The Lack of Affordable Healthcare in the US

[Littlelissa]

I think it's possible Brexit may never actually happen. It was economic insanity and as that reality hits home, I think people's views on it, and on those who pushed for it, will change. I think they are already starting to.[/QUOTE]

Wow, so it might all be a ridiculous charade that'll never happen anyway! Lets hope so, nether the less what a huge waste of time, money and resources that'd be..no doubt the best less suicidal outcome for Britain though.

Teresa May "Brexit means Brexit"; (Yeah right, no one else (including you by the way) has any idea what that actually means)....
"Oh woops I mean Brexit means exit from Brexit, Lol! ...Teresa May: "Can someone edit that often repeated sound bite and pretend it never even existed!"

 

[Skarekrow]

Dear Rep. Labrador: Here's One Former Constituent Health Care Could Have Saved

Chris Brunkhart, courtesy of Ezekiel Martin-Brunkhart​

On Friday night, Representative Raul Labrador declared during a town hall meeting in Idaho that “nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.”

The claim is demonstrably false, and Labrador quickly took to Facebook to defend himself in the face of the backlash.

“I was trying to explain that all hospitals are required by law to treat patients in need of emergency care regardless of their ability to pay and that the Republican plan does not change that,” he wrote.

When Ezekiel Martin-Brunkhart saw the video clip of Labrador, he told Jezebel he nearly threw up.
In January of last year, his husband and partner of 10 years, Chris Brunkhart, died at 47 from stage four colon cancer.

Ezekiel believes the disease would have been caught had Brunkhart had insurance.

“It was a complete dismissal of who Chris was, and what we went through together,” he said. “It was awful.”

Zeke and Chris met online in 2005, when Zeke was 21.
Chris was a photographer who mainly focused on snowboarding, carving out a name for himself in the ‘90s before the sport had taken off in the mainstream.

They bonded over their mutual love of photography, and married one night in 2007, on a bridge near a waterfall outside their home in Portland, Oregon.

Same-sex marriage would not be legally recognized in Oregon for another seven years, but from that night forward, they were a “solid unit,” Zeke said.

Chris Bunkhart (left) and Ezekiel Martin-Brunkhart (right)​

Despite being a successful freelance photographer, Chris went a long time without health insurance. Obamacare only went into full effect in 2014, and though Chris attempted to enroll, he was unable to navigate the complexities of the process.

For all its benefits, Obamacare can be extremely cumbersome for freelancers to access, given the difficulty of proving one’s income and the infuriating inscrutability of the application.

[Full disclosure: As a freelancer, I was without insurance for around six months at the end of 2016 and into 2017, despite spending multiple tear-filled hours on the phone nearly every day, in addition to sending virtually every document I could think of related to my finances. I can personally attest, with no exaggeration, that it was a complete and total nightmare.]

Chris ran into similar issues, Zeke told me, and eventually grew too disgruntled to continue.
“He was never very good with paperwork,” he said. “In that way we were pretty complementary.”

Frustrated and busy with other things, the process of enrolling eventually took a back seat.

Chris’s job shooting snowboarders was a physical one, and the ability to suppress aches and pains was something of an occupational requirement.

Still, he’d been plagued for years by stomach problems—the sort that would come up during routine examinations, if he were the sort of person blessed with the ability to see a primary care doctor on a regular basis.

But the aches persisted, and one day in the summer of 2014, Chris told Zeke that he felt especially bad.
Two days later, the two were at dinner, and Chris found that he couldn’t eat.

He took a couple bites and threw up.
As Zeke told me this story, his voice broke.

Chris had to pause working after that, but Zeke couldn’t take any time off.
At that point, they were living in New York, where Zeke was studying at the New School.

It was a few days after the dinner incident that Chris called him. “I think I’m having a heart attack,” he said. They rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors ran a gamut of tests over the course of a month, unable to determine what was wrong.

“He slowly wasted away in our bed while I went to work and tried to keep it together, and I’d come home and find the bed was soaked with sweat,” Zeke said.

“I’d just try to feed him applesauce, and watch him puke up bile every single day.”
Eventually, a colonoscopy was performed, and the answer came shortly thereafter: Colon cancer, stage four.

