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| Medicare burglarized by "providers" |
How to fix Medicare & why it cannot be
achieved
•
Get rid of "providers" and "Insurers"
-
move them out of the loop
by making their "services" an option, not a
requirement. (Good luck!
Washington DC is virtually owned by campaign
contributions from the Medical Supplier
parasites)
• Allow recipients to buy directly from best price
services
(without any insurer marking it up). This factor is currently missing from
Medicare.
Credit these savings
to the individual's annual spending account. That
creates a powerful incentive to reduce costs by
obtaining prescriptions from Wal-Mart, Costco,
or other "best price" sources. (Good luck! Washington DC
is virtually owned by campaign contributions
from the Medical Supplier parasites) |
Medicare was set up before the Internet; before you
could research prices from your home computer. Medicare
was set up before Costco or Wal-Mart pharmacies sold
affordable generic medications.
That is it!
Billions of dollars are drained away from the recipients by insurance
entities, so-called Medicare providers. They have a
huge $scam going -
our government paying them to simply
markup the cost of all goods & services.
"Trickle down" healthcare?
That is how the Medicare system functions; medical
care trickles down from
the provider. Example: Need a CPAP machine that costs $485? Your
"Medicare Provider" will rent it to you for $2850/year.
What the? Yup,
that is the Medicare approved policy for CPAP. Talk
about wasteful spending...?
$80/year generic statin marked up to $510
Medicare cost
You need a statin to lower cholesterol? Simvastatin is so generic its only $20 for 100
doses at
Costco. Not to the stupid government, though!
They have to pay 75% of the provider's marked up cost — $680/year.
Without Medicare you'd pay $80/yr for your statin; with
Medicare the government has to pay $510.
Wholesale cost - retail cost - government cost
The pharmacy makes a profit selling you 100 tablets of
your statin. Think about that. The wholesale cost is
only a few dollars. That is marked up to retail, then
marked up again by the Medicare Provider. That is
nuts! Healthcare is not bankrupting the government,
Medicare Providers are doing that.
Living forever is expensive, regular health care is cheap
Basic health care is not
expensive. Many medications are now affordable in generic
form from Wal-Mart, Costco, etc. Drugs
that were once $75/mn are only $4/mn at Wal-Mart.
$208 Glucophage is only $13 as generic metformin
Type
II diabetes is a common ailment in our obese population.
Yet that $200 bottle of Glucophage can be substituted
with (generic) metformin for $13/100 tablets at Costco,
$10 at Wal-Mart.
But that $13 is invoiced by a Medicare Provider to the
US Government for $104. "Health
care is expensive"? No, the "care" part is not
expensive until a Medicare Provider
makes it expensive—companies whose only function is to
mark up even cost saving generics solely for their own profit.
Why are there "Medicare Providers" at all?
Because in
the past anyone over 65 was considered a pain in the ass doddering idiot. Think
about the World War 2 generation. Almost every person
smoked cigarettes, drank hard whiskey or too much beer, ate all form of
cholesterol, never exercised, refused to wear a seat
belt and never saw a doctor. Many dropped dead from a heart
attack without ever taking blood pressure, or
cholesterol lowering medications.
Back in the medical dark ages of the 1960's and 1970's
you went to hospitals to die. Die of cancer, heart
disease, etc. There was nothing in the field of oncology
to fight cancers, chemotherapy was in its infancy. Heart
disease was a death sentence, too, before open advances
such as heart surgery, bypass operations, pacemakers,
statin drugs, stents, defibrillators, blood pressure
medications, etc.
The WW2 generation never learned to use the Internet, let
alone a computer. Many thought the only way to fill a
prescription was to stand in line every month at the
local drugstore. They have no clue that they could order
90 day supplies online, have the medication delivered,
and pay a fraction of the cost. They simply do not know
how the system works. Medicare was set up for such
dolts.
Today there is a different generation drawing Medicare
benefits
But they face the system set up for the doddering
idiots who survived the Great Depression to hack out
their lungs scarred from years of cigarettes. The system
created for a population of malnourished alcoholics who
dropped dead of heart attacks at 65.
Today is a new generation of baby boomers wanting
Viagra, hair transplants, plastic surgery, breast
implants and sex change operations. People who expect
quadruple bypass surgery, advanced cancer cures, and
penile implants. Some want to live forever with hip
replacements, heart-lung transplants, a new liver, a
donor kidney, etc. That is all ruinously expensive to
society.
Today no one wants the old definition of "health
care". They expect
physicians and pharmaceuticals to keep them sexually active
at age 80. That definition of health care did not exist a
few years ago.
Regular old health care? The health care my parents accepted is
now inexpensive. Diabetes testing meters prices fell
just like computer prices did. Blood pressure cuffs
for home use, blood sugar testing, even CPAP breathing
machines are all incredibly cheap when one buys them
directly on the open market. Cholesterol lowering drugs
that may prevent a $75,000
coronary bypass are sold at Costco or Wal-mart for a few
dollars a month.
