The Lack of Affordable Healthcare in the US

[Skarekrow]

It makes one wonder: does the government that implemented affordable health care own the insurance companies? If a person lives alone and makes $30,000 a year, they get zero credit to an almost impossible already insurance rate with poor coverage. They are talking about $2000 base rate insurance coming....a month. Doing the math, they punish a person for not having insurance. Who can afford $24,000 a year health insurance rates? That would leave $500 a month left. Now, if you lie about your income, it's alright for some people to make their numbers look right. If you make minimum wage, your cost will be alright. If your spouse is over 65, they count their income with yours.

Now, they are closing down those doctors that don't show due diligence with their prescriptions for their patients. Nothing wrong with that. Then, they get all the pharmacies to use the same generic med that does not offer any relief from pain and still call it a narcotic. After taking those a month, a person hurts all over. Why? Meds we can't afford without insurance are becoming somewhat useless.

Makes a person want a joint? Won't stop chronic pain.

So why don’t we have insurance for all?
It’s the number one reason for bankruptcy in the US...it’s an idiotic system set up to gouge the sick and ill and those who are at their most vulnerable.
Then if folks are so scared of govt healthcare they can buy their own rider plans that I’m sure will be available.
They charged my insurance over $100,000.00 for my week long two surgery ordeal back in March.
Insanity.
The only reason they charge what they do is because no one has stepped in and told them no.
The lobbyists are strong with the $$$$$ to keep profits ever rising.

I don’t mind them closing down doctors who obviously prescribe incorrectly or work as a pill mill.
Absolutely...but it irritates me when they lump everyone on legit pain meds in with those who are doing the overdosing from shit they ordered online.
It has definitely hurt a lot of people who really do need pain medication...my own Mother is a prime example of her chicken-shit lazy doctor who won’t even prescribe her the Percocet twice a day she was taking for years because everyone is so riled up over those abusing it.
She has no discs in several vertebra in her back, severe arthritis throughout her body, sciatica, I could keep going...I think her meds were quite reasonable.

And I will kindly and wholeheartedly disagree that a joint won't help chronic pain....though it doesn’t have to be smoked...they have pills now and everything.
The pharmaceutical industry wouldn’t have a patented drug of the synthetic version of THC for pain, severe nausea, and loss of appetite if it didn’t work -
http://marinol.com
https://www.goodrx.com/blog/marinol-vs-marijuana-whats-the-difference/
There is no need to continue to perpetuate the taboo, stigmas and lies keeping people in pain.
These are not a bunch of hippie stoners getting high and doing nothing all day.
You would be amazed at the variety of people you see at the pot store...from grandmas to the severely disabled to businessmen in suits to your soccer mom or typical dad-dad.

But alcohol which is a 1000% more toxic to the body is cool...

 

[Skarekrow]

I was fortunate to take 12 weeks maternity leave. Only 6 was paid at 60% of my weekly pay through short term disability insurance policy through my job. The last 6 weeks was all unpaid FMLA (which I would not have been eligible for had I not been employed with the company a year by the time I gave birth.) and money I saved during pregnancy. It was rough. And I was actually one of the lucky ones for even being able to take 12 weeks here. Many women can only afford to take 6 weeks and you aren't even fully healed by then.

Lucky duck!
I really do feel that we will see some laws in this arena changed for the better in the near future.
Once the orange orangutan is out...

 

[just me]

Where can an individual that has low income buy affordable health insurance?

 

[Milktoast Bandit]

Where can an individual that has low income buy affordable health insurance?

Mexico

 

[Milktoast Bandit]

Mexico

I don't think you need insurance in Mexico so that's a bonus... But you may need life insurance in the states. Fortunately, life insurance is much more affordable!

 

[Skarekrow]

Where can an individual that has low income buy affordable health insurance?

You don’t.
Not unless your state opted to expand Medicaid...and even then, there is a loophole of a certain income bracket that still gets screwed.
We need to stop asking ourselves - “Where can we buy affordable health insurance?”
Crooks...every last one.
Why don’t we cut out the middle man and join the rest of the civilized world?
We say we are a nation that cares about it’s fellow man, but our actions don’t say that at all.
How much money has the US spent on the slaughter in Yemen now?
What happened to “America First”? (which was a historically KKK slogan btw).
This better and cheaper health plan that Trump forgot rather quickly, after the one offered would have destroyed healthcare for millions and millions of people got torpedoed.
We can’t use our tax money to make sure everyone has heath care...instead of using it to make war around the globe?
We spend the most on our health care in the world...like waaaaay more...and yet are like 43rd in terms of outcome and satisfaction...how pathetic.
The people here are like a bunch of conditioned animals...perfectly okay to accept that some douche in some insurance company is telling people they have to pay X amount for a whole lot of nothing - while they make off like bandits.
We need to make the healthcare system work for us...not the other way around...god we are so backward.