It’s impossible to know when Chris’s cancer first developed, since it can move from a precancerous growth to stage four anywhere from six months and 10 years.

“You live with a person, you know their aches and pains very well, and I can definitely say he was symptomatic for several years,” Zeke said.

Zeke knows it isn’t healthy to fixate on “what if’s.”
But grief is a wicked beast, he said. “I keep coming back to the fact that the survivability of early-stage colon cancer, even mid-stage, is pretty fucking good. But once it metastasizes and spreads, it’s over.”

Chris’s cancer had spread from his colon to his liver, which was what ultimately made him so sick: It had doubled in size, squeezing his other organs and preventing him from eating.

His chest pains, which he initially attributed to a heart attack, was due to the extreme stress his heart was under.

With the help of family and friends, Chris was able to enroll in Medicaid following his diagnosis.
He began chemotherapy, and though by that time it was mostly palliative, it drastically improved his quality of life.

Zeke and Chris officially wed in the summer of 2015.
He continued taking pictures until a week before he died, in January of 2016.

One especially painful aspect of Labrador’s callous statement was that for around two years, Chris was actually a constituent of his, having lived for awhile in Sandpoint, Idaho for work.

“For me, it’s less about politics. It’s really, really personal,” Zeke said. “I know that the representative has a family, that he’s married, that he has kids. As a person that was married, nobody wants to be here. This is the fucking worst. I don’t understand it. I never will.”

Zeke is aware that Labrador put out a statement clarifying (though not apologizing) for his remarks.
And he’s right—Chris did not die in the street because of a sudden medical emergency.

But he shouldn’t have died when he did—and he wouldn’t have, Zeke believes, if he’d had health insurance.

On Thursday, the American Health Care Act narrowly passed the House, prompting lawmakers to guzzle beer in celebration.

Their revelry was odd: Though the numbers aren’t firm, an estimated 17,000 people could potentially die in 2018 if the bill passes the Senate and is made law.

By 2026, that number could swell to 29,0000 in that year alone.

Labrador, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, voted in favor of the act, saying in a statement that “the people of Idaho know Obamacare is a disaster and want it fully repealed.

Since I was first elected to Congress, I’ve been working to repeal Obamacare and that includes opposing the first version of the American Health Care Act.”

For Zeke, Labrador’s comments on Friday only intensified his already incomprehensible grief.

“When I caught Labrador stating that no one has died for lack of access to health care, I kinda lost my shit,” he said. “I’ve just felt so helpless and so overwhelmed. I can’t not talk about what happened.”

“Everybody is going to die. I understand that,” he added. “But he shouldn’t have died so young.”





U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders — US Senator for Vermont
22 hrs ·
This is ridiculous. "Access" to health care doesn't mean a damn thing if you cannot afford health care. You want to buy one of Donald Trump's multimillion dollar mansions?

You have access to do that as well.
The Republican plan that passed the House last week would make health care unaffordable for millions, including making $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid.

Thousands and thousands of people could die if the Republican plan is passed because they simply won't be able to afford the care that they need.

That is the reality if their plan passes.
Access means nothing and lives will be lost.

We will fight back.

 

[Skarekrow]

It's time to end the international embarrassment of being the only major country not to have universal health care.
The American people realize that that is the right thing to do.

Our job is not just playing defense on whatever cruel and disastrous plans Republicans come up with.
Our job is to create a Medicare-for-all, single payer system so that health care is not just a privilege for the few, but a human right for all.

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

Former version of the “healthcare” bill, which was scored by the CBO as 24 million people, 8 million children, losing insurance.
Now the pre-existing condition clause has been yanked, which will cause even MORE people to not be able to afford healthcare.
So those scores are going to go up for sure...and that’s not in a good way.
BTW, the CBO estimates a $3 million dollars in savings each year...how?
And this is serious...look it up.
Because more people will die.
They will save $3 million by not having to pay for people who would otherwise live.
All while giving million dollar tax breaks to the very rich.
You are killing Peter to pay Paul.
This is blood money.
Why don’t you just burn the poor instead of coal you twisted fucks.

 

[Skarekrow]

*sigh*

Health Secretary Tom Price Favors ‘Faith Based’ Approach To Opioid Crisis
May 13, 2017 by Michael Stone​

Not medicine, God: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price recommends faith in God as the solution to the current opioid crisis.

