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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

The New Shackle Of Serfdom: Clinging To Healthcare Insurance

The shackles of this new serfdom are invisible, but no less destructive for being invisible.

One of the more remarkable characteristics of American life is our passive acceptance of systems that are so obviously completely insane. Yes, I refer to our healthcare system, a.k.a.sickcare because in America sickness is profitable and health is not, and healthcare profiteering that would be the envy of pirates and warlords everywhere is the norm.

What warlord wouldn't jump on the opportunity to jack up the cost of a medication from $13.50 a tablet to $750 overnight [6], or as the article highlights, jack up the cost of an off-patent med from $1 a pill to $750 a pill in a few years?

This piratical pillaging is not an outlier--it's the norm in America's parasitic pharmaceutical industry:

Cycloserine, a drug used to treat dangerous multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, was just increased in price to $10,800 for 30 pills from $500 after its acquisition by Rodelis Therapeutics.

Imagine getting to jack your weekly wage from $500/week to $10,800/week while issuing a laughably lame excuse.

These profiteering prices are not the shackle of serfdom, at least not directly; few pay these prices in cash--insurers pay. And when prices rise, insurers jack their rates up accordingly (plus a bit to cover their costly political lobbying and the profit margins expected of quasi-monopolies).

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2 comments:

Steve said...

And,now,by law,we MUST have health insurance, and our rates must reflect the price increases! Are you feeling like you are in the "Free market"system now?

Want to repeal Obamacare yet?

Good God, people amaze me.

lmclain said...

The sheep are more stupid than anyone could have ever imagined.
Just think about what the founding fathers would have said if you described to them the state of America now.
The Constitution? GONE. Bill of Rights? Toilet paper.
Rule of law? Well, to which set of laws are you referring?
They would not believe what "we, the people" have allowed to happen.
You are FORCED by the government to BUY a product that is deliberately overpriced and essentially unusable. So that BUSINESSMEN can profit in obscene ways. Property is TAKEN from citizens and sold (!) to OTHER citizens TO MAKE A PROFIT (!!). The government says THEY own the rain and the stream behind your house belongs to them, even though YOU paid for it.
The government still prints money with God's name on it, but ruins lives over someone saying "Jesus".
Keep cheering.
Or WAKE THE HELL UP.