Nurses are Right about the Problem, but Wrong about the Solution
Politics / Healthcare Sector Jun 16, 2010 - 06:33 PM GMTBy: Mike_Stathis
Last week, more than 14,000 nurses from Minnesota hospitals staged a 1-day walk-out as a sign of protest over excessive patient loads.
The nurses are right about staffing shortages and overloaded responsibilities.
However, their solution – hiring more nurses will add further costs pressures to America’s unsustainable healthcare bubble.
Without radical change, this bubble promises to burst, adding yet another dimension to America's healthcare crisis.
Most people already know that America spends far more than every other nation on healthcare by every measure, at 18% of GDP, while failing to provide coverage for over 40 million Americans.
In contrast, all developed nations in the world spend anywhere from 6.8% to 10% of GDP (France is the lone exception, with 11% of GDP on healthcare) for a system of healthcare that delivers better standards of care and provides coverage to every citizen, regardless of employment status, income or age.
Despite the overwhelming myths spread by politicians, pundits and many journalists, the quality of U.S. healthcare is mediocre.
In fact, on a per dollar basis, it is the worst healthcare system in (at least) the developed world.
Furthermore, the outrageous costs of healthcare in the U.S. have created a unique consequence, unseen elsewhere in the world; that of medical bankruptcies. According to studies by medical researchers at Harvard, medical bankruptcies now account for about 50% of all personal bankruptcies each year in the U.S., at over 1 million.
It would be natural to assume that virtually all of those who have fallen victim to medical bankruptcy lack health insurance.
The shocking reality, according to Harvard researchers is that anywhere from 50% to 75% of those filing for bankruptcy attributed to medical bills or some medical condition actually had full health insurance.
How is this possible?
The fact is that even having full health insurance does not mean you are able to pay your medical bills. If you think a co-payment of 10% or 20% provides you with sufficient medical insurance, you are unaware of the cost of a cancer diagnosis or other chronic disease. In fact, America's crisis in chronic disease is about to spiral out of control.
Unfortunately, most Americans never learn the realities about the healthcare system until they are on their death bed, many having paid their last dime for medical bills.
The research from Harvard emphasizes two of the most significant problems found within the health insurance industry; lack of price transparency and the unhindered ability of insurers and managed care organizations to raise deductibles, co-pays and add exclusions.
The problems plaguing the U.S. healthcare system are numerous – fraud, overutilization, underutilization, medical errors, profiteering, lack of competition, poor and inadequate regulation.
None of these problems have been resolved by Obama’s healthcare bill. Instead, this disastrous bill was shoved down the throat of Americans to ensure higher tax revenues, less choice, less coverage and higher costs.
ObamaCare adds to the growing list of unconstitutional laws passed in just a few short years (Patriot Act, Homegrown Terrorist Act, and TARP). It should be clear that America has been seized by a fascist regime.
Recall that Obama transformed healthcare reform into health insurance reform, all without bothering to reform the health insurance industry.
Understand that, according to Washington's highly inaccurate inflationary data for 2009 (CPI -0.4%), health insurance premiums soared by 7% to 8%, outpacing general inflation by about 2000%. Thus, any discussion of hyperinflation must include healthcare.
Ask yourself how many times you have seen so-called experts use the words "healthcare" and "hyperinflation" in the same sentence?
The answer to this question should serve to point out hidden agendas by those you rely upon for unbiased and accurate insights.
If you think the massive annual inflation in health insurance is bad now, just wait until ObamaCare kicks in full force. You should expect soaring deductibles, less coverage and soaring premiums.
Obama's Healthcare reform act, if not revoked or radically revised, is likely to become the worst in law passed in U.S. history, second only to the Federal Reserve Banking Act. Ironically, both bills involved a significant amount of bribes and illegal activity.
I find it particularly odd how we have heard very little from Washington or the media since ObamaCare was signed into law. Normally, a bill of such magnitude would dominate the headlines for months if not years, unless it has been intentionally shielded by Washington and the media. This is precisely what has happened.
The topic of Obama's new healthcare law will only resurface as a means to leverage support for republican candidates in the upcoming election. Understand that both political parties have been bought off by the healthcare industry. Despite the protest from republican candidates, their solution does nothing to reform healthcare. Either way, Americans lose.
Meanwhile, talking heads in the media continue to brainwash the American people by criticism of the current administration, only as a means to stack the odds in favor of the republican party. In reality, both parties are the essentially the same when it comes to issues that matter most to Americans.
