How did health care even become a money making business??

[a kennedy]

When???? D*mn. :shrug: :cry:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

1. Several thousand years ago.

Medicine has always been a business just like any other.

The remarkable thing is that some countries now provide free-at-point-of-use health care, not that others don't.

[Pharaoh]

2. Good Question!

Answer: Capitalism

Hey lets make tons of money off the suffering of others!

[atreides1]

3. The same way everything else did

Someone figured out you could charge people to keep them healthy, and decided that making money from the misery of others was the "Right" thing to do!!!!

Now this does not apply to all health care people, just the ones who want to fill their pockets.

[papau]

4. In the 40's wage control make benefits what unions could ask for - and companies did

not want to handle claims or be on the risk - and indeed did not know how to bargain over benefits because they did not know what they were worth. Actuaries were called in to evaluate the risk, and companies or lines of business were formed to handle the demand for service. As the risk had a large unknown - there was little data - the actuary put in large "what if" margins into the costing, and the release of those margins over time as the "risk" turned out to be manageable resulted in a great deal of profit.

The earlier "health insurance" was a tiny business - it was wage controls in the 40's that made it into a part of everyones life.

Then you sell fear of economic destruction from health care costs and you have good sales, and you have agents making a lot of money. Then you have the free time and many contacts an agent has (especially your auto liability fellow) leading to very large portions of the State legislatures being filled with agents - and you have insurance company control of a great deal of government.

[antigop]

7. And you make sure that insurance is regulated at the state level, not the federal

Insurance is not regulated by interstate commerce law, is it?

[NewJeffCT]

5. It's always been a money-making business

The big change was when Germany, & other countries in Europe, started moving to national health care systems so it would no longer be a for profit business.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. When the first shaman accepted a saber-tooth tiger hide

for jumping around in a mask and shaking a rattle to scare the demons out of some poor suffering soul.

[Bill McBlueState]

8. This is America!

Everything's a money-making business! Capitalism is our state religion.

What are you, some kinda commie? ;)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. It isn't for everyone

my doctor works as an opthamologist in a clinc one day a week to support herself so she can spend the other days at her holistic health clinic, which is part of a non-profit foundation. The foundation gives grants for laboratory tests needed by patients who have no insurance to pay for them--and these patients can be referred by any local doctor. She has let people pay off their bills a little at a time, and has even given them "credit" on their bills for volunteering at other nonprofits, such as the local Senior Center, etc.

[SoCalDem]

10. Remember when hospitals were run by religious orders?

and when most doctors were in private practice with a few nurses and a receptionist?

When BIG HOSPITAL and BIG INSURANCE started buying them all up and closing down the "unprofitable ones"...that's when it started to really change..

We had pretty ordinary insurance until the 80's. We had a family deductible, and we paid out of pocket for everything and mailed the bills to the insuror, when we met the deductible, they mailed us a check for 80% of every bill we submitted after that.

The catch was this.. we could AFFORD to pay out of pocket. Our pediatrician charged about $40 and saw ALL THREE of my boys for that..including any shots;..

An expensive prescription cost about $30, and an ordinary one was about $7 or $8 .

A trip to the ER, might run you about $30 (including stitches to a boo-boo))

Once the hospitals had been "merged/ consolidated" and the doctors had been convinced to go into "groups", the party was over.

[Rosemary2205]

11. It was Ronald Reagan and his congress.

Prior, Blue Cross was non profit and all hospitals were non profit. Reagan changed the tax code so that for profit corporations could be set up to sell insurance and run hospitals. This is the result.

My apologies. I don't remember the exact law and I am too lazy to google a link. I'm just going by memory here.

[Beelzebud]

12. I don't know, but a "non-profit" hospital turned me in to a collection agency.

[KansDem]

13. Notice how health care and auto-body repair are both grossly overpriced?

Insurance