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The reason that the military is being moved to Obamacare is to give the healthcare political industrial complex another set of assets to tap:

• Just read Priceless by John Goodman. It explains how we are going to bleed.
Here is an email
I wrote him: This is a letter I wrote the author :
ME: I am reading your book Priceless By John Goodman and enjoying it. It is thoughtful. I am an older women with income property investments, own my own home, I work in health care, part time as a private practitioner and part time in a large healthcare complex.

One thing that seems clear about the current health care debacle is the control the health care industrial complex and the government will have over my assets. And there seems to be no way around it. Tell me if I am wrong to believe this. It will help me sleep at night.

I am being told that I must have Medicare and an insurance overlay or pay penalties. I pay extra for the overlay. If for some reason I cannot pay for the overlay, and require care I will be put on Medicaid, and given care and my assets forfeited to the state/healthcare complex.

Now I understand that this has been a way to manage folks with small assets, in our community giving a house to the town for taxes and bills has been common for years. Our towns use to let the elderly live in their houses until after the death, then foreclose.

However the current combination of insurers, healthcare entities, and government can provide a very different picture. The government has opened a window to previously untapped assets, older people who have previously been able to cover their healthcare insurance, keep their assets intact and provide a boost for the next generation.

It seems to me that all the government/insurer axis needs to do is change the insurance price point depending on the financial needs of the insurer or healthcare institution. Less people able to afford, more assets turned over.

The other part, is how prices in healthcare do not reflect reality but instead, a very unrealistic and non market based assumption. I see it in my own pricing for services in the market.

Now I am not opposed to paying for my own healthcare, but I damned sure refuse to be subjected to or pay unrealistic, manipulated and dictated prices, which affects everything from equipment, prescriptions and services.

Both these issues combine to provide a perfect storm of assets to be sucked out of the middle class. I would really like your opinion here. You have a reasoned free market perspective. You are also a good writer, rare in economics. Thank you for your time.

JGoodman: You have provided a very good description
of both problems.

ME: And my attorney tells me that there is no way to shield my assets from the government/medical/industrial complex. Very painful to hear.

Some consumers take themselves out of the market with healthcare medical bill sharing, I could do that and if they will have me, that will probably be my choice. I am not sure that the complex’s reach won’t make that a futile gesture though.

Thank you for confirming what I have tried to talk to people about to no avail.

Interesting that my acquaintance who has lives a rather dissolute life, who never paid off anything including her student loans, owes tons on her house, with a low payment, will be able to keep her house, and I would lose mine. Painful.