 

[just me]

It keeps coming back and landing in front of me, all the same with no changes. I kick it up and watch it full circle. Ever wonder why the stock market was, and is continually, attacked?

Move a few hundreds of millions around and watch how the system changes. Those at the bottom keep losing more. Where else would their profits come from?

They have made a maze. I do not take from them. They don't understand.

 

[Skarekrow]

It keeps coming back and landing in front of me, all the same with no changes. I kick it up and watch it full circle. Ever wonder why the stock market was, and is continually, attacked?

Move a few hundreds of millions around and watch how the system changes. Those at the bottom keep losing more. Where else would their profits come from?

They have made a maze. I do not take from them. They don't understand.

Money talks in our society.
It’s going to be very difficult to oust the insurance companies or even lower drug prices to reasonable levels if all our lawmakers are spineless and bought and paid for by those very industries - many with promises of becoming lobbyists themselves once they are out of office.
Many are highly invested financially.
It will probably take a whole lot of work to make significant changes to this system - but I am willing to try, I refuse to accept it as it is in the current form - it’s entirely unsustainable and continues to rise faster than inflation or any other industry price wise.
Isn’t it amazing that you can religiously pay your insurance dues, your co-pays, etc., but when something serious pops up you have to jump through flaming hoops to get approval many times.
Then you get a giant bill on top of that - I ask, what are we paying for, when the services rendered are still putting large amounts of our society in debt?
(Or worse, bankruptcy)
Take care of yourself JustMe!

 

[Skarekrow]

What is happening in the US in regards to the “opioid crisis” is so ass backward.
Those using illegal drugs are causing a backlash against those who are in legit pain.
Any chronic pain patient can empathize and have seen or experienced it to a certain extent...what they are doing and how they are doing it is the totally wrong way to go about it.
You end up with perfectly viable and reasonable people killing themselves because it’s too much paperwork now with the new CDC guidelines...which are guidelines ONLY not law, unless that state decides to wrongly interpret it into law.

I’m not saying that we should not be having a deeper discussion surrounding the use of opiates/oids, but I see a whole lot of innocent people being held hostage by the whims of said Physicians hiding behind BS excuses where it is not being abused and is positively helping someone function better.
In many cases - it is the difference between functional and totally non-functional intractable pain.
My own opinion is you should be on the lowest dose possible of anything you take.
But there are legitimate chronic pain sufferers out there who this is just inhumane and inhuman to withdraw their meds in the way they have been in certain areas of the country.

"Critics of the way the 2016 guidelines have been applied note they were not intended as law, but as a means to advise primary care physicians. The CDC specifically cautioned against abruptly stopping or forcibly tapering opioid treatment for patients already taking them, because of the danger of withdrawals, or debilitation.

More than 300 health care professionals, including former drug czars in the Clinton, Nixon and Obama administrations, have signed an as-yet unpublished public letter to the CDC, warning of a brewing crisis among pain patients, despite the “laudable goals” of the guidelines.

“Within a year of (CDC) Guideline publication, there was evidence of widespread misapplication of some of the Guideline recommendations,” said the letter, written by three doctors and a pharmacist. “Soon, clinicians prescribing higher doses, pharmacists dispensing them, and patients taking them came under suspicion.”

“Patients with chronic pain, who are stable and, arguably, benefiting from long-term opioids, face draconian and often rapid involuntary dose reductions,” the letter continued. “Often, alternative pain care options are not offered, not covered by insurers, or not accessible … Consequently, patients have endured not only unnecessary suffering, but some have turned to suicide or illicit substance use. Others have experienced preventable hospitalizations or medical deterioration.”

(Also...see, I sometimes read Fox news when it isn’t being a propaganda mouthpiece for the WH)

As doctors taper or end opioid prescriptions,
many patients driven to despair, suicide
Treating America's Pain: Unintended Victims of the Opioid Crackdown, Part 1 – The Suicides (Click for video)
The national opioid crisis propelled a crackdown on prescription painkillers,
causing hundreds of doctors to abruptly reduce or completely cut off their patients’ prescriptions,
leaving many among the estimated 20 million Americans who suffer from daily debilitating chronic pain to consider suicide.
This is the story of the overlooked victims of America's opioid epidemic.​

This is the first of a three-part series on the nation's struggle to address a crippling opioid crisis,
and the unintended victims left in its wake.
Full article - https://www.foxnews.com/health/as-o...abandon-pain-patients-driving-many-to-suicide​

Doctors caught between struggling
opioid patients and crackdown on prescriptions
Treating America’s Pain: Unintended Victims of the Opioid Crackdown, Part 2 – The Doctors (Click for video)
As federal and state agencies respond to the staggering rate of drug overdose deaths --
primarily involving illegal opioids like heroin and illicit fentanyl --
doctors who maintain they are responsibly prescribing opioids are getting caught up in the crackdown.
This is their side of the story to the opioid crisis and how it has impacted -- and for some ruined -- their lives.