Price, a medical doctor, claims faith-based treatment is better than medication-assisted treatment when treating opioid addiction, despite a great deal of scientific evidence to the contrary.

Price, while touring communities that have been hit especially hard by painkiller and heroin overdoses, spoke out in favor of faith-based treatment programs while expressing disdain for science-based. medication-assisted treatment.

Charlotte Gazette-Mail reports:

Asked about drug treatment options, Price touted faith-based programs while showing less support for medication-assisted programs in which addicts are weaned off heroin with other opioids like Suboxone and methadone.

“If we’re just substituting one opioid for another, we’re not moving the dial much,” he said. “Folks need to be cured so they can be productive members of society and realize their dreams.”

Reporting on the story Mother Jones notes:

The secretary’s comments directly oppose literature from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, a division of HHS. “The goal of medication-assisted treatment is to recover from addiction,” reads “Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Addiction: Facts for Families and Friends.” The literature goes on: “It does NOT replace one addictive drug with another. It provides a safe, controlled level of medication to overcome the use of a problem opioid.”

Business Insider elaborates, pointing out that the medication-assisted treatment (MAT) programs Price rejects are the “gold standard” for overcoming opioid addiction:

Considered by many experts to be the “gold standard” for overcoming opioid addiction, MAT uses prescription medications like buprenorphine or methadone to reduce cravings, allowing patients to work on the underlying issues leading to their substance use, without the constant pressure of withdrawal.

Studies in 2008 and 2011 conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that treatment using Suboxone, the most commonly prescribed version of buprenorphine, showed a “marked reduction” in drug use for participants. Approximately 50% of participants in the 2011 study reduced their substance use during extended Suboxone treatment. The success rate dropped to 8.6% once it was discontinued.

Because of its promising results, MAT has gained bipartisan support in statehouses, on Capitol Hill, and in scientific, medical, and treatment circles.

Business Insider continues:

It is not inconceivable to imagine Price recommending shifting funds allocated for MAT to faith-based treatments, if he thinks it is the best treatment option available.

Opioids, unlike many other substances, fundamentally change a person’s thought and behavior patterns. Almost all faith-based treatments are centered around achieving abstinence, but many addicts’ physical dependence on opioids makes abstinence incredibly difficult, if not impossible. Countless users relapse or skip out on treatment, no matter what stage of recovery they’re at.

And when people relapse, they often die.

Bottom line: Tom Price is a deluded religious extremist if he believes faith based program are superior to medication-assisted treatment programs grounded in medical science.

More important, the fact that Tom Price is the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary means that he has the power to direct funds and policy away from science approved opioid treatment programs in favor of faith based programs based in ignorance and religious superstition. That power makes him a very dangerous, deluded religious extremist.

Tom Price​

 

[Stu]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/...but-not-one-state-supports-the-ahca.html?_r=0

 

[Skarekrow]

 

[Skarekrow]

A Lesson From My Hospital Bed:
For-Profit Health Care Is a Merciless Sham

​

This piece is part of Fighting for Our Lives:
The Movement for Medicare for All, a Truthout original series.​

I came out of it for the first time in near darkness, couldn't lift my arms, couldn't lift my legs, couldn't rise to a sitting position, and there was a breathing mask over my nose and mouth methodically forcing air down my throat.

I quickly learned to inhale with its rhythm.
I had no idea where or when I was.

Suddenly there was a bright light in my eyes and then faces, faces, barely visible, hands touching and voices murmuring too low to comprehend.

Someone fiddled with the IV in my left hand and I floated away again.

I had been sick for weeks -- months, actually, if you include the pernicious insomnia -- and had finally grown tired of waiting for the thing to clear itself up.

My respiration sounded like a gravel truck in low gear, I had no wind, and I was falling asleep standing up multiple times a day.
You know the old joke about passing out at your keyboard and typing "qqqqqqqqqqqqq" with your face?

I did that twice.
I took myself to the emergency room, waited the requisite number of hours, was checked out in preliminary fashion, and was finally given an IV bag of orange fluid, basically Pedialyte for adults taken intravenously.

