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I've been thinking about what is the next bubble? We've had technology, we've had real estate, we're having oil, so when the greasy oil bubble breaks, what will be next I wondered. Well a conversation with a friend makes me think it's going to be medical. I think I already know how it will break too.
Americans are aging. I see it each time I look in the mirror. The need for medical care will rise and rise over the next few decades and the medical establishment has been overcharging to pay for building the infrastructure they need. Everywhere in my home town enormous medical buildings have populated the redevelopment zone in the downtown area. They're gearing up for the rush, they're getting ready to rake in the dough as people spend their life savings to stay alive.
But people who have insurance and savings aren't what's going to burst the bubble; it is all the uninsured and poor people who are also going to get old and get ill. According to the National Center for Health Statistics in 2007, 43 million people between the ages of 18 and 65 were uninsured. There were also 66.8 million with private health insurance. That's almost 40% of the American people with no medical insurance. That means that someone is going to have to come up with a lot of money when all of these people get sick.
I am a prime example. I fall into the 40% with no insurance. I dropped my health insurance with Kaiser (Health Care in America) because if I get ill I won't be able to afford the insurance, co-pay and deductible of the plan I had anyway. I figured there's no point so I dropped it, bankruptcy is bankruptcy. If I can't get treatment when I finally get ill, I won't get treatment. If I can get some help through public programs, I'll get treated. But the bottom line is either someone will foot the bill or I'll die because I won't have the dough to pay for treatment.
With 43 million people at risk of getting ill and racking up huge medical bills with no hope of paying them, what's going to happen? Will hospitals bar the door? Will they check your bank account and insurance card at the door and deny entrance to those without the means or the insurance plan to pay for treatment?
It is an interesting problem. There are too many people out there to give free treatment to and yet I do not know if a hospital is allowed to turn away a critically ill person. If they aren't, the bubble is going to burst. With all of the obesity and lack of exercise in this country, with the lack of medical insurance, with the lack of a government plan, the medical establishment is facing a living time bomb, and they're all faceless, just like me. My picture isn't on anyone's insurance card. I don't think I'd be investing in the medical sector five years from now.
Another note, I saw a little piece of Oprah today and Michael Moore was on there talking about this issue. He was talking about how people say that we have better access than nations with nationalized health care like Canada. He talked about how people complain that they have to wait for something that isn't critical, like a hip replacement. He made a great point that I hadn't thought of before. We've taken 43 million people out of the line of people waiting for medical care. If you take 40% of the people out of any line, the line is bound to move faster isn't it? Duh, sometimes I marvel at the obvious things I don't think of.
Missing, you mean it hasn't burst already? I'm living it first hand. In fact I consider you an intelligent person Missing, I don;t know if you aprpeciate that or not but I do. yet let me ask is not everything ready to burst? If correct in that opinion, then what is the next step? Ah, the real question. I think i have written to that many a time and I see it not too far away. Best wishes.
Missing ,I can only say strange that our President doesn't see a problem at all. Oh well perhaps it is that Silver Spoon they either were born with or have aquired? Yes and PS let them come out from behind the rock they hide under and deal with real average American problems. Best wishes. Robert
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