your case isn't working on a public that has less and less trust that its representatives represent anyone other than their own self-interests.

And from most of the citizen media based websites, it does appear to me that either many Americans are unaware of just how much of their tax dollars are already going to subsidize the health care industry and sector, or are actually Canadians or Mexicans that hope that they will get in on better health care subsidized by the American people than their socialized plans in their own countries - or at least coverage then in the event they have some medical emergency while in this country for their "part time" residency status, with free health care nearby rather than having to return to their own countries for treatment.

Since, of course, a good many Canadians live in either those northern border states, or the American West and Southwest as retirees on a part time basis, or with second homes due to their better currency rates, and as then non-American taxpayers, would get that free ride for their care claiming "temporary resident" or "emergency" treatment status.

A good half the posters on most of those sites supporting this abridgement of the U.S. Constitution actually are Canadian bloggers and writers.

Which just goes to show it is appeasement once again of foreigners on the backs of Americans that is somewhat responsible for this push for this legislation, rather than at the demand of the American people at all other than the public's outrage at the escalating costs, pressuring a Congress to actually do their jobs and their "regulatory" functions on this massive industry that has gone for far too long without any regulation actually whatsoever, while being funded by and large by an American public who are watching the health care standards and even infant mortality rates decline by the year in favor of "profit" over "delivery."

Since Nixon, actually, and that entire bogus health maintenance organization concept and global corportization of the health care industry was sanctioned by that erstwhile Congress way back when, where it now takes visits to five or six doctors in order to simply get a diagnosis - that is if your "referring physician" feels it is in the corporate best interest to so do.

There are now as many levels in health care provision in this country, as there is in government.

Which has also contributed to where we are today.

Obama's AMA Snow Job: More Red Tape, More Denied Coverage

Recently Barack Obama continued his "sell the agenda" snow job tours he has been making throughout the country on behalf of his big business, big union agendas and spoke to the members of the American Medical Association with respect to his plan to nationalize health care costs and coverage in this country.

He has been patting himself on the back in various speaking engagements ever since due to his perceived success in selling this agenda to the medical community and doctors, many of which are already affiliated with big business health care networks and professional associations other than the huge American Medical Association.

Thus, dealing now with Boards of Directors determining care, and also private health care providers due to the negligence of Washington actually performing their jobs in "regulating commerce" and its historic abuses over their practices, which is truly what is needed and would reduce the costs of health care tremendously since maybe some of those huge medical malpractice awards would cease due to their contributory negligence in many of those cases.

Especially since the lid on punitive damages for such awards were removed through the lobbying efforts of the Trial Lawyers Association years ago, which started this mess. Many doctors can't afford to practice, or their rates went off the chart due to the huge amounts they had to pay for malpractice.

And just who are the citizens going to redress a grievance on a governmentally denied claim, or bureautic morass that results in more citizen loss of life or injury? You would think the TLA would be screaming foul at the top of their lungs at this point, since it would appear their livelihoods and gravy train just might be adversely affected, along with their own eventual medical needs and care.

And at least would be happy to rethink their own contributions to this mess of high health care costs in the process, and what the long term effect has been to put this country where it is today.

And work on busting up some of those health care networks which have compromised the quality of care now across the board also after Nixon's bogus HMO concept was signed into law in the 70's, thus the "industry," rather than "profession" changed forever - and not for the better as our infant survival rates now will attest. Lower now than Cuba.

Right now, coverage under Medicare and Medicaid leaves much to be desired for the World War II generation. I can attest to that since after months of high blood pressure registering off the charts, and then even after edema set in, my elderly mother's health care provider never tested her for a blockage and a day after New Year's a little over a year ago, suffered a heart attack which eventually resulted in two different surgeries to correct.

So much for comprehensive coverage. And she even had a "supplemental" plan, no less.

Mr. Obama went on to assure the doctors that this would be another one of his "partnerships," and that it would not in any manner affect private health care coverage, simply expand and provide coverage for those at the present time that cannot afford it.

And I've got a bridge in Alaska to sell you.

Since the primary purchasers of health care are private industries and businesses, what makes Mr. Obama think that these businesses will continue to pick up the costs for private coverage which eats into their profit margins, after all, for those labor costs when they can simply direct their employees to sign up for the governmental "cut rate" plan?

And even with "supplemental" insurance then purchased individually by citizens to afford preventive care (since I'm sure those costs will not be picked up by any public plan), if the government is the primary carrier in such instance (as it was in my mother's case) would it not be the government then still that would determine the level of care and not the secondary provider?

Many private practice doctors have simply now posted signs that indicate that they do not or will not accept new Medicare patients, due to the governmental hoops and red tape involved in getting compensation for their services, and/or dealing with the bureaucracy rather than being able to actually treat patients.

And which government contractor/benefactor will be getting this lucrative new contract?

Mr. Buffett as with his Geico Insurance through another joint venture outside SEC scrutiny? I know Mr. Geithner is overseeing that AIG restructuring outside the scrutiny of the public and Congress at the present time. Not many have the bucks to buy some of that "debt" (if there is any, as a "globally" based corporation, other than that London office mess Americans are now stuck for the tab). I wonder how the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders would fare in such a deal, or whether they would be cut out as the public shareholders were in the GM "joint venture."

Even if that isn't the case and it is funded through taxation and administered by the federal government rather than another "public/private" partnership and governmental contract, exactly how many new employees in Health and Human Services will be needed in order to administer such a hugh undertaking. Does Washington simply plan to enlist all the currently employees of the separate state funded plans simply changing their civil service codes? When those employers and businesses drop those plans, how many new taxpayer paid government workers will be needed.

This sounds like another Chamber of Commerce dream come true, and another unaccountable source of revenue for the Feds bottom line to dip into at will, sort of like Social Security.

And how much time and sessions will it take to work the bugs out and tweak that legislation which most likely has enough holes and cavets in it to fill the Grand Canyon so the lawyers can run with it, and how much it will cost in the added costs for the courts that will be needed when the lawyers then bleed the families and public dry so the government and federal judiciary can then beginning denying claims and coverages in order to set precedents for political purposes?

How many more trillion is this going to cost the taxpayers?

Maybe these Fortune 500 and global businesses, instead of getting capital gains tax breaks, and favored status with legislators at both the state and federal levels, should be paying taxes based upon ther "worth" as property as was the original taxation method used by the founders. Property is taxed. Income is not.

Then maybe some of those buildings on K Street would clear out. And our public servants could get back to "governing," rather than "appeasing" their favored subjects for political (and personal) gain one again.

As with the foreclosure "solution," Middle East whirlwind tour, stimulus sales pitch, illegal joint venture with the Big Three and unions firing and laying off thousands of Americans and raping them of their retirement nest eggs, and now the illegal alien amnesty ploys, Mr. Obama's "Ask Not" speeches are getting harder to swallow, and used car salesman persona and slick salesmen gimmicks less and less credible with each passing month and as this country sinks further and further into a full out recession/depression.

It appears he might want to put away his Blackberry, and start speaking with the people and not the campaign backers, moochers and yes men since it appears this Constitutional lawyer hasn't a clue, other than what the fawning media pundits propagandize, and the U.S. Chamber members and foreign aid lobbyists wheelers and dealers spew - and most of the "news" station ratings are now in the toilet.

That speaks volumes right there on the credibility of the agenda at this point.

Fancy speeches and throwing money at the big business/big union lobbyists and mandating now health care coverage when many are homeless and jobless at this point truly shows that maybe a mental health check is now what is in order for each and every corporate socialist "representative" on the Hill.

No one is listening anymore. Except the news anchors, and that enclave of delusion, Hollywood.