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Real Conspiracy To Defraud The U.S. Military

uair01

Antediluvian
Joined
Apr 12, 2005
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Location
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I began this reporting four years ago at another newspaper 1,900 miles away. In 2015, I was working at
@MyDesert
in Palm Springs, California. It was a few days before I took a vacation. A private eye I knew – Bill – called me. He said he found something big. It felt clandestine.

I liked Bill, but I didn’t exactly trust him. He was a long-winded 70-something curmudgeon with a gravely voice who always told stories about his own greatness. (We have that in common.). With Bill, it was hard to tell truth from a boast. But I was so intrigued.
https://mobile.twitter.com/BrettKelman
I drive to Bill’s house. His home office is a wild mess – weird electronics and case files and shotgun shells are scattered across his desk. I can’t remember if he had a claymore or if that was Ron Swanson. Maybe both.

Bill hands me a tube of prescription skin cream. (It looks like the blue creams in this photo.) I notice the name on the tube is not Bill. This is someone else's medicine. Bill says the cream is worth thousands of dollars. I roll my eyes.
 

I began this reporting four years ago at another newspaper 1,900 miles away. In 2015, I was working at
@MyDesert
in Palm Springs, California. It was a few days before I took a vacation. A private eye I knew – Bill – called me. He said he found something big. It felt clandestine.

I liked Bill, but I didn’t exactly trust him. He was a long-winded 70-something curmudgeon with a gravely voice who always told stories about his own greatness. (We have that in common.). With Bill, it was hard to tell truth from a boast. But I was so intrigued.
https://mobile.twitter.com/BrettKelman
I drive to Bill’s house. His home office is a wild mess – weird electronics and case files and shotgun shells are scattered across his desk. I can’t remember if he had a claymore or if that was Ron Swanson. Maybe both.

Bill hands me a tube of prescription skin cream. (It looks like the blue creams in this photo.) I notice the name on the tube is not Bill. This is someone else's medicine. Bill says the cream is worth thousands of dollars. I roll my eyes.
The rest of that story is here:
 
This case is an example of how people (in America particularly) are being fleeced by the medical profession.
Doctors and pharma companies can charge what they like, pretty much.
 
True, it is about time that they all were investigated
 
This case is an example of how people (in America particularly) are being fleeced by the medical profession.
Doctors and pharma companies can charge what they like, pretty much.

Yep, my girlfriend used to get calls, reminding her to get her repeat prescription, but she regularly had to leave it till the end of the month, and payday, to get her meds (or not, if she was totally skint, as was often the case). Meanwhile, this fucking Dr used to go to his office in a HELICOPTER. She'd not know from one month to the next how much she'd be laying out, just that it would be hundreds, and the Quack would get really pissy if she just said she couldn't afford it - and not out of concern for her well-being, I'm sure.
Doctors take on jobs like we would take on a window-cleaning round - they buy a practice, which is really just a list of current customers and how much they are paying each month. It's up to the Quack who buys that practice to make sure the list is maintained, and expanded, the price is set according to the current/potential income, and he must maximise all revenue. Heaven forbid he miraculously cures all ailments and has an empty surgery - that would mean abject failure.

But whatever you do, don't mention "Socialised medical care", it sounds a bit like "Socialist", and that makes you a Commie bastard!

Yeah, I'm bitter, my best friend, the person who knew me and still loved me despite my many character flaws, couldn't afford her meds one month, and the next thing I know is she's dead. I hope a certain person's helicopter comes down, but not too badly, just enough to let some other vulture suck the marrow out of his bones while he tots up to see if he can afford medical care.

RIP AB.
 
Yep, my girlfriend used to get calls, reminding her to get her repeat prescription, but she regularly had to leave it till the end of the month, and payday, to get her meds (or not, if she was totally skint, as was often the case). Meanwhile, this fucking Dr used to go to his office in a HELICOPTER. She'd not know from one month to the next how much she'd be laying out, just that it would be hundreds, and the Quack would get really pissy if she just said she couldn't afford it - and not out of concern for her well-being, I'm sure.
Doctors take on jobs like we would take on a window-cleaning round - they buy a practice, which is really just a list of current customers and how much they are paying each month. It's up to the Quack who buys that practice to make sure the list is maintained, and expanded, the price is set according to the current/potential income, and he must maximise all revenue. Heaven forbid he miraculously cures all ailments and has an empty surgery - that would mean abject failure.

But whatever you do, don't mention "Socialised medical care", it sounds a bit like "Socialist", and that makes you a Commie bastard!

