Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comHeart disease costs to triple in U.S. by 2030
Seeded on Mon Jan 24, 2011 12:19 PM EST (msnbc.com)
- msnbc.com sites & shows:
- TODAY
- Rock Center
- Nightly News
- Meet the Press
- Dateline
- Morning Joe
- Hardball
- Ed
- Maddow
- Last Word
- msnbc tv
Leave a Comment:
I'm sure the healthcare industry is overjoyed with this news.
this news is direct evidence that we should be reforming health CARE and not just insurance/reimbursement. it'd be nice if a few more dollars went towards prevention and research...as poster 2.0 pointed out, fix underlying causes and the costs will adjust themselves.
And now we see the problem with a law that doesn't really address the cause of the issue, high healthcare costs, but instead provides blanket insurance.
With < 20 year olds rapidly becoming dumplings with heart issues and diabetes, the tax implications on the rest of us are staggering.
Fix the costs and the coverage will fix itself.
You forgot to mention that fast food outlets and Chinese buffets are also due to triple by the year 2030.
People who exercise regularly, eat right, and live a healthy lifestyle should not shoulder the burden of higher taxes and higher insurance premiums because of those that choose not to live healthy. It is completely ridiculous! Almost all heart disease can be prevented with diet and exercise! Don't even get me started on obesity and type 2 diabetes! Thanks for letting me rant...
Amen! That should go for people who ride motorcycles and scuba dive too. Why should we have to pay because they choose to take risks to their health and well being? This country would be a much better place if the government would just establish a national diet and control what we ate. They could publish weekly menus like we got in grade school and then penalize anyone caught eating something not on the menu. "Tuesday is salisbury steak with a side of steamed carrots and green peas. Dessert can be your choice of sugar free pudding not to surpass 2.5 oz. Good day." That's the only way to keep it fair.
I agree that everyone should exercise, especially if they want to enjoy a healthy life. But I disagree that government should regulate what we eat, whether we wear helmets to ride a motorcycle, etc. If people want to do stupid or dangerous things, they should be allowed to, but the rest of us shouldn't be expected to cover the cost of others' bad behavior. Darwinism at its finest!
Shouldn't this headline read "Hospital profits to triple in US by 2030"?
Hospitals will not profit. Pharmaceutical companies might. Insurance companies might, but hospitals most definitely will NOT profit. Have you seen how many hospitals are closing these days? They're not closing because they are doing well. Open your eyes.
Yes, for profit hospitals make outrageous sums when they charge $10 for an aspirin. They need to take responsibility for their absolutely outrageous fees that make it impossible for even the insured to get adequate medical care. They are a big fat viable part of the problem in US healthcare.
When will people understand..the hospital doe NOT get TEN DOLLARS for one pill. The hospital gets paid according to your diagnosis....It does not matter how much money they spend on getting you better, or how much money the bill you, they get the same amount of money regardless. They can spend six hundred dollars getting you better, or they can spend six million dollars getting you better....they get the the SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY.....Understand?
Then I should be able to require my hospital to bill me for the average market price of an aspirin. It should be about $.02 cents, more or less. Since you have all the knowledge on this topic (insert sarcasm here), tell me the name of a hospital anywhere in the US that charges the real cost plus a small mark-up.
you don't get it. they can charge you a million dollars for that aspirin. But they will only be paid a set fee for YOUR diagnosis. Since you seem to think you are the chief financial officer of a hospital, (insert sarcasm here) maybe you should do the research.
The hospital gets X dollars to treat you for your broken leg ( for instance). It does not matter if they spend 2X treating you, or 5X treating you . They still only get X dollars. By the way, I DO have quite a bit of knowledge on this topic.
do your research smart ass.
In other words, you can't give me the name of a hospital that charges market value plus a reasonable mark up for their charges?
...and who are they passing out the rest of the money too? If I don't pay my bill, I get a nasty letter from the HOSPITAL billing dept.
So, YOU are one of the dead beats using the ER as a clinic, I gather. Going in for an earache, and complaining about the price of an aspirin, or the long wait...only to go home and NOT pay the bill. Bitching and moaning when they call you to pay up for the services you used....get a job with insurance, dead beat.
And at that time, your required insurance, with monthly premiums that run 1/2 of your gross pay, will only cover 5%. That's, of course, after you pay your annual $10,000 deductible. Speaking as one who suffers from congestive heart failure (yep, sorry folks, your increased premiums are my fault), I guess I better hope to be dead by then.
What a HORRIBLE SHAME. I can't believe that prediction. What happened to the days when physicians actually took time to consult REPEAT..."consult" with their patients on what they should do? Now all theywant to do is write a Rx and scoot you out the door. Billing! Billing! Billing! Yet and still, the average John and Jane Q. Public want quicker, easier, simpler for their lives and the lives of their children. Hmmm... Manufacturers in all areas have targeted "people" and openly give them what they want...convenience. WAKE UP AMERICA! TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR / YOUR CHILDREN'S HEALTH!
All of us will pay more for our "right" to eat whatever and as much as we choose.
