Slashdot Mirror
Almost 100 Million People a Year 'Forced To Choose Between Food and Healthcare' (theguardian.com)
Almost 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty each year because of debts accrued through healthcare expenses. From a report: A report, published by the World Health Organization and the World Bank this week, found the poorest and most vulnerable people are routinely forced to choose between healthcare and other necessities for their household, including food and education, subsisting on $1.90 a day. Researchers found that more than 122 million people around the world are forced to live on $3.10 a day, the benchmark for "moderate poverty," due to healthcare expenditure. Since 2000, this number has increased by 1.5% a year. A total of 800 million people spend more than 10% of their household budgets on "out-of-pocket" health expenses, defined as costs not covered by insurance. Almost 180 million people spend a quarter or more, a population increasing at a rate of almost 5% per year, with women among those worst affected.
The reason health care is so costly in the US can be found at the top of the insurance companies. Many of the top execs of these companies - including the ones that are listed as "non-profit" or "not-for-profit" take in guaranteed annual bonuses that exceed the lifetime earnings of most Americans. The "Affordable Care Act" just gave these greedy capitalists the keys to the kingdom as well, in guaranteeing them customers for the rest of time.
People dropping out of the insurance market and having no coverage won't solve this problem. The solution is to finally have our country behave like a modern industrialized nation and have a single-payer system. It's too bad nobody was willing to propose such a sensible thing.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I'm surprised it's not a greater percentage than that. It is for me.
First of all, I don't want to minimize the seriousness of this topic. It deserves discussion and action. I'm just not sure it belongs here, on this site.
I have come to /. for many years to stay up to speed on the latest tech news and other interesting news that interests me. I also follow many other sites for political content. Lately, every site has seemed to wade into politics more than usual. I understand we live in a hyper partisan environment. However, we must have some safe havens from it. This site serves as that, to some extent, for me. I would hate to see it devolve into yet another political dystopia.
This site was built for a particular niche. I don't know about the rest of you, but I would like to see it stay in the niche.
The poorest Americans are richer than the average of the rest of the world. They have access to actual healthcare where in other places, they don't even have access, as there are no doctors. We live in a world of riches, and think we're poor, because the myopia we suffer. The solution being offered, "single payer" isn't really a solution, and will end up putting us on the road to Venezuela and Greece.
The real fix is to get rid of insurance all together, and rid ourselves of the middlemen extracting 50% of all costs for themselves. It will actually lower costs (backoffice) that doctors have to run chasing down insurance repayments and keeping track of all the required paperwork it involves.
There is no reason why 8 hour (that should have been 2) visit to the Emergancy Room cost $10,000(no costly tests), except insurance. You see, those that can pay, end up paying for those that can't (or won't), with the Insurance Middlemen getting their cut.
And THAT is why healthcare costs so much.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
On a gold-gray morning in Mitchell County, Iowa, Christina Dreier sends her son, Keagan, to school without breakfast. He is three years old, barrel-chested, and stubborn, and usually refuses to eat the free meal he qualifies for at preschool. Faced with a dwindling pantry, Dreier has decided to try some tough love: If she sends Keagan to school hungry, maybe he’ll eat the free breakfast, which will leave more food at home for lunch.
Dreier knows her gambit might backfire, and it does. Keagan ignores the school breakfast on offer and is so hungry by lunchtime that Dreier picks through the dregs of her freezer in hopes of filling him and his little sister up. She shakes the last seven chicken nuggets onto a battered baking sheet, adds the remnants of a bag of Tater Tots and a couple of hot dogs from the fridge, and slides it all into the oven.
So her little brat kid won't eat the free meals. But wait, she was feeding him breakfast at home too?
And she's buying frozen chicken nuggets and Tater tots? A dozen eggs cost $1.50. Potatoes even less per pound. Iceberg Lettuce is sometimes also $1,.50 cents a head.
On this particular afternoon Dreier is worried about the family van, which is on the brink of repossession. She and Jim need to open a new bank account so they can make automatic payments instead of scrambling to pay in cash. But that will happen only if Jim finishes work early.
And they own a Van. OK. Seems like a Corolla would have been a better choice. And apparently she is incapable of opening a bank account by herself? BTW, most banks have Sat hours.
Either this article is poorly made up bullshit or these people are the victims of their own idiocy.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Don't be a shitty doctor, and you won't get sued. It is literally that easy.
Do you think 100% of lawsuits against doctors are reasonable? That is an extraordinary claim. It presumes no one who seeks medical care, and gets a bad outcome due to the limits of medicine and/or bad luck is not willing to cry in front of a jury to get several million dollars.
I live and work with humans. I can report to you that at least 10% of people do something that makes them a jerk at least once a week. People who think they have been wronged in some way (such as going to the doctor and not getting a pill that cures cancer for $1) are even more likely to do this. Please explain why people become angels the minute they step into a doctor's office.
And the rest of us absorb those costs. That's another reason why prices are out of control.
Yep...one cost of increased US health care is Dr's running multiple tests to CYA against a lawsuit...when usually 1-2 would suffice. But, medicine is NOT an exact science, and occasionally a test misses something or false negative. If the Dr doesn't cover his ass with every test possible, he's gonna get sued.
Aside from the ONE thing Obama care did to positively, that being disallowing coverage refusal for pre-existing conditions....it has been a disaster and a great reason prices have increased and continue to do so.
For example...I'm self employed. Way back 10 years or so ago, I could get a simple, high deductible insurance policy (only $1300 or so), and basically have that for what used to be termed, "Major Medical" coverage. Basically there for $$$ emergencies like getting hit by a bus or heart attack. I paid about $120/mo for that, and that was with being a smoker and high cholesterol pre-existing.
I couple that with a HSA (Health Savings Account) that I fully fund (this year about $3200 max) annually pre-tax that I used to pay my routine meds needs, and office visit fees, etc.
Now? Well, about 4 years ago, I started off with a "silver" policy...about $450/mo.....increasing yearly till for 2018 they were wanting about $1100-$1200 a month for same thing.
Part of the problem? Well, with fscking Obama care regulations, there isn't ability to get a "major medical" type policy. No....EVERYTHING and the kitchen sink has to be included.
I'm a single male, in between women....I have NO plans to get pregnant, yet I have policy coverage for prenatal, etc. Why the fuck should I pay that?
That's one reason.
Another...WTF don't they allow insurance to be sold across state lines, like car insurance is? That would surely increase competition....and lower prices.
Why can't I pick and choose what coverages I need, a cafeteria type thing, much like we want to do TV ala carte, why can't we all be big boys and big girls and pick and choose what coverage we need?
Let's get the bean counters out of the way, and go back to having insurance be for EMERGENCY care, and all....prices will lower, Dr's then could be independent again and charge reasonable...and let's get some tort reform in there to prevent frivolous lawsuits.
Back before the bean counters, HMO's and all...medical care wan't THAT expensive. I had a relative that was a Dr. back in the 70's-80's....he would charge according to what the patients' means were.
We have medicaid for the truly poor, but for everyone else that is capable of working, lets go back to the older says and things like I've put forth where it won't cost an arm and a leg and people are covered for emergency care, but for routine stuff, they manage themselves.
If nothing else, it would unclog the fucking ER at hospitals...and keep people from using that as their primary physician....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........