Pass around the KY Jelly, we're all getting screwed

[The Straight Story]

At least, that is how it seems at times to me.

Like health insurance - and malpractice insurance. They jack up a Dr's insurance, to insane levels, and then the Dr's rates go up. So our health insurance companies have to pay them more, then jack up our costs. Medical companies jack up their prices on drugs to cover their liability and investment, and we screwed again.

The only ones not getting screwed it seems are the ones everyone is paying - the companies behind it all.

I am guessing insurance rates: housing, car, health, liability, etc, all out pace the avg cost of living.

And then employers are helping pay for insurance and it is costing them more and more, so they pay us less, then jack up their prices to cover things.

And don't even get me started on the Iraq war, and all the other ways the avg citizen is getting screwed.


Everyone is buying protection (ala insurance of some form) and bush and his crew are buying protection for the US with war and death - something else we are having to pay for as well.

Add to it all they pretty much force you to have insurance of all sorts (to drive, to practice medicine, and so on) and you are even more screwed as you cannot just cancel your policy in protest. You just have to lay there and take.

I even pay more for insurance because my credit is bad. 41 years old never had a ticket or accident. Ever. And I pay more than folks who have. And when I lived in the small town of circleville and moved 15 miles south to a town so small all there was was one stop sign, my rates went up again because I was in a county that had more accidents (or so they said....).

There is soooo much wrong in our society - from homelessness and poverty, to welfare for corporations and criminal president getting away with murder.

sigh....

[LibraLiz1973]

1. We are totally screwn....

It is a HUGH!!!!111!! problem

[Cabcere]

2. This is SERIES bizniz!!111!!

:( Freep-snarking aside, though, I think you have a valid point. Unfortunately for all of us.

[CAG]

3. Some people are lovin' it... just browse cafepharma.com and

read all of the big pharma drug reps laugh at the public, especially those who can't afford meds or health insurance. And then there are the ever-sincere apologists who claim that its all hogwash because of all of the free samples and "patient assistance" programs. Of course, they never mention that these are just big tax writeoffs and propaganda to support their 20% profit margins...

[The Traveler]

4. And they didn't even

buy us dinner first ...

[cassiepriam]

5. One friend of mine is an OB-GYN doc, every time she delivers a baby

she takes a financial loss. Another friend is also an OB-GYN doc
or I should say was. He just could not pay his malpractice ins
anymore, was over $200,000 a year. He works now in a county health clinic
part time.

But of course the managed care company and insurance execs all get
$5 million bonus every year. If you want your baby delivered, call one of them. :(

[TheMadMonk]

6. You also did it to yourselves.

With ridiculous lawsuits about hot coffee, cracks in footpaths, noisy kids, etc, etc.

Of course a lot of rising premiums goes into keeping profits rising, but there is also a great deal of cross subsidy. With premiums for some type of insurance making up for the shortfall caused by huge payouts elsewhere.

It is one thing to seek appropriate and fair compensation for injury, but another to seek and get punitive damages as a result of unforeseeable events that were probably half the fault of the plaintive.

[Connonym]

9. to be fair the coffee thing really wasn't as frivilous as it sounds

The lady got 3rd degree burns on her groin and needed skin grafting. It wasn't just a scalding, she was seriously injured and at age 79 could very well have died from that kind of trauma. McDonald's refused to settle out of court and that didn't leave her many options but to pursue the lawsuit to pay the medical bills. The punitive damages were calculated by the jury to be 2 days' worth of sales of McDonald's coffee. There are a lot of frivilous lawsuits but I think this one is more serious than the news stories made it out to be.

[OneBlueSky]

7. the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries in this country are rackets . . .

they totally their control vast industries and the products and services they provide -- charging exorbitant fees while lining the pockets of their executives and their stockholders . . . they mark up their pills and their services beyond any conceivable level of rationality, and they're allowed to get away with it . . . because they control it all, and we "consumers" (we used to be called patients) have no choice but to use their services and buy their products . . .

HMOs and pharmaceutical companies should all be STRICTLY regulated, and the worst of them should have their corporate charters revoked . . . and the corporate officers and executives who have been directing the mass screwing should be arrested and prosecuted for racketeering . . .

[originalpckelly]

8. I've heard about the booze, but never about the jam...

do they make it good out there?

Oh, wait.