Let’s start with what childbirth cost back when healthcare was paid in cash. Here are the costs of childbirth in 1952 at one of the finest hospitals on the West Coast, The Santa Monica Hospital: $30:
According to the BLS Inflation Calculator, $1 in 1952 is $12.13 today, so adjusted for inflation, the $30 fee to deliver a baby would be $363 today. Here are maternity rates from 1952:
A private room was $19, or $230 in today’s currency. OK, so we have fancier equipment now, more staff, etc., but really–does that explain what once cost less than $1,000 in today’s money–paid in cash, no insurance–now costs $44,000? No. Here’s why: structured financial skims/scams.
Dutch Rojas (@DutchRojas) is a go-to source for explaining the opaque way “healthcare” skims / scams siphon off hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Consider these X posts:
Why is healthcare expensive?
You go to your doctor.
Same building, same service.
But now it’s 3x the price, because they sold to a health system.
The secret?
A “facility fee” was added.
Medicare and commercial payers just hand it over.
Home Doctor - Practica...Rodrigo AlterioBest Price: $44.99Buy New $37.00(as of 04:21 UTC - Details)
It’s not for better care.
It’s for ownership.
Every consolidation deal is a bet against the patient and you’re footing the bill.
And the politicians love every bit of it…
Provider Taxes: The Most Elegant Grift in American Healthcare
It’s not a tax.
It’s a laundering operation.
Here’s how it works:
North Carolina’s ‘nonprofit’ health systems are running a $40+ billion hedge fund operation disguised as healthcare.
They’re extracting hundreds of millions in tax exemptions while paying CEOs tens of millions.
This is the largest wealth transfer scheme in the American healthcare system.
This doesn’t even include outright Medicare/Medicaid fraud, overbilling, unnecessary tests, medications and procedures, and a nearly endless menu of other enrichment schemes passed off as “care.” These billions go to the “owners,” not the frontline healthcare providers / workers.....
https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly25/healthcare-skim-scam7-25.html?fullweb=1
Our starting point should always be: this is not the only way we could organize "healthcare." We could have a rational, transparent, competitive and affordable system. But to get that, we first have to completely dismantle the current system, and everyone skimming billions will fight with all their billions in campaign contributions to stop that from ever happening. As a result, the nation will be bankrupted by greed.