This is the second of a three-part series on the nation's struggle to address its crippling opioid crisis,
and the unintended victims left in its wake.
Full article - https://www.foxnews.com/health/doct...e-and-federal-authorities-step-up-enforcement


Health experts offer solutions for
unintended consequences of opioid crackdown
Treating America’s Pain: Unintended Victims of the Opioid Crackdown, Part 3 – The Solutions (Click for video)
The government has addressed the overdose epidemic with an aggressive focus on reducing prescribing practices,
which has unintentionally led many doctors to cut down or cut off their patients’ pain medications altogether.
This tactic has left many chronic pain sufferers undertreated, with some even contemplating taking their own life.
Fox News spoke with numerous doctors,
specialists and scholars to find out what the next steps should be to address these unintended consequences.

This is the third of a three-part series on the nation's struggle to address its crippling opioid crisis, and the unintended victims left in its wake.
Full article - https://www.foxnews.com/health/undo...ose-epidemic-health-experts-suggest-solutions



Not to mention...


Tough new opioid policies leave some
cancer and post-surgery patients without painkillers

Full article - https://www.foxnews.com/health/long...and-post-surgery-patients-without-painkillers​

 

[Skarekrow]

Not just healthcare...but it certainly is part of the problem...
Must be that those younger generations are lazy and just need to pull up their bootstraps and work harder!
How’s it going for you with you head buried in the sand like that?

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[Skarekrow]

Just gonna leave this here...

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[JennyDaniella]

Just gonna leave this here...

View attachment 48442​

Hating the U.S. more and more each day. Greedy corporations over the well-being of human beings—it’s an absolute disgrace and makes my blood boil.

Hoping this will all change...

 

[acd]

Hating the U.S. more and more each day. Greedy corporations over the well-being of human beings—it’s an absolute disgrace and makes my blood boil.

Hoping this will all change...

We can change the system. It will take time but we will get there. The current one is not sustainable or very humane and more and more people are seeing that. Twenty years ago nobody outside the political fringes talked about universal healthcare or Medicare for all. Now 60% of the country supports it. They just need to show up and vote for it.
What kills us is people dropping out like it's hopeless and not bothering to vote.

 

[JennyDaniella]

We can change the system. It will take time but we will get there. The current one is not sustainable or very humane and more and more people are seeing that. Twenty years ago nobody outside the political fringes talked about universal healthcare or Medicare for all. Now 60% of the country supports it. They just need to show up and vote for it.
What kills us is people dropping out like it's hopeless and not bothering to vote.

Exactly! You are absolutely right. Eventually there will come a time when we as people have to step up and take charge for ourselves for definite change; otherwise it will never happen.

 

[Skarekrow]

What kills us is people dropping out like it's hopeless and not bothering to vote.

 

[Skarekrow]

Hating the U.S. more and more each day. Greedy corporations over the well-being of human beings—it’s an absolute disgrace and makes my blood boil.

Hoping this will all change...

Me too!
I’m surprised no one has gone after the drug companies for killing their family members quite honestly.
They are lucky they don’t have guillotines anymore...

There is a special place in HELL for these clowns.

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[Roses In The Vineyard]

Hating the U.S. more and more each day. Greedy corporations over the well-being of human beings—it’s an absolute disgrace and makes my blood boil.

Hoping this will all change...

The whole thing the way of life and everything in it is one colossal cluster fuck, this country is a special kind of hell for people who can't compete much less conform to the demands that it all imposes. To be an HSP in this country is almost a death sentence and if you are not in the comfortable classes it certainly is through excessive stress and being overworked. This country and the way the modern world has gone it is all cancer at this point.

 

[JennyDaniella]

The whole thing the way of life and everything in it is one colossal cluster fuck, this country is a special kind of hell for people who can't compete much less conform to the demands that it all imposes. To be an HSP in this country is almost a death sentence and if you are not in the comfortable classes it certainly is through excessive stress and being overworked. This country and the way the modern world has gone it is all cancer at this point.

Yes, unfortunately...

 

[Roses In The Vineyard]

Me too!
I’m surprised no one has gone after the drug companies for killing their family members quite honestly.
They are lucky they don’t have guillotines anymore...

There is a special place in HELL for these clowns.

​

This country is so crooked that even as the twin towers were burning wall street was busy looting corporate accounts of the business that had offices in the towers. One of the looted accounts had over $100 million go missing according to the feds from what they were able to recover from one of the few surviving hard drives that had been found. The vaults in the basements were also looted except for personal items which were returned however were effectively destroyed from the heat. You can find a documentary on youtube called killing fields were human remains went to a landfill instead of going into a mass grave.

 

[Roses In The Vineyard]

Yes, unfortunately...

I really do hope that you are not stuck in this hole like I am really worse still a big city. This country used to be a lot nicer despite all the problems it had but the people changed like everything else.