This is specifically why Washington continues to expand upon its highly unfair system of free trade, which continues to shuttle millions of good jobs overseas for the benefit of corporate profits. It is also why there will never be any significant healthcare reform as long as lobbyists run the show. This is something most Americans fail to realize.
I addressed these issues at length in America’s Financial Apocalypse. Those in control of the game do not want Americans to realize the truth. This is why I have been banned.
It also explains why the media monopoly focuses its content on distractions, such as Paris Hilton, Octomom and other senseless trivia, all while encouraging impulsive activities that prevent people from thinking such as texting and twittering. The criminal psychology underlying these tactics is an entirely different topic of discussion.
As I have stated in the past, Obama used healthcare reform as a distraction to allow his staff to negotiate what will end up being another failed reform for Wall Street.
Obama loves distractions because it offers him something he promised the people but has failed to deliver; hope. Distractions offer the faintest amount of hope that he can erase his numerous failures for a shot at another term.
Here are just a few of Obama's broken promises:
(1) Immediate removal of troops from Iraq
(2) Restructure free trade policy
(3) Provide universal healthcare (this was a lie from the beginning since his plan never included universal healthcare)
(4) Those responsible for the financial crisis would be held accountable
(5) No signing statements
(6) Wall Street reform
In his latest distraction, the BP oil spill has been positioned by Obama's strategists as an attempt to boost his horrendous approval ratings.
At no time has the media monopoly dared to criticize his political strategy of distracting from failed reforms and the lack of any real improvements to the economy. The reason for this silence is because the media is in on the game as well.
It's shocking how most Americans still fail to realize the fact that the mass media is their enemy, for if they truly understood how the media has played an even larger role in their demise than Wall Street, they would ban this malignant device of mind-control.
The only way to fight the destructive nature of the media is to turn off the tube and stop reading. If done in mass, the industry would be forced into bankruptcy. Otherwise, Americans will continue to fall victim to endless lies and scams indefinitely. In the end, you are to blame if you chose to empower the media with your patronage.
Don’t let the occasional criticisms of Obama fool you. If the media was truly being critical, journalists, pundits and so-called political opponents of Obama would ask why he has yet to indict any of the banking executives for securities fraud.
Instead, the media has used Bernie Madoff to distract Americans from focusing on the massive wave of fraud by Wall Street banks, credit-rating agencies, banking regulators, the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve.
Recall, we witnessed the same thing after the dotcom collapse, whereby not one single perpetrator of this charade went to prison. Instead, the media used Enron and WorldCom - two companies that had absolutely nothing to do with the dotcom bubble - to distract from the real criminals who caused the loss of trillions of dollars from everyday investors.
History only repeats because people have short memories and do not learn from the past.
The same will be the case for healthcare.
Just a few years ago, lobbyists engaged in a variety of unethical and in some cases criminal activities to ensure that Medicare Part D was passed. We now see how disastrous this law has been, unless you are a drug company. Unfortunately, Obama's healthcare reform will be far worse than Medicare Part D.
While the medical-industrial complex will bear some of the burden for increased medical costs, it will be consumers who ultimately share the brunt. Make no mistake, health insurers, drug makers and employers who sponsor health insurance for employees will escape higher costs. They will pass all taxes and price hikes onto workers, causing a reduction in net wages. Others will add to the worrisome trend of sending more jobs overseas.
In the end, the profits from medical-industrial complex will continue to shine, much as they have in the past. This is great news for healthcare investors but terrible news for Americans.
I knew this reality long ago, which is why I have maintained my investment stance on the industry ever since releasing America's Financial Apocalypse in 2006.
I reiterated my investment posture in my first online publication, Stay Clear of U.S. Assets, and many times thereafter.
What else would you expect with 2100 healthcare lobbyists all with very deep pockets, other than continued control over U.S. healthcare policy?
It is shocking how Americans have not demanded an end to all lobbyist activities. Doing so would represent the single largest step towards restoring the strength and equity in the U.S. economy. A nation without corporate lobbyists would also restore the vote of the people.
Let me be clear, as long as lobbyists remain in business, Americans will have no vote. And they will continue to be held hostage to the price demands and collusive activities of the oil, financial and healthcare industries.
If not defused carefully utilizing a long-term sustainable strategy, America’s healthcare bubble will share the same fate as all other asset bubbles. However, the consequences of the implosion of this bubble will play out differently ad persist for decades.