That is the last thing I remember before waking up in that delirious near-dark last month.

​

When I came out of it again, it was daytime and my head was slightly less muddy.
I was in the ICU wing of my local hospital and had been there for several days.

The doctors told me I had acute pneumonia in both lungs which had spawned an infection that had raced through my body like a wildfire.

My legs had swelled up like tree trunks until the skin split and started seeping yellow fluid.
The morning after I showed up, I went into full respiratory failure and they had to put a tube down my throat to help me breathe.

Apparently, I fought them to keep the tube out and wound up doped to the gills and tied to the table so I wouldn't rip the tube out and maybe kill myself in the process.

That was Wednesday.
It was now Monday.

I would remain in the ICU for another five days wired up to every machine in the world.
The blood pressure cuff on my left arm was a permanent fixture that would tighten and release every four hours; I came to call it "The Midnight Rambler" because it always woke me up in the middle of the night.

I drank warm chicken broth and cold water, ate chocolate pudding and Jello before finally transitioning back to solid food, and marveled at how these simple things could bring such a rushed return of vigor and strength.

One grilled cheese sandwich literally made the difference between being bedridden and having the strength to sit up and swing my feet to the floor.

They took blood by the ounce, fed me medicine via IV, mouth and nebulizer, and very slowly got me back on my feet.
My lungs, which had been filled with pus only days earlier, began to clear.

I did absolutely everything I was told, yes ma'am, yes sir, and was walking very gingerly by Wednesday. I knocked the socks off the physical therapy nurses on Thursday when they came to look me over, my oxygen level was nice and high, and on Friday I got to punch my ticket out.

After 11 days in a room with no view, they wheeled me out the front door.
It was pouring rain, but I couldn't have cared less.

The leaves that had only been a fuzzy rumor when I went in had become a lush green explosion, the air was honeydew melon, and I was going home to see my wife and little girl.

… and all of it, from that first emergency room IV to that last wheelchair ride out the door, was unbelievably expensive. Astonishingly expensive.

Expensive in a way that destroys lives forever.
In this, I am among the fortunate ones.

My wife works full time for a very large company, and the health insurance they offer is probably as good as what my senators enjoy.

My daughter and I are on that insurance plan thanks to my wife's job, and we are covered six ways from Sunday.
The full tally for my 11-day ICU adventure hasn't come in yet, but what would have been enough to financially annihilate my family is instead going to be entirely manageable, thanks to the little card in my wallet.

That, right there, is some towering bullshit.

During that week in the hospital, I would lie in my bed and listen as they wheeled in new patients, some moaning, some screaming, some vomiting helplessly, some coughing so hard it sounded like their ribs might shatter.

There was the soft swishing of many feet as the ICU nurses swarmed in to treat and to soothe, the beeping of machines newly tasked.

I lay there swaddled in the warm embrace of my health insurance and wondered if the sound of distress and agony bouncing off the tiled walls like rocks was also the sound of insolvency, bankruptcy, financial catastrophe.

Does that man have the little card in his wallet like I do?
Is it enough?

Should someone staring death in the face have to think about such things?

That brings us to the current moment, when the GOP is attempting in total secrecy to push some form of its "health care plan" -- basically a giant tax heist for the wealthy -- through the Senate.

The Affordable Care Act has a number of excellent aspects to it, including protection for people with pre-existing conditions and support for Medicaid without which many, many more people would be sick or dead today.

The ACA is under attack, and we need to save it in the immediate term.

Still, while we fight as hard as we can to preserve the ACA, we must remember it is not the solution; we can and must do better.

Before my wife secured our insurance through her job, our family was on the ACA for a little less than a thousand dollars a month. I had the option of getting insurance through my own employer, Truthout, but the available plans were not sufficient to meet my needs.

Despite the best efforts of the Truthout crew and our union, the United Media Guild, the fact of the matter is almost no insurance agencies will provide coverage to a small organization with employees spread out over multiple states, which is exactly what we are.

The one company that does offer such a plan can get away with charging a lot for less-than-ideal coverage.
Call it another fly in the ointment of the current system.

Given that I have a young daughter and a wife with multiple sclerosis, I was in need of a pretty stout plan.
I had to look elsewhere.

