WHEN EXACTLY DID HEALTH CARE COSTS START TO SPIRAL OUT OF CONTROL???????

self | 08/07/2009 | Captain Peter Blood

[Captain Peter Blood]

Okay we have now gotten into this health care debate and as we go more into the two competing bills in Congress we find more and more things that are absolutely insidious, vauge, and certainly open to any interpretation that the Government would like.

Now we know health costs have been rising for any number of years.

The key question is just when did health care start to get out of control?

I am a baby boomer and growing up I don't really remember my father having a lot of health insurance, what he did have was rather inexpensive and more for catatstrophic occurences than everyday medical expenses.

As I rememeber we paid cash for office visits and minor lab tests, heck I think they just sent a bill to us like everyone else.

Exactly when though did having lots of health insurance really start and health care costs start going up at double digit levels and what was the root cause???

I have an opinion but I would rather see this forum submit ideas and observations on this point.

[golfisnr1]

When Government got their hands in it.

[VisualizeSmallerGovernment]

When lawyers started advertising on TV.

[Lurker]

1968-Medicare.

[Personal Responsibility]

I recall the same thing you do. I believe the government started mandating insurance companies cover more and more things which drove up the cost. I can’t say when that happened but I am pretty sure that’s why it happened.

[gusopol3]

Luke 8:43 (King James Version) 43And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,

[KittenClaws]

With the advent of AIDS.

[screaminsunshine]

MRI, Cat Scan, Arthroscopic Surgury, Heart and Organ transplants, New drugs, Chemo and Radiation Therapy, Viagra...ETC> ETC> ETC>

[Captain Peter Blood]

Possible but what was the starting root cause for spiraling health costs?

[Darksheare]

Let’s see, when government managed health care options came into being, and when signing a release form stating that a procedure is only 68% likely to help you was no longer binding or protection from malpractice.
These days, people sign a slip saying they uinderstand that a procedure is only ‘x’ percentage likely to help them, may hurt them worse, etc, and when it fails they sue.

[Danae]

When Democrats killed RICO and Tort reform laws became such that Lawyers could advertise to find doctors to sue for things that medicine could not, never has been able to, and may not ever be able to cure. There is NO 100% successful treatment in Medicine other than death. It is not a perfect science. Until we get the Lawyers out of the business of suing otherwise good doctors, and mandate caps on awards and force insurance companies to lower Malpractice insurance... well these things would all work to drastically lower the costs.

[DJ MacWoW]

HMO's and PPO's were passed by gubmint and took affect in 1999.

The History of HMOs - November 1, 1999

[BunnySlippers]

HUGE Malpractice Awards ...

[ak267]

It’s called “Cash for Cripples”.

http://www.zazzle.com/obamacare_2_tshirt-235439043872849285

http://www.zazzle.com/obamacare_tshirt-235668055276900107

[Republic]

When doctors had to start carrying personal insurance against medical malpractice suits to the tune of numbers that often rival their net income. Family doctors who often work their asses off suffer more than the surgeons...

WHERE IS THE TORT REFORM IN THIS HEALTH CARE DEBACLE?

[Fester Chugabrew]

The human condition is such that fears regarding health drive us to extremes. The vocation of physician pays relatively well (at least for the time being) because 1.) the human body is remarkably worth treating well, 2.) it takes a significant amount of skill to train and treat the various illnesses that effect us, and 3.) we are desperate to cling to this life, and so pay dearly - sometimes to the point of bankruptcy - to keep ourselves alive.

I did not hear the words “out of control expenses” in connection with health care until about two decades ago. Others will be able to attest to what causes high prices. Bottom line is, we need to get government our of the health business, the education business, and many other businesses.

[Republic]

THe government wants to TAX all of us for this health care program...tax us HUGELY....each of us...forever...and it will increase (and there will be refusals, or SINCE there is a written decree in the health care plan that the government will have Access to all bank accounts...there will be, in the future, denials of care UNLESS the contributor, who they will know either is or is not capable, will add extra to the costs for whatever procedure is deemed rather expensive).

Also....the TAXES will be used to COVER MEDICARE which OFTEN fails to PAY the doctors so many doctors REFUSE to see MEDICARE PATIENTS...you see...MEDICARE IS GOVERNMENT RUN AND THE MONEY, well, it has a WAY of DISAPPEARING, don't you know.

[garandgal]

Here ya go...

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

Plus, letting pharmaceutical companies troll for hypochondriacs via advertising.

[Big Horn]

When they started medicare.

[arthurus]

I think it really took off shortly after the inception of Medicare.