Obamacare: Time Magazine "Bitter Pill"

Time Magazine: “Bitter Pill” Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

ObamaCare: Time Magazine Bitter Pill; the latest dirt on ObamaCare and the health care industry is out. The time magazine article on ObamaCare titled “Bitter Pill” includes over 30 pages of facts about the current United States health care system.

The author, Steven Brill, looks into 8 bills and “follows the money” in order to find out what is wrong with our health care system and why it costs Americans so much money. Digging into the article you’ll find pages upon pages of startling truths. After digesting the information it’s easy to see why America is in such desperate need of heath care reform like ObamaCare, but does health care reform go far enough?

The article sheds light on why some of the controversial ObamaCare taxes are in place such as the excise tax on “drug innovators” and medical devices. It makes you question, who is it that is telling us that these taxes are bad, and what is their agenda? The “bitter pill” article also points to where the law itself fails to address the needs of health care workers and the 98% in favor on the $2.9 trillion dollar monster that is our for profit health care system.

Although ObamaCare does regulate insurance companies, it also creates many new customers for the health care industry. More new customers means more money for hospitals and it turns out hospitals are near the root of the problem. See hospitals set their own prices, almost at random, through someone called a “chargemaster” (more on that behow. The bottom line, the we money pay in medical bills doesn’t go back to us or to hospital workers such as nurses and doctors it instead goes to CEOs and shareholders.

ObamaCare Time Magazine: “Bitter Pill” Summary

The Time Magazine article on ObamaCare lays out a number of case studies used to demonstrate the flaws in our current health care system. The thing that becomes glaringly obvious early on is that the prices we pay through our insurance are inflated to unreasonable prices.

It’s not the “free market” that controls the prices, there is no competition to speak of when it comes to pricing. Prices are set by the health care industry, speicifcly “chargemasters” who control one or more hopsitials in a given area. Prices are set well above what a free market cost would be and no one is able to give any sort of reason as to why. And they don’t have to H.I.P.P.A. laws protect the healthcare industry from having to disclose any information.

ObamaCare Time Magazine: The Cost of Health Care

The Time Magazine article on ObamaCare gives numerous examples of how inflated prices affect profits in the health care industry and how that cost is passed onto us. For example a hospital will charge $1.50 for single aspirin or $74 for a roll of gauze, the insurance company will then pay for a portion of this. The end result: you are buying insurance so you can get them to pay for something that is marked up at such an unreasonable rate that you would never buy it in real life.

ObamaCare Time Magazine: Where Does the Money Go?

That money doesn’t go to doctors or back to the hospitals. Rather the profits from the inflated prices go into the pockets of shareholders and CEOs. While American struggle to afford health insurance the health care industry is getting rich, remaining unaffected by the outside market and world they stand apart from. Low-income Americans without insurance are the only ones who have to pay the “chargmasters” full prices. The insurance companies all get breaks as do Medicare and Medicaid.

Get the Full Story on Time Magazine’s “Bitter Pill”

How to Reform the HealthCare System’s Problems

The author of “Bitter Pill” gives a few suggestions as to what to do about the current issues with our health care system. He suggests the government:

– Control prices using the free market to avoid monopolies

– Tax “not for profit” hospitals

More on Time Magazine’s “Bitter Pill”

The article goes onto discuss how Medicare works versus the rest of the health care industry. It clearly illustrates that while both have issues the government controlled Medicare system is a lot closer to a “fair” system. However Medicare itself still has to interface with health care companies and hospitals which is part of what makes Medicare expensive for tax payers.

We’ll be updating you on the ObamaCare Time Magazine article “bitter pill” and taking some of the key points out of the article to save you a read.

Time Magazine: “Bitter Pill” Summary