The Republican governor of my state had refused to set up the ACA insurance exchange because he, like most of his comrades, wanted the legislation to fail.

When the new Democratic governor came into office, she rushed to set the exchange up, but was only able to get one insurance company to join before the program went live, and that company is among the most atrocious organizations to stain the skin of this world.

They took my money and lied to my face about providing coverage for my wife's MS medication, even with the aggravated intervention of her neurologist, but I had to stay with them because they were all I could afford, and were the only game in town.

The health insurance industry, for the most part, is the Mob painted over with a veneer of legitimacy.
They're a protection racket.

The Mob got people to pay by offering "protection" for your restaurant or store, and would burn it down if you didn't pay up.
With the insurance industry, your body is the store, and as all flesh is inevitably weak, your store will eventually burn down, taking your financial stability with it unless you pay the insurance middleman in full.

Nice health you got there, be a shame if something happened to it.
That's only if they don't turn down your claim because of a typo on your claim form, which is hardly rare.

I had ICU nurses telling me insurance horror stories that made one wistful for the ringing sound of guillotines in the town square.

The problem is the fact that health care in the United States is a for-profit industry, like petroleum speculation or automobile manufacture.

It's a few people making a lot of money off of sick people, and after so many years of this being the status quo, they have the political system wired to keep it that way.

The core issue, as usual, is the loot.
They're after the loot, period, end of file, and if your health suffers as a consequence, well, that's what they call in Wisconsin "hard cheese."

Of course, a justification for genuine change and true reform is not difficult to find.
You probably heard it first while in grammar school, right there in the Declaration of Independence, the hood ornament of our national idea.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident," it reads, "that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Life.
Liberty.
The pursuit of happiness.

There is no life without health.

There is no liberty without health.

There is no pursuit of happiness without health.

Health care is an unalienable right, up there with freedom of speech, and it is front and center in our founding document.
Treating it as anything else, and especially treating it as a cash machine fed by illness and injury, should be considered a criminal act.

Ultimately, the solution is not to be found by expanding the reach of the insurance industry, or by any other "reform" that keeps health care a for-profit phenomenon.

The solution, as it turns out, is simplicity itself, and has been adopted by a vast majority of the world's developed nations to excellent effect.

According to the organization Physicians for a National Health Care Program:

Single-payer national health insurance, also known as "Medicare for all," is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health care financing, but the delivery of care remains largely in private hands.

Under a single-payer system, all residents of the US would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs.

The program would be funded by the savings obtained from replacing today's inefficient, profit-oriented, multiple insurance payers with a single streamlined, nonprofit, public payer, and by modest new taxes based on ability to pay.

Premiums would disappear; 95 percent of all households would save money.
Patients would no longer face financial barriers to care such as co-pays and deductibles, and would regain free choice of doctor and hospital.

Doctors would regain autonomy over patient care.

The main ingredient that is required to see this happen is courage.
Courage to face down the insurance industry and their formidable lobby.

Courage to convince, or vote out, politicians who are financially invested in the current system by way of campaign contributions from the industry they have spent so long protecting.

Courage to embark upon a sea change that would alter the very face of the nation forever, and for the better.

Politicians trying to sell you on the idea that ours is the greatest health care system in the world have at least one part right: Our doctors, nurses and hospitals rank with the best on the planet.

If you want to see the very face of compassionate determination and professional excellence, find an ICU nurse and thank them for me, because ICU nurses did nothing less than save my life.

Our health care system is a tangled, inefficient, hyper-expensive mess, but many of our health professionals are stars.
To free us from the for-profit system is to turn them loose, and believe me, we will all be the better for it.

Do you have that little card in your wallet?
Will you have it tomorrow, or next year?

You will get sick, as I did, if you have not already.
It will likely be amazingly expensive.

We are all breathing pre-existing conditions who will get sick or hurt at some point; there is no avoiding this axiomatic truth.
Health care is a right, not a privilege, and it is time to claim it as such.

Let us relegate the for-profit health care industry to the dustbin of history and seize our right to health -- without which we can never wholly claim our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Let's make it a reality for everyone.

