This is something I wish everyone knew about how medical services changed in 1973. Up to that point it was illegal to make a profit from medical services. However a wealthy friend and president/chairman of Kaiser-Permanente asked Nixon for a favor which resulted in the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 allowing medical entities to make a profit. Since then medical costs have continued to rise so the profiteers such as insurance companies could make a killing (literally in some cases) off the medical needs of Americans.
Here is something else the law did: "And to perfectly cement HMOA73 as the profiteering boondoggle that it actually was, the law Nixon mandated also included clauses that encouraged medical providers to not CURE afflictions, but to PROLONG them by only treating the symptoms. There’s no money to be made in CURING sickness."
Basically this means the year I turned 20 years old medical care was changed to ‘for profit’ and has remained that way for the last 47 years. People came before profit back then.
I have worked in the insurance industry, behavioral health, domestic violence, a hospital and state public health. It has been a journey of awakening over the years as to how insurance, pharmaceutical, hospital conglomerates and medical supply companies have dominated the healthcare industry for profits without any real care about the needs of people. I intentionally left out medical staff because the majority does care about helping sick people and the companies they work for tie their hands. I have had numerous conversations with doctors, nurses, other providers who are feed up with not being able to provide care to their patients because insurance companies deny the services or charge such high costs that people can’t afford the care.
This is why I am a huge proponent of National Healthcare. Doctors and medical staff were able to make a decent living providing services within the non-profit environment for years. But corporate greed took over and has done nothing but line the pockets of those that care only for the money they make and nothing for the well being of our citizens. I don’t think we can go backwards, only forwards to healthcare for all.
Sanders and Warren have it right — national healthcare needs to be established in this country. And to assist with the changes HMOA73 needs to be removed from law. When confronting those resisting national healthcare use this information to point out how the ‘for profit’ medical industry was started, who started it and that the law is less than 50 years old.
For reference here is the full article: http://healthoverprofit.org/…/for-profit-health-care-used-…/