Why America’s healthcare system has transformed into an unlucky lottery
by: Julie Wilson
NaturalNews.com
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Most of us are fully aware that America’s healthcare system is a complete disaster, and has only worsened following the implementation of Obamacare. Bestselling investigative journalist Donald L. Barlett breaks down this scenario in his book, Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business–and Bad Medicine, illustrating the way that corporate greed dictates the medical care we receive. The following is a snippet from his book:
You are standing in line at a supermarket to buy a box of Cheerios. You notice that the two customers in front of you are making the same purchase. The cashier rings up the first box at $5.41, just as advertised in the newspaper. But when the second box is scanned, the price registers $6.76. Strange, you think. Even more strange, the customer doesn’t seem to notice the difference.
Then it’s your turn. The cashier scans the box, and the price flashes $29.92. Why would anyone pay more than five times as much as another person for an identical box of cereal? They wouldn’t. But when it comes to health care, you don’t have any choice. And that’s precisely the kind of spread that hospitals use in selling their services. Except you don’t know it, it’s their secret.
When you hear a politician, an economist, a corporate executive, talk about the wonders of the free market in health care, they neglect to mention that the system is rigged in a way that would not be tolerated in the sale of any other consumer product.
In the supermarket, you know precisely what every other customer pays for a box of cereal or can of soup. But in the health care industry, that information is difficult, often impossible, to come by. Health care providers can, and do, charge one customer five times, in some cases even ten times, as much as another.
At least in the supermarket you have a choice of whether to pay the going price. When it comes to the cancer treatment you need to live or the emergency care your sick child requires in the middle of the night, you have no choice.
The Rest…HERE