 

[acd]

The national conversation is how to make healthcare more affordable for Americans. Republicans offer cheaper plans, but with the cheaper plans-- less coverage. (So why even bother having insurance?) Who does this help? Not most Americans. We pay more than any other country for healthcare and costs continue to rise for care. But no one is willing to seriously talk about controlling costs or at least opening the market to cheaper imports...If pharmaceutical companies were not permitted to price gouge consumers--or if consumers could order from Canada, maybe it would help to drive down costs. Didn't Trump promise to go after the drug companies and say we have to get drug prices down? If you aren't going to go after drug prices, then at least offer subsidies so people can afford their meds and treatments, but those are to be done away with, too. Consumers are just getting screwed either way unless you are young and healthy and don't need insurance.

/Rant... I just keep listening to talk about this on the radio... I've aged 10 years in the past 5 months.

 

[Skarekrow]

The national conversation is how to make healthcare more affordable for Americans. Republicans offer cheaper plans, but with the cheaper plans-- less coverage. (So why even bother having insurance?) Who does this help? Not most Americans. We pay more than any other country for healthcare and costs continue to rise for care. But no one is willing to seriously talk about controlling costs or at least opening the market to cheaper imports...If pharmaceutical companies were not permitted to price gouge consumers--or if consumers could order from Canada, maybe it would help to drive down costs. Didn't Trump promise to go after the drug companies and say we have to get drug prices down? If you aren't going to go after drug prices, then at least offer subsidies so people can afford their meds and treatments, but those are to be done away with, too. Consumers are just getting screwed either way unless you are young and healthy and don't need insurance.

/Rant... I just keep listening to talk about this on the radio... I've aged 10 years in the past 5 months.

That’s why we should push for universal healthcare.
Single payer.
If those who have extra money want to buy a rider plan to make it the “diamond” plan then the insurance market can sell to them.
The rest of American should get something for all the taxes we pay and waste on fucking wars we start that destabilize the region, only making everything worse.
Yes...with their plan you will be able to buy a shit plan for less money, that covers nothing and has a 10,000 deductible.
We pay waaaay more than the rest of the world...yet in rankings based on quality of care, and outcomes...we float right around 37th in the world.
So we pay bankrupting prices...for shit care.
And now the GOP wants to make it even worse?
Make life for those who are poor or living paycheck to paycheck - even more difficult.
Those who rely on Medicaid to stay in the nursing home they need...not everyone has a family they can go live with or afford to take care of (as someone would have to stop working as much to care for their parent.)...this bill will literally kill people.
People will die at a much faster rate...which is probably the plan.

Trump promised - coverage for all (22 million won’t be able to afford, plus the other 25 million to make 50 million uninsured in the first year alone),
cheaper prices (then we wouldn’t be talking about people not being able to afford it), paid by the gov. (as in our tax dollars).
Not a single one of these things is in this bill.
It is the antithesis of what Trump promised.
It will raise premiums and deductibles at a much faster rate than the ACA ever did.
So 50 million won’t be able to afford healthcare all so the top percentile of wealthy people in the US can get huge multi-million dollar tax breaks.
The bill even gives them retroactive returns on capital gains taxes...retro-fucking-active.
Disgusting.
This will kill children.
This will kill the most vulnerable.
This will give the insurance companies all the power to drop you from your plan - just like the used to do until the ACA made it illegal.
They can drop you for being too expensive...if you get cancer and they don’t want to pay...too bad.
Lifetime limits will be reinstated.
Disgusting.
Planned Parenthood who does 99% women’s healthcare for low income women and the 1% of abortions they do are paid privately, not with any public dollars.
Someone who was paying 1,500 a year for healthcare...will now pay triple that.
If you are older - it will be even more.
This an evil piece of legislation, and I encourage everyone to contact their representatives and tell them to kill it.

 

[acd]

That’s why we should push for universal healthcare.
Single payer.
If those who have extra money want to buy a rider plan to make it the “diamond” plan then the insurance market can sell to them.
The rest of American should get something for all the taxes we pay and waste on fucking wars we start that destabilize the region, only making everything worse.
Yes...with their plan you will be able to buy a shit plan for less money, that covers nothing and has a 10,000 deductible.
We pay waaaay more than the rest of the world...yet in rankings based on quality of care, and outcomes...we float right around 37th in the world.
So we pay bankrupting prices...for shit care.
And now the GOP wants to make it even worse?
Make life for those who are poor or living paycheck to paycheck - even more difficult.
Those who rely on Medicaid to stay in the nursing home they need...not everyone has a family they can go live with or afford to take care of (as someone would have to stop working as much to care for their parent.)...this bill will literally kill people.
People will die at a much faster rate...which is probably the plan.