Once America’s healthcare bubble pops, hospitals, nursing homes and other care facilities will shut their doors. Waiting lines will be ramped. Healthcare premiums will soar. Benefits will be slashed. This will add to the forces which have already propelled America into the Second Great Depression, as I first predicted a few years ago.
Recently, I released the solution to America’s healthcare crisis in a book, titled America’s Healthcare Solution.
As someone who has worked in the private healthcare investment industry, I feel qualified to address the problems and detail the solutions to America’s healthcare crisis. I do so in an unbiased manner. My only goal in writing this book is to present an analysis and solution absent of political agendas because this is the only real path to a solution for the people.
Do not allow yourself to be swayed by healthcare lies and myths preached by talking heads with absolutely no expertise in healthcare. What they do have are political and financial agendas.
Do not allow yourself to be swayed by healthcare lies and myths preached by politicians. They too have political and financial agendas.
If you want to understand the problems and solutions to America’s healthcare crisis, I would like to invite you to read America’s Healthcare Solution.
The solution I provide offers the opportunity to create free-market healthcare, which despite the myth, does not currently exist.
The solution I have engineered is based primary on technology. However, healthcare policy must also be restructured and investment capital must be provided to encourage the vital participation of corporations and entrepreneurs.
The investment required for real healthcare reform will build equity, rather than serve as temporary subsidies for the medical-industrial complex.
Where will the funds come from?
Investment in a national healthcare IT network will be quickly recouped once administrative bureaucracy, fraud and waste have been curtailed through a modernized healthcare system, designed for the twenty-first century.
Understand that U.S. taxpayers already pay sufficient funds for universal healthcare, at 60% of total annual healthcare expenditures, amounting to 10% of GDP. Thus, there is a huge amount of waste in the current system.
If executed according to the requirements I lay forth, America’s healthcare solution promises to reduce fraud, medical errors, waste, improve outcomes and increase accountability. Best of all, it repositions healthcare delivery into the hands where it belongs – caregivers and consumers.
Consumers will know the costs of illness as well as the savings they can earn for healthy lifestyles.
Physicians and nurses will be able to treat more patients more effectively.
Choice, transparency, competition and accountability will be essential features of America’s healthcare solution.
In 2006, I released what I argue to be the most accurate and comprehensive book predicting the collapse of the economy in my book America’s Financial Apocalypse. However, I was banned by the media because they desired to protect the agendas of their sponsors (Wall Street, corporate America and Washington).
Instead, America's media monopoly opted for less credible sources, all with agendas and bias, many of which continue to spread myths, scare tactics and other rhetoric which will ultimately lead Americans to side with Wall Street once these outlandish predictions fail to materialize. This has been a very cleverly orchestrated strategy very few recognize.
Regardless, one cannot change what has been previously published. Accordingly, America's Financial Apocalypse will continue to serve as a crystal ball for many years to come.
Today, America faces similar dangers within its healthcare system. I first discussed these issues in my 2006 book. I have expanded upon this discussion in America’s Healthcare Solution.
If you live in the United States, you owe it to yourself to find out the full unbiased truth about healthcare; something the media and Washington refuse to tell you.
If you are an investor, you will discover amazing investment opportunities already being seized upon by a variety of high-tech firms.
Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Oracle, Qualcomm, AT&T, Verizon, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel, AMD, Agilent, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, UnitedHealth, Humana, Healthways, and hundreds of other companies, both large and small are looking to seize a slice a of America's $2.3 trillion healthcare market.
By Mike Stathis
www.avaresearch.com
Copyright © 2010. All Rights Reserved. Mike Stathis.
Mike Stathis is the Managing Principal of Apex Venture Advisors , a business and investment intelligence firm serving the needs of venture firms, corporations and hedge funds on a variety of projects. Mike's work in the private markets includes valuation analysis, deal structuring, and business strategy. In the public markets he has assisted hedge funds with investment strategy, valuation analysis, market forecasting, risk management, and distressed securities analysis. Prior to Apex Advisors, Mike worked at UBS and Bear Stearns, focusing on asset management and merchant banking.
The accuracy of his predictions and insights detailed in the 2006 release of America's Financial Apocalypse and Cashing in on the Real Estate Bubble have positioned him as one of America's most insightful and creative financial minds. These books serve as proof that he remains well ahead of the curve, as he continues to position his clients with a unique competitive advantage. His first book, The Startup Company Bible for Entrepreneurs has become required reading for high-tech entrepreneurs, and is used in several business schools as a required text for completion of the MBA program.
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