Yeah, I'm bitter, my best friend, the person who knew me and still loved me despite my many character flaws, couldn't afford her meds one month, and the next thing I know is she's dead. I hope a certain person's helicopter comes down, but not too badly, just enough to let some other vulture suck the marrow out of his bones while he tots up to see if he can afford medical care.

RIP AB.

A terribly sad story.

You're entitled to be bitter.
 
Bastards, they don't care about anyone, they have no conscience, what they can charge should be capped
 
LordRsmacker,

Yes, very sad, and happening to too many people over there.

You guys need to push for something like our NHS.

Sure, it costs a fortune. But can you think of a better way to spend money ?

They will call you a 'Socialist'. Ignore it. It is just another way of spelling 'humanitarian'

For the price of a couple of refurbished nukes you could fund it for a year.

INT21.
 
You guys need to push for something like our NHS.

Sure, it costs a fortune. But can you think of a better way to spend money ?
Well, they did have Obamacare, but lots of people opposed it.
 
And they are still trying to undo that step in the right direction.

And 'the Devil take the hindmost' as they say.
 
was it a step in the right direction, i heard otherwise
 
was it a step in the right direction, i heard otherwise
I actually know people who are alive now, who likely would not be if Obamacare had not been passed. I'm not exaggerating.

Our situation is a stinking mess, but a lot of people have coverage now who could not get it before. Could not get it. We'll fix our stinking mess, probably with something like Medicare For All, and we'll have a system like the rest of the industrial democracies. Sooner the better.
 
LordRsmacker,

Yes, very sad, and happening to too many people over there.

You guys need to push for something like our NHS.

Sure, it costs a fortune. But can you think of a better way to spend money ?

They will call you a 'Socialist'. Ignore it. It is just another way of spelling 'humanitarian'

For the price of a couple of refurbished nukes you could fund it for a year.

INT21.

Indeed, but one small detail is that I'm a Brit, still here in Blighty. The one thing that made me resist the extremely attractive option of marrying her and living a nice comfortable life out there was the prospect of being rinsed for my essential medication each month, with who-knows-what to come in my declining years. I chose to stay here with the dreary weather, the doom and gloom, everyone killing themselves to live, the congestion and arseholes trying to build on every scrap of land they can get their mitts on, etc etc, and it really was the NHS that swung it. There's so much wrong with it, but when you are elsewhere, facing the prospect of not being able to afford being ill, you realise it really is a wonderful thing.

If you are totally dirt-poor in the US, there is a basic health service, but for the vast majority, Mr & Mrs Ordinary, people without huge reserves of cash in the bank, it's easy to find yourself suddenly in deep shit. Yes, there's insurance, but try getting some if you have a pre-existing health condition.

Or rather, try paying for it, there will always be someone willing to provide the cover, just at an exorbitant price. Policitians can stand there, and say with sincerity, that there ARE insurance providers for everyone, and they are correct - they just omit to say that you will be at their mercy and could be handing over a large chunk of your monthly income. Many simply choose to be able to eat, and hope an anvil doesn't fall from the sky on top of them.
My g/f's heart condition and previous operations meant she was practically uninsurable at a reasonable cost, so with normal everyday expenses to meet, found herself having to wait until payday for her prescription, even if that was weeks away. What kind of way is that to be, in the richest nation on Earth?

I don't want to get all political, this is not a board for that sort of thing, IMHO, but we need to be more vigilant here in the UK, to make sure we don't find ourselves in the same position - free healthcare if you are destitute, or in hock to insurance companies (as well as the mortgages/landlords who currently squeeze us until the pips squeak). Mr Cameron did his best to set us on that path, I'm sure the direction of travel hasn't altered...
 
Mr Cameron did his best to set us on that path, I'm sure the direction of travel hasn't altered...
If you look further back, Tony Blair and John Major did their bit before Cameron. Cameron can still be blamed, though.
 
LordRsmacker,

Apologies. It was the bit about your doc arriving in a helicopter that threw me.

And I'm with you on most of your points.

I'm lucky (if you can consider having a heart condition lucky) in that I am retired and get my meds for free. I would be hard pushed if I was still working.

I do remember a few years back when I was on holiday in Greece during a heat wave,. I couldn't take the heat, and had to get an early flight back. I didn't need any medication, but the local charged me E 100 just to sign a form saying I was ok to fly. And because it was my choice to cut the trip short, I couldn't get it back.

Insurance is a bummer. I don't have any specific health insurance. But do have it for my house, and for my funeral.

And, of course, the car.

But at least I know that if I have to visit A&E the first thing the medics do will not be check my insurance standing. Unlike our TransAtlantic cousins.

INT21.
 
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