Does being in a bad mood count as a chronic condition? How about flatulence?
If we just exterminate the 5 plusers and let dying people die, our healthcare crisis would be solved.
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We’ve heard a lot about how a small number of people with serious health problems drive a disproportionate amount of health care spending, but a new report by the RAND Corporation, prepared for the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, shows that reality in vivid detail. The big finding: 12 percent of people with five or more chronic conditions account for 41 percent of total health care spending.
Why it matters: The big dilemma in health care right now is how to cover the costs of the sickest people — and if Congress doesn’t keep the Affordable Care Act system, which covers all people in the same insurance pools regardless of health, then it has to come up with a better system. This chart shows how the spending is distributed for all patients.
Of note: Six out of 10 U.S. adults have at least one chronic condition.
Just cut off all medical care at age 85. Seriously, what’s the fucking point?
because then it’ll be 84…
So? There has to be some age where everyone agrees that it’s not worth the money or effort. It’s like my mom telling me that my uncle is dying of prostate cancer at age 90. “It’s sad”, she says. Ma – for fuck’s sake he’s 90! What the fuck do people expect? We’re supposed to suck tax money out of 25-40 year olds raising a family so we can buy a new hip for an 84 year old who spent 40 years being 80 pounds overweight? What – so they can take up rock climbing?
That was very insensitive of you Iska, Admin and Stucky’s parent/ parents are over 85. You will be over 85 one day and let’s say you get the flu that could be easily treated and you would live another 10 years after recovery……..but NO, Iska dies because of something minor and treatable.
How do you think the maximum age of thirty six came about in “Logan’s Run”?
Insensitive is my middle name. If it’s easily treated, then I should be able to pay for my own flu treatment. I’m not sure I want to be sitting in a chair drooling on myself until I’m 95 – even though I plan on not wearing pants anymore as soon as I turn 80. How about if it’s not “easily treated”? Should we be installing mechanical hearts in 94 year olds? They might live to be 104, after all. Fact is that we already ration health care. Just not enough. If we told people they’ll be on their own once they hit 85, maybe they’ll take better care of themselves. or save enough money to buy the extreme measures they expect. And maybe they won’t. And if they die at 85, well, they had a good run.
Isn’t that basically what Obama said to a woman who asked whether her otherwise healthy 90+yo mom would be able to have the heart operation she needed under his proposed healthcare changes?Paraphrasing,”Sometimes people should just be made comfortable until they die.”
If everybody paid their own way,ok,but do we want govt deciding that?
The fundamental problem is illegally high “health” care costs since the entire medical industry is violating anti-trust and consumer protection laws.
Enforce the laws and the cost will drop by up to 80% (see Karl Denninger)
Actually, the book had it at 20 years and the movie had it at 30 years. No healthcare issues there!
Just cut it off if people cannot afford it. Since when did your healthcare costs become my responsibility?
What say I take care of my family, I donate what I see fit to medical charity providers, and everyone else do the same.
Problem solved.
People have to take responsibility for themselves, for their families, and give charitably, but not manditorily, where possible.
Welfare states are unsustainable and will collapse. They are incapable of making hard decisions. Private entities can.
Life is not certain, and it sure as hell is not eternal. Medicare expenses are growing 9% every year. That means it doubles every seven years. It will quadruple by 2030.
It is unsustainable.
I tend to agree with you on this. It goes all the way down the line to if you can’t afford to take care of your own kids, you shouldn’t have them in the first place.
Speaks a new Aussie!
@Iska: I’m in my 80th year and having a ball. Take your “shut off’ and “shove it..
Sic em’ Muck !!
First of all, I hope it was clear that anybody should be able to buy whatever healthcare they can afford. Second, if you’re in your eightieth year, you’re 79, and downthread I already agreed to raise the cutoff to 90. So you would get 10+ more years on Medicare, then it’s on your dime. Cram your hang gliding into the next ten years.
The three chronic conditions I see most often are: Obese, Lazy and Stupid; all three beyond belief. They must be 50% of Welfare costs and if they were cut from Welfare, that would save another 80% of the Taxes. It will happen but not before the liberals and the FSA destroy America.
The three chronic conditions are obesity, smoking and alcoholism. None of which is random. All of which are incredible profit centers for big business. Think how easy kt would be to cure obesity by limiting food stamp purchases. Smoking should cost you more, a lot more to be insured. Everybody gets old, Iska. Not everybody destroys their health voluntarily.
“The three chronic conditions are obesity, smoking and alcoholism.”
“Not everybody destroys their health voluntarily.”
No, not everybody. Just most people. So what – we’re all supposed to pay to keep everyone alive forever? If you don’t like my suggested age of 85, fine. Make it 90. At some point, it’s immoral to keep forcing everyone to pay for expensive treatments that can only add a few more months of “life”.
Of course the best option would be to allow a free market in health care (including drugs) and then let people figure out how to pay for things themselves. Probably ain’t gon’a happen…
In the current world perhaps the best we could hope for is a system with gummint paying a fixed amount per year per person, maybe with a lifetime maximum as well. “Sorry, but we already fixed your broken leg, that wonky eye, and your hearing aid this year. You’re maxed out. Too bad about that liver…”
Neither health care nor tax money is available in infinite amounts. There has to be a limit…
I don’t think it’s only an age problem. There are healthy old people who keep their weight in check and there are an increasing number of 20 year olds who already have chronic health issues like obesity and diabetes.
