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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GraceZ who wrote (26061)	2/8/2005 3:23:37 PM
From: FreedomForAll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 110194

The younger generations have been getting screwed by the "Greatest Generation" ever since the 1950's. Thats not going to change any time soon, because the younger generations don't have an AARP to lobby on their behalf. And the "Greatest Generation" has been resting on their laurels since the 40's; someone forgot to remind them that enemies domestic are even more dangerous than enemies foreign. US patriotism is nothing but brainwashing, and the pledge of allegiance is nothing but serfdom. Sorry to go off-topic. Freedom FOR ALL

To: GraceZ who wrote (26061)	2/8/2005 5:50:51 PM
From: Larry S.	Respond to of 110194

Grace A. Zaccardi, You are preaching to the Choir but there are areas where the free market doesn't seem to work well and Medical insurance is apparently one of them. You can complain all you want about the cost of running Medicare but it can't be nearly as inefficient as the private insurance companies. Yes, not only does Medicare cover procedures it shouldn't but it doesn't pay enough, in many cases for what it does cover. I had a spine treatment a couple of years ago and, because I'm of the Medicare age, the facility was only allowed to charge $259.00. My recollection is that the UHC allowance would have been about $400.00. But, if I came in without insurance, my bill would have been $2800.00, something only the very wealthy could pay. Surprisingly, I was told that about 1 out of 20 patients pay the maxi. They said they had to charge that much to stay in business but that they would be happy with 350.00 from everyone. Further, I don't believe that the treatment was really necessary. I had to go along with it because the Doctor wouldn't operate without first verifying that the treatment would work. I spoke with several people who had my problem and all of them had been through the same thing without it having any impact. I got a second opinion from one of the top people in the field (Hosp. in NYC) and was told how it frequently helped. My Doctor wasn't afraid of being sued but rather afraid of some medical board in the State. It was simply a game to maximize the earnings of the profession. In spite of all of this (and I could fill a book with examples), the fact is that the distribution of incomes in our Country is getting so skewed that the below median families need help in some way. Before I retired and had time to learn what others faced, I used to complain about the tax structure but no more. It is more an income distribution problem. I have also experienced the change from a regulated environment to the free market environment in the telecommunications industry. The parking lot was always half full two and three hours after quitting time and it was always full early. Not any more. After retiring I started my own consulting business and worked for some of the well known companies in the Industry. No one worked harder than we had in the past but everyone seemed to have their eye on the stock price. Why? Because everyone was looking to become a millionaire through their options. Some did but most, including the really dedicated, are still wondering what happened. Now, I'm going to go back to only lurking and learning from Russ and others that provide such good investment info. on this thread. Larry

To: GraceZ who wrote (26061)	2/8/2005 7:27:28 PM
From: KyrosL	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 110194

There is overwhelming evidence that the free market system does not work for medical services. Countries with nationalized health care (that's almost all advanced countries) have far healthier and long-lived populations than countries with the free market system (that would be the US among advanced countries) and, interestingly, do it with far less money to boot.