Posted on 08/20/2018 11:02:49 AM PDT by davikkm
Is the health insurance business a racket? Yes, literally. And this is why the shameless pandering to robber baron corporations posing as “health providers” is such an egregious … and obvious … tactic to do nothing more than plump up insurance company profits.
And do you know who’s to blame? Believe it or not, the downfall of the American health insurance system falls squarely on the shoulders of former President Richard M. Nixon. In 1973, Nixon did a personal favor for his friend and campaign financier, Edgar Kaiser, then president and chairman of Kaiser-Permanente. Nixon signed into law, the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973, in which medical insurance agencies, hospitals, clinics and even doctors, could begin functioning as for-profit business entities instead of the service organizations they were intended to be. And which insurance company got the first taste of federal subsidies to implement HMOA73 … *gasp* … why, it was Kaiser-Permanente! What are the odds? It’s all right here to read for yourself. And to perfectly cement HMOA73 as the profiteering boondoggle that it actually was, the law Nixon mandated also included clauses that encouraged medical providers to not CURE afflictions, but to PROLONG them by only treating the symptoms. There’s no money to be made in CURING sickness. But the sky’s the limit when it comes to forcing people to endure repetitive doctor visits, endless (and often useless and redundant) tests, and … of course … let’s not forget the ever-increasing demand for American-made prescription drugs!
(Excerpt) Read more at investmentwatchblog.com ...
Nixon IS to blame.
Health insurance became part of people’s job benefits in WWII when FDR price fixed wages. To jack up the salaries employers were allowed to pay their employees health insurance. They have never paid for “health care”.
Nixon was nowhere to be seen when this was taking place.
I can bear witness to the benefit of these advances. My parents today are able to walk due to hip implants, they continue to see well due to cataract surgery and lens implants, and they rely on statins and blood pressure drugs for their survival and reasonable good health even in their late 80s. Similarly, I survived a pituitary tumor due to the MRIs and CAT scans that detected it and the endoscopic instruments and surgery that removed it. None of these were available before the 1970s and Nixon's unleashing of the power of the profit motive in health care.
I thought The Swimmer was the big HMO advocate
Yup. Another mess you can lay squarely on Tricky Dick’s pointy head. It needs to be reversed.
Adam is mostly right, but he’s wrong about very important thing. This mess WAS created by government. First, through the tax preference for employer subsidized medical insurance. That launched the third-party payer phenomenon. Second, through Medicare, Medicaid and other government health programs. Government pays around half of all US medical costs, and it is government that demands the hugest discounts of all against the grossly inflated paymaster.
Private providers, insurance companies, and patients predictably act on the perverse incentives that are inherent to a system that is oriented toward third-party payment.
Believe it or not, the HMO was a proud legislative accomplishment of none other than Teddy Kennedy.
Tricky Dick signed on to Democrat HMO legislation because he was mostly interested in foreign affairs and his own political future. Nixon didn’t much care about the Democrat’s domestic social agenda. Nixon also signed on to EPA, OSHA, Social Security expansion, Medicare expansion, etc., etc.
I would say just treat yourself.
That would fix everything, then you wouldn’t have to worry about greedy doctors gouging you needlessly so they can send their kids to Harvard.
Just do it yourself. You can control the quality and the price.
Nope. Not in our house. We had major medical as civil service employees. Hospitalization only.
Do you know what causes Insulin resistance?
A chief issue in insulin resistance is an over abundance of insulin receptors with not enough insulin to work with them to metabolize glucose in the body. That is why you see it in more overweight persons than normal weight folks. The dietary issues you mention are helpful but for someone in Hyperglycemia and in keto- acidosis, high dose insulin bolus and then a titratable insulin gtt with fluids and sometimes a bicarb gtt are the only thing that works to get the sugar down. Insulin resistance is mananged in the long term, not so much by higher regular Humulin “scales” but by determining what level of endogenous insulin a person can make on his own and augmenting with oral agents if the person will respond to them or if not, the use of Lantus or long acting insulins that act to produce a “steady state” level of insulin which works better with insulin resistant persons. The steady state works better because if you have a constant level of insulin, there is more insulin available over a longer period of time for a larger number of insulin receptor sites to utilize to bring the total glucose numbers down. Some persons may need lower doses and some persons need higher doses of insulin at a constant rate. Diet and weight loss certainly have their place but the notion that “higher insulin doses” cause more resistance is not accurate.
A subpar phosphorus level(especially during a hyperglycemic crisis) may mimic resistance because phosphorus is needed to make ATP’s which is the body’s chief energy molecule. Correct the phosphorus and the insulin starts working and the sugar levels drop.
This article is full of more poop than a Christmas goose.
Healthcare was for-profit since the founding of this nation. Neither Nixon nor Kaiser had anything to do with it.
I’d been trying to cut down on carbs and to that end I ate 2 sausage burritos from McDonalds this morning for breakfast. After I finished the 2nd one, I started kind of... shaking a little, and my heart was racing. I thought “this feels like a sugar rush.” I just googled around and sure enough, there’s sugar in their egg mixture. If I’m going to avoid carbs, I’ll pretty much have to make all my own meals because you never know what restaurants are putting in the food.
Thank you for your response. Yes, this tendency to put corn syrup in EVERYTHING is just... evil. I am especially taking note of the 8 hour window you mentioned. I’ve heard that before, and kind of disregarded it, but it’s becoming clear that it’s an essential part of the approach.
Reflecting current thought in the ICU where I work...as for “ hyper glycemic keto acidosis” I mention it here because while some are just extremely negligent and put themselves into it, others are brittle or illness, especially viral or bacterial infections can trigger it even in persons whose diabetic conditions are well controlled. Any sort of steroid use(auto immune or for pulmonary or upper airway disease, can cause an increase of glucose, triggering a need for more of a basal level of insulin.
Thank you for posting that. I am on Keto for a week now... it has many more variations than the Dr. Atkins I did in mid 70s...different reasons...lol
I am doing Keto for all the reasons you mentioned about insulin resistance...The 8 hr food window...when should that be? Early am to afternoon??
Glad I came across the info! Blessings.
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