Posted on 03/06/2011 8:53:44 AM PST by blam
Forget Medicare, THIS Is The Chart That Shows Why America Is Doomed
Joe Weisenthal
Mar. 6, 2011, 8:16 AM
If you look at the US fiscal situation, it's easy to see that Medicare is a looming black hole ready to swallow the entire economy. Reforming the entitlement seems necessary to prevent fiscal ruin.
But actually that's too narrow a way of looking at things. After all, the costs borne by Medicare are no more sustainable if they're shifted to private individuals. It's just the path is different.
The REAL problem is how expensive our healthcare system is compared to its benefits, at least relative to other countries.
This chart is from SocGen's Albert Edwards. As you can see, the US has the same life-expectancy of Chile at 7 times the cost.
Now, the root causes of this can be debated ad nauseum. We need to reform what we pay for. We need to lose weight. We need to end the doctor cartel, on and on you can go. But if you're looking for a problem THIS is it.
Solve it, and the Medicare crisis goes away.
Image: SocGen
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Thank the lawyers.
****************
And their lottery sweepstakes minded juries.
eliminate black homicide rates and watch the stats change
After 5 five days of low grade pain, in my side, I decided it was time to go to the after hours clinic. After triage I was sent to the ER instead. The ensuing abdominal CT scan clearly showed the swollen/inflamed pancreas. Some meds and several days rest and things are all good again. While I am glad to feel better it is bittersweet to realize that this 2 hour visit to the hospital will most likely cover the annual family deductible for our insurance.
Ask the author, if he gets cancer, is he going to go to Houston for treatment, or Santiago.
yep. I had a patient go to the ER last week. CT scan abdomen and full battery of lab tests for .........constipation. The patient should not have gone to the ER. Should have come to the office. I could have diagnosed the problem for less than 100.00. Do I blame the ER doc? No cause they do not know this patient and they are araid of being sued. That is the flat truth. Till something is done about defensive Medicine and lgov monopoly on health care nothing will change. Nothing.
Look how high Japan is on that graph, for example. I'd venture to guess that on a per-capita basis, Japanese culture has dramatically lower incidences of almost any social pathology compared to any other industrialized nation.
I don't know if this is still the case, but I remember reading some years ago that the phrase "crack baby" can't even be translated into Japanese.
I’m sure that many of the folks here, those who think that Bernanke is actually doing a good job(you know who they are - in 2007, they said there were no problems) will tell you that such charts are only created to cause panic. You are such a ‘doom and gloomer’.
Our economy will be fine. We’ll just “grow our way out” of this mess, since the mild recession has passed and we’re well on our way to recovery.............. (lol)
How much is the US average driven down by the metrics of infant mortality? In the US we count every live birth as a birth; in many countries an infant has to breathe on its own or even survive a full day or more to count as a live birth. Counting the births as we drives down the average age.
“The facility fee is $12,000”
And the insurance payment will be $800-1600 plus any deductible if applicable.
how does living longer reduce the train on Medicare ?
Life expectancy isn’t a homogenous number. First, the U.S. Counts deaths that others don’t. Second, small segments of the U.S. Population make up a large portion of the early life deaths that have nothing to do with healthcare, but which bring the total number down significantly.
If you are a non-criminal, productive citizen, you have an extremely high probability of living to be 90+.
Finally, you always get better bargains in the poorer neighborhoods and what is true locally is true globally. Doctors are not a large portion of your bill (less than an auto shop per hour labor), but an MD is going to want more in NYC than Mexico City, just as everyone here demands more than their Mexican counter part.
Not responding to comments blam? What’s up with that?
Good point on how many countries fudge their books, making our more honest stats look bad by naive comparison. However we don't count every live 'birth.' The temporary survivors of abortion rarely get counted.
It's a combination of no tort reform and too much government manipulation (government medical plans negotiate with companies driving "normal" higher and higher.) If it were a matter of regular consumers negotiating for services the fees NEVER would have risen this high to begin with. Now that we are in this boat we need to figure some way to bail it out. It's not going to be a simple fix.
I posted that article and took myself and my dogs for a long walk in the woods. It's a beautiful, sunny day, 65 degrees, here...we had a ball
Now, I often post articles and never make a comment...some subjects I post on I know very little about and use 'posting' as a learning mechanism. There are some very smart people here (and, a few Smart Alec's).
I've posted here over ten years and started over 13,000 threads and have never heard that (got to make comments) as a posting requirement.
Did I read your post as accusatory..or something?
I'll ask you, what's up with that?
BTW, I qualify for VA health care and sometimes use it although I still have my own health care insurance.
Doomed??
I wonder, can we can still afford 320,000,000 doses of grape Kool-Ade and enough strychnine to put us out of our misery?
If not, I going to proceed on as though I will survive ... even if Washington DC doesn’t.
Yea, that's one of the very difficult things about posting on the internet, intent is almost impossible to convey. Glad you had a good walk with the dogs.
I've posted here over ten years and started over 13,000 threads and have never heard that (got to make comments) as a posting requirement.
I on the other hand hardly ever start threads. You can count them on less than one hand. I certainly agree with your comment about smart people here. I just thought it was strange that so many folks were commenting to you and were getting no replies. Have a blessed day FRiend.
I think I'll go walk my dogs now. Sounds fun.
I go to a “poor peoples’” community health clinic and the costs are real low. Haven’t had anything but generics in 20 years or so (I understand that wouldn’t be possible with a cancer Dx or other show stoppers). Usually see PAs but not always. Quality of care has been fine.
Most of the comments addressed to me are in fact posted to the article and not to me specifically. There is on-one else to address a comment to the article except me.
For example: If an article is titled "Sarah Palin Is Stupid", someone may post this reply to me: " You're Stupid Too You SOB", and not mean that about me. LOL.
Have a nice walk.
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