Our Industrial Medical Complex is out-of-control, and we know this by looking at the cost of healthcare, medicines, health insurance, and hospital stays. We are getting reamed by the system, and there is nothing we can do about it. Adam Smith warned us about the risks of big business and industry cozying up to the government in an incestuous relationship, and well, that’s exactly what has happened.
All these problems did not happen overnight, call it a comedy of errors, or rather a comedy of corruption that has brought us to where we are today. And, let’s not shoot the messenger here, rather let’s spend a few minutes to discuss all this.
We watched the growth of HMOs thanks to favorable laws created to help bigtime campaign contributors. We then watched the consolidation of the industry. We saw HIPPA laws put smaller systems and hospitals out of business unable to comply with the new mandates, or afford huge computer systems. Why? Well, Silicon Valley donors wanted to sell more enterprise software and hardware, and the hospital sector’s top players loved the idea, as it would provide more barriers to entry as the big boys grew bigger and gained more political power.
The Industrial Medical Complex continued to grow when Bush II signed into law the coverage of medicines to seniors. The Pharmaceutical Industry never had it better, the government became their best customer, one with unlimited funds.
The Obama Administration put forth a plan “ObamaCare” that would essentially guarantee anyone who couldn’t afford health insurance to have any medical services or medicines they needed, FREE. Well, it wasn’t free, remember that nearly all private insurance plans had a 200% increase in cost to pay for all the free people. It turned out to be amazing the number of doctor’s visits, medical services, and pharma drugs that doctors and their patients could come up with as ‘needed’.
Okay so, these are merely a few of the things that made the industrial medical complex so powerful. Today, as the Corona Virus is causing havoc, we see hospitals complaining they might be overrun, and collapse because they don’t have enough protective gear, medical staff, or ventilators. It is claimed that they were not prepared for this Corona Virus or such a run on the need for ICU beds or ventilators. But, why not?
These health care organizations have been overcharging us for decades, they have plenty of money to buy what they need, and global supply chains. All of a sudden, they can’t handle a pandemic? Why do we need the industrial medical complex if it cannot perform? Instead, they need help from the government. They want monetary support, and for the government to pay for their equipment and supplies? WTH? Why?
Because they supposedly could have never anticipated such a worldwide pandemic? Really, I mean over the years I’ve read lots of reports stating that ‘it’s not if, but when’ a pandemic will hit us. Why didn’t they prepare, why didn’t they have supplies in storage? Think how much money they’ve taken from clients, patients, and customers? How much money they’ve gotten from the government for taking care of people’s health, or how much they’ve soaked from health care insurance companies that have passed that cost, plus more onto all of us?
WHY?