Let’s attack the cost of healthcare first. Let’s let the free market give us cheaper insurance. Let’s take the choices that we make about end of life issues out of government hands. Anyone over 80 who can tell us they are having a hell of a time and to muck off has a right to make all his own decisions.
I’m for ‘giving’ everyone some fixed ‘free’ health care amount at birth – let’s say $500,000. You can use this fund for medical care – there would be no insurance necessary. If the money runs out – you’re on your own.
Dutchman – I think some where in the 1200-1500-2100(?) pages of OCare, in the future they will calculate how much was spent on your healthcare and come after your assets after you die as the government will keep a running tab on the amount that YOU OWE.
Hey BL, I seem to remember that Medicare was beginning to do that to peoples’ estates after they died. Any confirmation or rebuttal of that would be appreciated from anyone who knows.
It’s Medicaid, not Medicare.
And the government is legally required to pursue it.
https://www.nd.gov/dhs/services/medicalserv/medicaid/recovery.html
Hey Anonymous! Thanks for the clarification. I get smarter just hanging around with the people here. 🙂
Jason Calley
I read a great deal about OCare when they voted on the legislation so everyone could find out what was in it. That stood out in my mind because I thought that inheriting from your parents is shot at that point. They will keep healthcare costs high and make sure they end up with everything each deceased person had after their lifetime tab balance is presented.
Thanks to anon for the link. Everyone file that away in your mind as I am sure it will be the case.
EDIT: Jason, it is very clear if you read about OCare that in the near future it will be Medicare for all so everyone’s assets will be at risk.
Is this why some folks are giving their stuff away when they retire?
My in-laws moved to a retirement village last year. Getting ready, they asked their kids what they wanted from their next-to-last house. Furniture, books, gadgets, tools, it all went to whoever wanted it.
They moved. They unpacked.
Despite a detailed room-layout plan with measurements, once they unpacked they found MORE stuff they could live without. I just took over a 2013 SUV they figured they could do without. It’s a really nice vehicle, and I got a great deal on it (we plan on paying more for it than they asked, just to be fair to the other kids).
But that solves several problems: they won’t be paying state property taxes on a vehicle they hardly use, my state doesn’t impose property taxes on vehicles, and I get to drive a really nice car for the next several years (we tend to drive them into the ground). The only one that loses out – is the taxman. Such a shame!
Sounds okay, Dutch, except that the Fed could inflate one’s fixed “free” healthcare account away over a number of decades, no? By the time you’re 65 your 500 large might not get you a colonoscopy.
Dutchman – $500k is 1/4 of lifetime earnings. Just how will the half the population, who pay no tax in their lifetimes, contribute to that bill?
They’ll get the taxpaying half to do it for them.
The rich will pay it-everyone who makes over 50k/year.
starfcker- good assessment… you forgot to include “prescription painkiller addiction”…
That’s turned out to be a GOLDEN GOOSE for big-pharma and the entire healtcare racket…
And the policing racket, the social-work racket, the military racket (gotta protect those poppy fields).
We can easily return to, say, 1970’s healthcare costs.
Simply return to 1970’s healthcare.
anon- If we had the same healthcare cost of most of the planet, we would be returned to 1970’s pricing.
I think when there is little or no hope for any quality of life, or when someone has an irreversible mental deterioration like Alzheimer’s or dementia, it’s time to let nature take its course. My Mother knew a woman whose mother was in the hospital, cancer, diabetes, bedsores, dementia, then her heart started to go. The hospital wanted to put in a pacemaker! Of course they did, they LOVE the money. The daughter said NO. They threatened to SUE her and make her give permission to put one in, she said GO AHEAD. They dropped it of course. My Mother and I have signed and filed Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare with end of life provisions, so there will be no guessing about what is to be done.
Democrats would never go for that. They all have dementia.
Get government out of health care and let the problem sort itself out.
Wasn’t there a doc here (AWD maybe?) who said that in the ‘hood almost everyone goes into the doc and complains of “shortness of breath” which can’t be disproven. Complain enough and get on welfare/disability for life.
“Does being in a bad mood count as a chronic condition? How about flatulence? ”
If it does that makes 5… I’m doomed.
Generally in a credible group, 20 percent of the people account for 80 percent of the claims
The majority of that 20 percent changes every year
Instead of comprehensive coverage every year, 90 percent of the people have small claims every few months and larger claims at a minimum of 3-5 years
The patented Health Matching Account follows this natural cycle of claims and is an effective tool for building benefits to be paid at the most likely time
Or you could just go into every hospital and every health insurance company, drag every vice pres and above out onto the front lawn, and hang them from the lamp post. That would bring down costs very quickly and we wouldn’t have to kill off granny.
I was going to vote you down for being a socialist until i realized you were right.
Healthcare. So many problems with it. I can give you examples and examples of waste.
There is a currently a patient in the hospital for the past 336 days. Elderly woman, bedridden, on dialysis, TPN, and multiple medications. All LTACs and SNFs have refused her. Family refuses to withdraw care. Millions upon millions of dollars spent on absolutely futile care with no quality of life for her. It’s crap like this that is bankrupting the nation.
If I had to point to the number one root of the problem, and there are countless contributing factors, it’s the Federal Reserve that allows the Federal Government to borrow without limit. It keeps the hard choices from being made, until the currency is destroyed that is.