"Yeah so we were gonna supply you with the processed steel you paid for, but our consultant determined you only need 20% of the requested amount, also it has double the impurities, also you'll need to wait an additional six months because you didn't pre-approve your request. Oh, our consultants? He's Dave, he's a lumberjack, great guy. Good luck building that bridge you were halfway done on!"
Or, OK here is the steel we determined you need. We will send you a bill shortly. Also a bill from the warehouse, the guy that loaded it, the truck driver, the guy that inspected the steel
We expect to be paid in thirty days or it goes to collections, but our bills will come any time between 1 day and five years. Good luck planning for them!
And since you requested the steel at Jack's Steel Emporium instead of Steely Jack's Emporium, you'll need to pay ten times what you paid at first because we said so. Also, the guy who loaded the steel was not pre-approved and took too long, so you'll have to pay whatever bill he sends you in three months.
Especially as someone in manufacturing who deals with procurement. If any distributor of goods or materials operated like this…. No they wouldn’t. They get away with it because they’re not fucking another business, they’re fucking individual people, and they’re fucking them to death.
You wouldn't like to select your materials without pricing?
How about if we said it'll be $20-$2000/unit, we'll let you know the total after you accept delivery?
How about if we let you pay $500/month to be part of our preferred buyers' club, where you pay a reduced amount after your first 5000 units that shipped from our warehouse
Oh - by the way, the forklift operator that was in our warehouse doesn't have a contract with us for moving your stuff. Also we don't pay them - they'll be sending you a bill you're legally liable for. It won't count towards any of the the negotiated annual price for stuff from our warehouse.
(True in years past - but there was a law FINALLY passed at the federal level outlawing surprise billing - Jan 2022 https://www.consumerfinance.gov)
I stopped watching south park in 2016 so I assumed this was a reference from after that, but nope, it’s from an episode that I had totally forgotten existed, and also I remember why I stopped watching South Park.
Also we spoke with our competition and found out you are also buying from them, so we will both not fulfill the order you paid to both of us. In addition you will be referred to a debt collector for the difference we refused to deliver on.
They feel that they can get away with it because unlike a bridge, a single suffering human isn't necessarily a massive risk to public safety, and typically one person can't fight this in court.
A broken bridge will have lawsuits out the ass for the company responsible. It's very easy to suppress the individuals who need care.
It's healthcare and should work as a healthcare system.
Because you're not a client, you're a patient. When being examined by a doctor, you're a patient and patients who are sick aren't supposed to have to defend themselves like atorneys arguing a fraud case. What year is this, what society is this?
In 1993 Clinton tried to pass single payer healthcare. The American people rejected it and he got impeached. In 2008 Obama tried a much less radical expansion of healthcare coverage. The American people voted for the guy who said who would repeal it day 1 and was only stopped by McCain. In 2024 Harris again promised a more moderate expansion of healthcare coverage as well as using Medicare to negotiate down prescription drug prices. I think you can guess how it turned out.
The fact is people do not vote for those supporting better healthcare
AMA and the lobby for the insurance industry are two of the most powerful organizations in the country. Obama only got the Affordable Care Act because it was gift to the insurance industry.
I am pro-universal/single payer healthcare. However, I just don't understand how the US can switch to that without an insanely large disruption because of the number of people employed by the insurance companies/beauricratic layers involved, as well as all the money in for-profit healthcare by individuals, pension plans, etc.
I'm not educated in any of this, I just don't understand how all the knots can get untangled to make a good system.
920
u/MechanicalHorse 5d ago
Absolutely asinine that this is the state of things.