Great article in Time magazine on U.S. health care

This was just posted and the author is rightly getting a lot of media play (he's been on Charlie Rose and Jon Stewart in the past couple of days, with more to follow. It's a lengthy article that shows the full extent of the madness in the U.S. system better than anything else I've seen:

http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/

coffeeguy wrote:This was just posted and the author is rightly getting a lot of media play (he's been on Charlie Rose and Jon Stewart in the past couple of days, with more to follow. It's a lengthy article that shows the full extent of the madness in the U.S. system better than anything else I've seen:

http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/

Thanks for the link coffeeguy.....good read and a real pizzer! Hopefully this thread stays below the political threshold. Important to all of us US citizens!

Thank you. A very good read, but a sad situation in the US.

I've been reading feedback on this article from current and ex docs, billing agents, hospital admin folks and the like and it sounds like it is very accurate. One of the clear take-aways is that with so many feeding so profitably at the health care and insurance "trough" this is simply not going to get fixed in any of our lifetimes. Obamacare whatever its virtues does nothing to contain costs, and the U.S. is paying 3-4 times the costs of any other first-world country for worse outcomes. You read the author's mild suggestions for reforms at the end and get a sense of just how hard it's going to be to make even small changes.

Then you look out the window at the sun and flowers, visit your excellent local doctor when you need to, eat a mango or some watermelon or splurge on an 8 peso taco and thank your lucky starts you live in Mexico!

Right on Amigo, The big "O" care sucks, and the medical preexisting coverage is out of money as we speak....they are turning people away!

coffeeguy wrote:I've been reading feedback on this article from current and ex docs, billing agents, hospital admin folks and the like and it sounds like it is very accurate. One of the clear take-aways is that with so many feeding so profitably at the health care and insurance "trough" this is simply not going to get fixed in any of our lifetimes. Obamacare whatever its virtues does nothing to contain costs, and the U.S. is paying 3-4 times the costs of any other first-world country for worse outcomes. You read the author's mild suggestions for reforms at the end and get a sense of just how hard it's going to be to make even small changes.

Then you look out the window at the sun and flowers, visit your excellent local doctor when you need to, eat a mango or some watermelon or splurge on an 8 peso taco and thank your lucky starts you live in Mexico!

Very well said, CG. There is no way it CAN change. Kinda like the war on drugs, or the US stopping illegal immigration, or stopping the pollination of GMO corn/soybean seeds etc. As far as the US is concerned, there is no turning back no matter what they say.

How right you are, ain't we lucky to be here!!!

This one-page review of the Brill article is in many ways a lot more worthwhile than the original 35 page tome, IMHO:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/02/22/brill_on_health_care_steven_brill_s_opus_on_hospital_prices.html