It’s time for another long thread. This one is about healthcare. I hope you’ll take the time to read it because it’s really important.
This one is very important to me personally as I have a spouse and 3 kids with a genetically inherited disease which causes benign and malignant tumors. /1
I have worked full time for 32 years. I was laid off in Jan. I currently pay a large Cobra premium to cover my family. /2
2 of my kids are in their early 20’s. I am able to cover them under my current plan. When it runs out, they could die without coverage. /3
1 of my kids is 10. If they reinstate Lifetime caps, he has already reached 80% of that cap..at 10 years old. He could die without coverage. /4
My spouse has already exceeded the lifetime cap. He will die without coverage. /5
If you think because you’ve worked all your life or because you currently have a job with benefits that this doesn’t effect you, think again. /6
130,000,000 people in the US have a pre-existing condition. Things like cancer, epilepsy, mental health issues, diabetes, lupus, heart disease,sleep apnea, and pregnancy are all examples of pre-existing conditions. /7
If these protections are lost, EVEN if you are on an employee sponsored plan, you could lose coverage. Large companies can absorb the cost. /8
There is no guarantee that mid and small sized employers will still provide pre existing coverage if it becomes too expensive. /9
Here are some facts about the state of healthcare in the US and what you’re currently paying for. /10
The United States spends over $8,250 per capita on health care every year – that’s over 22% higher than the next highest country in the world and over 170% higher than the average of the highest-spending 50 countries in the world. /11
In 1960, the per capita cost of health care was $147 per person in America; adjusted for inflation, it would be $1,082 today; that means our current per capita cost has grown over 660% above and beyond normal inflation. /12
As a portion of the gross domestic product (GDP), health care spending accounts for 17.7 percent; the U.S. is second in the world and first among developed nations for the highest health care spending as a percentage of GDP. /13
The total amount of money spent on health care each year in the United States is $2.6 trillion, and it is expected to continue rising. By 2021, spending on health care each year is expected to be $4.8 trillion. /14
It is estimated that 30% (about $750 billion) of health care spending each year is wasted, primarily on administrative costs due to lack of shared electronic systems and paperwork errors. /15
Yet, with all of that cost, among developed countries, the US has the highest infant mortality rate, the lowest life expectancy and the most preventable deaths per capita. Among ALL developed countries. /16
America is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. /17
50% of US doctors use paper, rather than electronic records, costing money and lives. The average American sees 19 different doctors in their lifetime. /18
This means filling out paperwork 19 times, possibly missing important information, increasing costs and potential medical errors. /19
Health-care providers are paid by insurance companies on a “fee-for- service” basis — they perform a service, they get paid. But this fails to account for whether that service did any good. /20
Put another way, doctors get paid for the quantity of care they deliver, not the quality. And if they make a mistake and there are complications, guess what? You still pay for that too. /21
Every year, 40,000 people die from drug overdoses in the United States. Up to 60 percent of these deaths come from prescription medication. And that number is climbing. /22
In the 1990s, opioid drugs were under-prescribed with many patients pain going under-treated. This needed to be corrected but some drug companies dangerously fudged their claims. /23
Pain management experts, many funded by these very same drug companies, began assuring doctors that dependence and addiction would not occur in the case of genuine pain. /24 cont.
They also taught that patients would become immune to the life threatening dangers of high doses over time. Today, opioid overdoses kill approx 100 people per day. /25
I experienced this first hand. After my husbands 2nd pancreas surgery for cancer, he was on a Fentanyl pump for 6 weeks. Then Fentanyl patches. And Dilaudid. And OxyCodone. And Morphine. /26
And then he started begging me to take him to the ER for pain. And finally, after a year, I expressed my concerns to his doctor. He was a zombie. He was irritable. He was physically addicted to opioids. /27
I had to fight both my husband and his doctor to help him taper down. My husband because his pain was very real to him. His doctor because he was paid for his service every three weeks at the pain clinic to write a new prescription. /28
They tapered him down, but not OFF. Why would they? I finally had to have an intervention with my husband. After fighting his pain and withdrawal for 8 weeks off the pain meds, his pain evaporated like magic. /29
About 75% of all health care dollars are spent on patients with one or more chronic conditions, many of which are preventable, such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, lung disease, and others. /30
Mandatory coverage for preventative care saves money and time lost from work. This speaks for itself. /31
Currently paying for health care is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy filing every year in the U.S. Almost 2 million people need to file bankruptcy because they cannot pay their medical bills each year. /32
Outside of bankruptcy, over 20 % of the population (about 56 million adults) between the ages of 19 and 64 struggle with health-care related bills each year. /33
A recent study found that lack of insurance coverage can be tied to 45,000 deaths per year in the United States and that people without health insurance have a 40% higher risk of death than those with private health insurance. /34
If this scares you, it should. This can happen to anyone. This is not about “our” tax dollars paying for someone else’s medical care. This is about the impacts to all of us, employed, contract, private insurance, medicaid, medicare, uninsured. /35
Healthcare should be a right that all Americans have access to. It shouldn’t be based on how wealthy you are. /36
There are ways to dramatically reduce the costs of healthcare without losing the quality of care. And if done correctly, reduce the costs we all pay, even including providing coverage for those who can’t pay. /37
This has been proven over and over by other developed nations. It’s time for us to prove we are the greatest nation on Earth, and become 1st in Healthcare not 37th. /38
If you’re interested to read more, here are some great links:
thepatientfactor.com/canadian-healt…
thepatientfactor.com/canadian-healt…
