Not sure if the under 50 guys here knew this.....

For Profit Health Care Was Illegal Until Nixon Changed Everything

 

GabriellePickard

02 June 201715:00

Prior to 1973 it was illegal in the United States to make profits from healthcare. In 1973, the Health Maintenance Organisation Act was passed, effectively changing the status from profiting off healthcare being illegal to legal.

In 1973 the then US President, Richard Nixon, passed the Health Maintenance Organization Act. The Act enabled medical centers, clinics, doctors, insurance companies and doctors to function as for-profit businesses, rather than operating solely as non-profit services.

The passing of the Health Maintenance Organization Act represented a significant effect by the US government to, as the (1) NCBI writes, “experiment with organizational change in the structure of the health care delivery system.” By being provided with grants to either start-up or develop, the Act helped to cement Health Maintenance Organizations into the American health system.

For Profit Healthcare a “Favor”

According to a report on (2) Investment Watch Blog, Nixon signed the Act as a favor to a personal friend, Edgar Kaiser, who was, at the time, the chairman and president of Kaiser-Permanente. Kaiser-Permanente was founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield, as an integrated managed care consortium.

The Investment Watch Blog’s article goes further, claiming that Nixon’s “profiteering boondoggle” new law even included clauses which encouraged medical providers to prolong illnesses by only treating the symptoms, instead of curing them, as a means of making more money.

In short, Nixon’s passing of the Health Maintenance Organisation Act is alleged, by some, to have paved the way for the ever-increasing demand for US-manufactured prescription drugs and somewhat coining the phrase: “There’s no money to be made in curing sickness.”

 

 

High Cost of Healthcare in U.S.

Today, the United States is well known for its high costs for healthcare. Some experts pin America’s expensive healthcare system on being driven by the desire to make profit. As Russell Andrews, a neurosurgeon and author of ‘Too Big To Succeed’ (3) says:

“The morphing of American medicine from a function of a humanitarian society into a revenue stream for healthcare profits, drug and medical device companies, hospitals, and insurance companies. In essence, we have transformed healthcare in the U.S. into an industry whose goals is to be profitable.”

Andrews condemns the ‘profitization’ of US healthcare further, referring to it as a “virus” that is infecting the system.

We can’t ignore the stats, which speak for themselves. Between April and June 2011, the five largest health insurance companies – Cigna, United Health, WellPoint, Humana and Aetna – made more than $3.3 billion in profit.

For-Profit Healthcare Spreading

And other countries seem to be adopting the U.S.’s penchant to profit from healthcare. For example, in Britain, recent governments have been criticised for continuing to privatise healthcare, and by doing so, putting the National Health Service (NHS) on the “brink of extinction.”

In 2013, the majority of new contracts to provide NHS services, were given to private companies, which, as the (4) Guardian reports, “hide behind the NHS logo but siphon off a profit.”
As (5) Top Secret Writers wrote in 2011, the U.S pharmaceutical and healthcare industry saw record profits that year, despite the poor economy.

Perhaps if the former US president, Richard Nixon, hadn’t signed the Health Maintenance Organisation Act in 1973, healthcare would be less of a profit-prioritizing industry and remained the free, not-for-profit service it should be.

http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2017/06/profit-health-care-illegal-nixon-changed-everything/

Looks to me the most significant cost/expenditure jump occurred prior to this change.  Right after Medicare was introduced in 1966.  

I know its real easy to think markets other than your own which made you wealthy should be non-profit.

Edited March 27, 20187 yr by Highmark

introduced by a Democrat & passed by a Democrat controlled congress

3 minutes ago, team ohio said:

introduced by a Democrat & passed by a Democrat controlled congress

Good ol' Chappaquiddick car crasher.    

5 minutes ago, team ohio said:

introduced by a Democrat & passed by a Democrat controlled congress

MC is an old senile R hating pants shitter. It appears it took you about 2 posts to figure that out.  

Welcome to the zoo!

Should of never happened

4 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

Should of never happened

Chappaquiddick...you're absolutely right....

42 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

Should of never happened

Why didn' you ever run for office?

3 hours ago, team ohio said:

introduced by a Democrat & passed by a Democrat controlled congress

That doesn't  change the fact that profit motive is a cancer on society, especially in the part of the economy that deals with real cancer...

Gotta admit, its strange to see a liberal blaming the health care industry and not the health insurance industry.

14 minutes ago, steve from amherst said:

Gotta admit, its strange to see a liberal blaming the health care industry and not the health insurance industry.

There's no difference anymore. They're both industries trying to profit off of sick people who need help. It's exploitative on both ends.

2 minutes ago, Wildboer said:

There's no difference anymore. They're both industries trying to profit off of sick people who need help. It's exploitative on both ends.

But liberals typicly give HC a walk while calling HI the devil. Then demand everyone gives their money to the devil.

10 minutes ago, steve from amherst said:

But liberals typicly give HC a walk while calling HI the devil. Then demand everyone gives their money to the devil.

HC just uses HI as a scapegoat for their exorbitant pricing levels, stupid liberals usually fall for it but the facade is apparently beginning to crumble.

1 hour ago, Wildboer said:

There's no difference anymore. They're both industries trying to profit off of sick people who need help. It's exploitative on both ends.

Yup.

1 hour ago, steve from amherst said:

But liberals typicly give HC a walk while calling HI the devil. Then demand everyone gives their money to the devil.

Yup.

1 hour ago, Wildboer said:

HC just uses HI as a scapegoat for their exorbitant pricing levels, stupid liberals usually fall for it but the facade is apparently beginning to crumble.

Yup.