Do not read this article if you do not want to get angry. The “healthcare industry” in the United States has become one gigantic money making scam, and tens of millions of American families now live in great fear of illness and disease. Why are they so afraid? It is because a single trip to the hospital can ruin you financially. Even if you are covered by health insurance, medical debt can still wreck your finances. In fact, most of the people that go bankrupt due to medical bills actually have health insurance. Meanwhile, on the other side there are lots of people that are becoming fabulously wealthy from this system. Our “healthcare industry” has turned large numbers of doctors, lawyers, health insurance company executives and pharmaceutical company executives into multi-millionaires. Of course the largest shareholders in our gigantic healthcare corporations are raking in the most cash of all. The healthcare industry in the United States has become a cesspool of corruption and greed, and this has been the case for so long that we don’t even remember what a legitimate system even looks like anymore.
Many Americans truly believed that health insurance would protect them if something went terribly wrong with their health.
But then they discovered that health insurance companies will use their “delay, deny and defend” tactics to weasel out of paying what they owe any what that they possibly can.
Even if you do have a health insurance company that is relatively honest, and that is fairly rare these days, you are still just one really bad accident or one really bad illness away from bankruptcy unless you are independently wealthy.
Our healthcare system is designed to rapidly drain money out of us when we are at our most vulnerable. If you have to call for an ambulance to take you to the hospital, are you thinking about how much your care will cost at that point?
Of course not. You are just hoping that you will survive.
Today, it is so easy to rack up $10,000, $20,000 or even $30,000 in medical debt in the blink of an eye and many hospitals are becoming extremely aggressive about collecting on those medical debts.
I guarantee that many of you that are reading this article know exactly what I am talking about.
One trip to the hospital can wipe out years of financial savings. But why should it cost so much? In many cases, a doctor only spends a few minutes with you.
Sadly, you discover the truth when you follow the money. There are a lot of people that are becoming exceedingly wealthy from this system, and unfortunately that does not include middle class Americans.
The following are 18 horrifying statistics about medical bills, medical debt and the healthcare industry that will make you so mad you will want to tear your hair out…
#1 According to the CFPB, approximately 100 million Americans are in medical debt right now.
#2 Even though the vast majority of the population is covered by health insurance, 62 percent of the two million personal bankruptcies that are filed each year in the United States are caused by medical debt.
#3 One survey found that U.S. households have piled up more than 220 billion dollars in medical debt.
#4 A three day stay in the hospital will typically cost you somewhere around $30,000.
#5 Americans spend more than 200 billion dollars treating cancer each year.
#6 According to the CDC, heart disease costs this country more than 250 billion dollars each year.
#7 According to the NIH, diabetes costs this country more than 400 billion dollars each year.
#8 A 25-year-old mother in Nevada was handed a bill for $700,000 after her baby daughter spent about two months in the neonatal intensive care unit.
#9 One study found that hospitals overcharge Americans “by as much as 18 times over their costs”.
#10 78 percent of U.S. adults have avoided hospital visits because they cost so much.
#11 Hospital profits have risen by more than 400 percent since 1999.
#12 A study that was conducted a few years ago determined that more than 90 percent of all hospital bills contain errors that can result in “overcharges, unnecessary costs, and insurance claim denials”…
According to a 2020 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, billing errors affected over 90% of hospital bills. These errors can result in overcharges, unnecessary costs, and insurance claim denials, leading to financial hardship for patients.
#13 The average family premium for employer-sponsored health insurance in the United States has skyrocketed to $25,572 annually.
#14 One survey found that 18 percent of all insured adults in the U.S. have had a health insurance claim denied within the past year.
#15 Since Obamacare became law, the annual profits of the five largest health insurance companies in the United States have gone up by 230 percent.
#16 In 2023, the six largest health insurance companies in the United States had combined revenues of almost 1.1 trillion dollars.
#17 In 2023, the CEOs of the five largest health insurance companies in the U.S. brought home approximately 75 million dollars in total compensation.
#18 There are five giant pharmaceutical companies that each make more than 10 billion dollars in profits each year.
Our healthcare system should not be based on greed.
It should be based on helping people and doing what is right for patients.
Other industrialized nations spend a much smaller portion of their GDP on healthcare, and many of their systems are actually more efficient.
What is wrong with us?
Why can’t we get our healthcare system fixed?
Can anyone answer that question?
Unfortunately, I don’t think that it is going to be fixed.
They have made trillions of dollars by keeping us sick and managing our illnesses.
When trillions of dollars are at stake, any effort to fundamentally fix the system will be met with overwhelming resistance.
So it appears that we are stuck with our current system for the foreseeable future, and that is very bad news for all of us.
Michael’s blockbuster entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com. He has also written eight other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing. You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
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