I am 52 years old and can still ride a bicycle 100 miles in one day, but my premiums will be the same as some lump whose only physical activity is working his remote control.
It is far better in society to be a "Consumer" than it is to be an athlete.
My husband had a heart attack and had to be flown out of our small community to get an emergency heart operation. Contrary to what the mean-spirited people are implying on this page - that heart attacks are just due to lack of discipline - he had done everything right. Excellent diet, lots of exercise. Luckily, we live in Canada where all the care was paid for and we didn't have the stress of worrying about exorbitant fees and a "pre-existing condition" making us uninsurable. Yes, everyone needs to do their part to stay well. But show a little compassion to those who are sick and maybe one day you'll get to be on the receiving end of this compassion. That's what a health care system is supposed to be about.
Bravo Savary 2. Well said. My husband and I just turned 40 this year. Our dr. put gave us the lose weight and exercise talk for his blood pressure and my cholesterol. We have seen some progress and earnestly believe that this time we will lose weight and be in better shape and meet the goals we were given. I am very much afraid that despite our best efforts and success that our problems will be "genetic" and our best efforts will still result in us being put on the Rx. As a nation we do need healthcare for everyone, and yes costs must be reduced. $10 for a Tylenol when you can go to Wal mart and get a bottle for $3 is ridiculous. I believe we will should have healtcare at a reasonable cost.
And notice that your husband had to be flown to a hospital where his heart attack could be treated. In our "troubled" US system, he would have been able to have his MI treated at >95% of hospitals without the added delay that can damage heart muscle in that crucial time
Yeah, but then you are $200k+ in debt. And the stress of intense debt doesn't at all impact your health!
yeah, but you'll be alive
They let you live for the sole purpose of servicing your debt.
The chances that you'd survive in a US hospital is dependent on a great many things. What is the nosocomial infection rate in your local hospital? Do you even have the right to know? Most hospitals don't want to release that information.
@robb--i guess that's true, but you can still look at cardiac mortality at your institution, as well as all cause mortality--and the US does fairly well
That depends on your location in the US. Take a look at Las Vegas and let me know if you'd want to be in a hospital in this city while you were in the most vulnerable position of your life. A common joke in Vegas is "Where's the best place to go for medical care in this city?" The answer is, "The airport." It truly isn't funny though for those of us who need surgery but are saving for medical care outside the country or saving enough to go to another state for medical care away from our families and support systems. It's pathetic how bad some parts of the country really are.
....and in Vegas, we pay some of the highest hospital rates in the country.
The costs are rising faster because there is an industry out there that fears they may lose money in the new health care law. I don't think we should throw out the law but fix it. We're somewhat hostage to whatever providers choose to charge and have no idea where the money actually goes, Congress doesn't want to ask, it takes bribes (legal type) from the industry. A disclosure of a charge for aspirin in a hospital might read $10, is that what it costs? No and you don't question it because you are impertinent Mr./Ms consumer. Think the industry is over insured for malpractice to protect career, not to safeguard finances, and think too much money taken from the top in hospitals in same scenario as bad ceo's in the US--so stupid to think bad investment is toxic gold mine. Using the same book to bill and excess goes to usual undisclosed place.
So this is a commmon misconception. Just because the hospital/doctor/provider charges a certain amount, that is in no way indicative of what the actual payment is. Insurance companies "allow" a certain payment for a given service, and that is what is paid. Same for medicare, which typically allows 80% of what private companies pay out
Hospitals need to take responsibility for their charges. The same charges that are presented to your insurance company are the same charges that are presented to those without insurance. Someone, either the hospitals or the insurance companies need to say "Enough!". Neither one has the ethical principles to do so. In that case, all of us must stop and say "Enough!" for them.
I'm now planning surgery. I call the hospital myself and ask them to fax me their infection control protocols and their pricing list. If they don't comply, I tell them that I'll be looking for another hospital to have my procedure done in. If each and every person looking for service forced their hospital to give estimates and take reasonable precautions against infections, they would simply have to comply. Most of us lack the guts to call them on their rampant greed.
Hmm... Maybe the US should stop subsidizing corn? Because, you know, high fructose corn syrup (soon to be known as corn sugar) is not at all damaging to the human body.
Don't Blame ME I'll be gone by than
It's so hard to give up fixed attitudes and believe people's suffering could actually be lessened through public policy. So you tell you own story of how a different system worked for your family and instantly get attacked. To get into details for eric-2573068, my husband had no heart damage because he was able to get excellent care to stabilize him after his heart attack at our local hospital that serves a tiny community. He got his operation the next morning after being Medivacked to the best cardiology hospital in our region. We have never had to worry a day of our lives about getting sick and not being able to pay the bills. We have never had to join the military or take jobs in distant communities to ensure we had health coverage. We have never had to pay a dime through our taxes for health industry advertizing. Canadians often complain that they can't get some operations like hip replacement fast enough, but all in all a tremendous amount of stress has been eliminated from our lives by having a single payer, public system. Americans could have something similar, and many who are surveyed say they want this. If you could walk through a door, and on the other side find a US where no-one had to worry about the cost of a catastrophic illness, why wouldn't you walk through it?