There is abundant information about how to
stay healthy with diet, exercise, and self care. The medical
research has been done; it is well known now the smoking
cigarettes will kill you as it did your parents. Or that high
cholesterol + no exercise + stress = heart attack and
stroke. Take an aspirin every day, eat Omega 3 fatty
acids, eat more fiber & fresh fruit. Take
simvastatin, or any statin for that matter.
Medicare does not foster this approach to health. It is
a system that places a "provider" over the "recipient"
to make a profit from all medical care. The person
receiving "benefits" is actually benefitting the provider.
The Medicare Part D
prescription drug benefit, for example, allows a provider to
invoice 75% of $170 for the same Simvastatin you can buy
for $20 at Costco. Such profiting goes on millions of times a week, costing the
government $billions a year. The recipients can't do a
thing about it.
2-system Medicare allows recipients to buy
directly at best cost
• System #1 is for morons; they would get drugs and supplies (as they
do now) with huge markups charged to the government through
"Approved Medicare Providers."
• System #2 is for intelligent people. They will be allowed to
purchase drugs, supplies, etc. at "best market prices."
Like the prices Costco, Wal-Mart, and websites charge.
Allow each system the same annual budget Currently
Medicare Part D pays for $2700 worth of medications/year. If you
use about $800 retail worth the provider will mark that up to
the limit to make their profit. So the government loses, the
provider gets rich.
Under System #2 you buy directly from Costco, Wal-Mart, etc. and
debit the $800 retail cost from your $2700/year budget. To
reward you for being thrifty & honest the government splits the
savings (you saved $1900) by adding 1/2 of that to your next
year's budget. Hey! That is an incentive! Maybe next year
you have a serious illness, cancer perhaps, and need that extra
medication budget.
System #1 people truly are morons—can't use a computer
to comparison shop. Need a "Provider" to mail them $28 (full
retail cost) worth of diabetes testing strips—then invoice the
government $99. Or supply $20 (full retail price) for a 90 day
supply of a generic statin drug, then invoice the government
$170. [these examples are real, the writer has full
documentation]
System #2 people know how to comparison shop, how to use a
computer. Allowing them to purchase directly saves 400 to 500%
in markup profits charged by Medicare Providers.
How can we save these hundreds of $billions?
It cannot be done. Doctors and nurses have assured me "Everyone
knows Medicare is a rip off, but you can't do anything about
it."
Your representatives in Washington depend on money from
"Medicare Provider" lobbyists. Your Senator is virtually owned
by those who profit from the existing system. What can you do
about it? Nothing.
After all, you are a moron. You probably think Wilford Brimley
is your buddy, or that AARP is a philanthropic, non-profit.
Or are you waking up yet? |
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The "markup" scam |
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| Medicare providers are allowed to markup
this item to $2850/year. You can buy it for
only $480. |
Let's say a CPAP machine retails for $500. Your doctor
prescribes one so you don't develop an enlarged heart,
or die from respiratory apnea.
• Medicare says you pay
20% Sound good? Wait! Now insert a Medicare
Provider in the loop; they invoice the government $250/month. You pay
the provider the 20% = $50/month. This is from an actual
price quote made by an "Authorized Provider."
They rent the machine to you in order to bill the
government 75% of $250 times 12 months = $2,250. Plus
they get $50/mn from you. That's another $600/year.
The Medicare Provider rakes in a whopping $2850/year for a machine
that sells at retail for only $500. A machine they paid
$230 for wholesale (if that).
Want to "fix health care"? Then allow Medicare
recipients to shop around for the best price and buy
direct—say it is
$485 in this instance. Have the recipient pay their 20%
share.
Total cost to the US Government = $388. Not $2850/year.
But what do I know. I'm just the 800 pound gorilla in
the room... |
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How do companies like AARP and Liberty
Medical pay for all those expensive TV
commercials? YOU PAY FOR THEM. |
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Do you really need a "Medicare Provider" to
mail you $28 (full retail cost) worth
of diabetes testing strips that you
could buy at Costco, Wal-Mart, or order from Amazon.com?
Do you care that the Medicare Provider invoices the government
$99? That is 400% higher than retail cost.
Think about that - Costco and Wal-Mart make a profit at $28 even
with the expenses of a retail store operation. An online service
should be able to make a better profit from the $28 retail price
because they have less overhead.
SOLUTION: Allow Medicare recipients to
bypass the existing "Providers" to buy directly in the
marketplace at best cost, with that savings reflecting in their
annual spending allotment.
But it can't be done. Our representatives in Congress & the
Senate depend on $$$ from the Medicare Provider Scam. They could
never bite the hand that feeds them, right? |
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