so theres a lot of misunderstanding in your post...i'll take them one at a time
--if this surgery your husband had was a catheterization, and he was having a ST elevation MI, then yes, he had more damage to his heart, no matter how he seems to be doing now. any way you slice it, canada has far fewer specialists than the US because of their health care system. Look at Liam Nieson's wife--she would have been alive if she had her accident in the US
As far as joining the military to get health care? You don't have to do that in the US either
No, you don't pay a dime for health care advertising, but you pay many dimes in your taxes for the care you do get
You skim over the fact that you cant get some surgeries fast enough. In fact, this is a huge issue that simply can't be dismissed. While many of them are non life threatening, they still impart a good deal of morbidity to the patients. Also, some urgent surgeries are in fact delayed. If you don't believe me, check out a ruling by the Canadian supreme court in 2005 that found that state sponsered health care was limiting access to many people
As for the last point--just because you are not worrying about the cost, that doesnt make the cost of the procedure dissapear. You have paid this cost in your taxes for years. Also, that type of system would be much more difficult to implement in the US due to our poor health compared to our nothern neighbors
Canada (not unlike some areas in the US) has a great number of wide open spaces so air transport after early local intervention is hardly unheard of in many places. Too many people in the US are susceptible to the stories about poor care in countries with national care. Clearly those countries are light years ahead of those of us living in the US; statistics on costs and results do not lie. Ignorance is bliss and it is enforced daily by insurance money, media garbage and the advertising dollar. The latter an incalculable amount which must be factored into any analysis of this problem.
So let me just say it really depends on exactly what he presented with to the local hospital. If he truly needed emergent CABG, then yes, transport by air to another facility would be acceptable. But if he needed a stent placed emergently, then air travel is absolutely unacceptable in most cases. We have a "door to balloon time" in the us that is the time from the initial patient presentation to the ER with an MI to the time the intervention starts in the cath lab. This time is not to exceed 90 min in the US, and rarely does it. Actually, I'll research the stats and see if i can find them, but our post MI survival is slightly better than canada's for this reason
So you say "clearly those countries are light years ahead of us in results" Let me see if I understand your thought process. They have better mortality, they have socialized medicine, therefore one must be due to the other. Have you not considered all the other possible confounding factors that may affect mortality statistics besides the payer of health care? We as americans have had our obesity rates skyrocket compared to the rest of the world. Currently, one in three adults are obese. Not overweight...obese. Diabetes prevalence is 3X that of sweden. Yet what do we think as a population when our health suffers? This must be somebody else's fault, and they need to take care of it. The fact is we our much, much sicker than these populations we are compared against, and you could assign a personal physician to every single american and we still wouldnt have the outcomes of our slim japanese counterparts.
No wonder why Jack LaLanne Passed away
which would you rather?
Leading causes of death in the us are heart disease and Lung cancer. Guess what causes those? Smoking! I was a smoker me and my girlfriend switched to electrnic cigarettes. Yeah we're still Nicotene addicts but nicotene in and of itself is about as harmful as caffeine. Electronic cigarettes burn nothing it's a water vapor consisting of nicotene, food grade flavor, water, and a Propylene glycol or vegetable gluten base. Propylene glycol is used to dissolve some medicines injected straight into the bloodstream so I'm pretty darn sure it's safe and vegetable gluten water and flavor are things everyone of us consumes everyday, That leaves only the nicotene which is of course the whole point. If you can't quit smoking at least try switching to vaping, save allot of money, save your life, save your families lives! I don't care which brand of ecig just get the word out they work! Me and my girlfirend both quit after smoking 15+ years. This is a public war that can be won.
By the way if they legalize marijuana there are vaporizers for bud and THC/ Hash oil can be used in an e-cig so there goes the only real health hazard there, however it being illegal means it costs too much to make the oil aand bud vaporizers are expensive because they must be designed in a concealable fashion.
If you want to fight heart disease, PAD, and the risk of strokes do the following:
Maintain a blood level range of circulating vitamin D of 50-80 ng/ml, year round and for life.
Treating Vitamin D Deficiency Significantly Reduces Heart Disease Risk, Studies Find
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100315161716.htm
Heart disease was found to start immediately BELOW 43 ng/ml, circulating vitamin D.
Throw your calcium supplement in the trash, forever. Americans get plenty of calcium from even a garbage diet. The medical advice to take a calcium supplement was wrong, wrong, wrong.
Take a vitamin K2 supplements daily (not vitamin K1- we get plenty of that).
Do not wear sun screen or block unless you plan a vacation in the Sahara Desert. "Skin cancer" kills barely 10,000 a year. Vitamin D deficiency diseases kill 100 X that.
Exercise until moderately out of breath, like we have for millions of years, before the invention of the pharmaceutical industry.
Chronic vitamin D deficiency is at the core of all heart disease and almost certainly the cause of the "mysterious inflammation" of which until recently doctors were clueless. Vitamin D is a steroid, not a vitamin, and steroids are used by medical types around the world to treat....inflammation.