Trump promised - coverage for all (22 million won’t be able to afford, plus the other 25 million to make 50 million uninsured in the first year alone),
cheaper prices (then we wouldn’t be talking about people not being able to afford it), paid by the gov. (as in our tax dollars).
Not a single one of these things is in this bill.
It is the antithesis of what Trump promised.
It will raise premiums and deductibles at a much faster rate than the ACA ever did.
So 50 million won’t be able to afford healthcare all so the top percentile of wealthy people in the US can get huge multi-million dollar tax breaks.
The bill even gives them retroactive returns on capital gains taxes...retro-fucking-active.
Disgusting.
This will kill children.
This will kill the most vulnerable.
This will give the insurance companies all the power to drop you from your plan - just like the used to do until the ACA made it illegal.
They can drop you for being too expensive...if you get cancer and they don’t want to pay...too bad.
Lifetime limits will be reinstated.
Disgusting.
Planned Parenthood who does 99% women’s healthcare for low income women and the 1% of abortions they do are paid privately, not with any public dollars.
Someone who was paying 1,500 a year for healthcare...will now pay triple that.
If you are older - it will be even more.
This an evil piece of legislation, and I encourage everyone to contact their representatives and tell them to kill it.

I'm all for single payer, too. I agree. Doesn't Australia have a universal system where people can buy additional coverage if they choose?

The priorities in the US are fucked. It's always profits ahead of citizens... Insurance profits, pharmaceutical profits... Before consumer health needs. I heard today only 17% of Americans polled approve of this bill. But the Senate will still ram it through.

 

[Skarekrow]

I'm all for single payer, too. I agree. Doesn't Australia have a universal system where people can buy additional coverage if they choose?

The priorities in the US are fucked. It's always profits ahead of citizens... Insurance profits, pharmaceutical profits... Before consumer health needs. I heard today only 17% of Americans polled approve of this bill. But the Senate will still ram it through.

Yep...17% is pretty sad.
It’s very clear that this is not a healthcare bill but a repeal of Medicaid expansion, in order to pay for tax breaks for already wealthy individuals.
We are killing Peter to pay Paul.
If they ram this through, I predict some serious consequences both for the GOP in the 2018 Congressional elections, but those who voted for Trump will see their healthcare triple or more with less coverage and essential benefits.
When their premium is $7000 a year and the deductible is 10,000, and it doesn’t cover anything related to a pre-existing condition - how is that better?
Someone please explain how it could possibly be better?
The winners here are the young and healthy (who won’t buy insurance without a mandate), and the wealthy who will get multimillion dollar tax breaks.
The losers are those on Medicaid - which pays for half of all births in this country I might add.
Older citizens will be paying more than triple what they pay now in some cases.
The average coverage of insurance pays about 80-something%, this will now drop to about 50%.
Who can afford 50% of a medical service when something like an MRI costs $5000 out of pocket?
I am now going to pay half of that?
For one test?
$2500.00?
Insanity.
It will never fly if they try it.
If anything pushes this country into a single payer or universal type healthcare plan, it will be because of the backlash from this one - should it pass.
Which right now...is stalled...but that doesn’t mean that when they return after the 4th they won’t ram it through like you said.
This is one thing I actually have faith in my fellow humankind about - if they pass this - people will NOT go along with it and will crush it.

 

[acd]

Well if they pass this, a lot of the changes won't go into effect until 2020. So it is likely we will have another Trump term... And Republicans will still get in in 2018...idk. Some of these special elections were close. But it's probably going to take the utter decimation of our healthcare to wake anyone up. I do agree with you, but don't think we are likely to see much change until 2024 maybe.

 

[Skarekrow]

Well if they pass this, a lot of the changes won't go into effect until 2020. So it is likely we will have another Trump term... And Republicans will still get in in 2018...idk. Some of these special elections were close. But it's probably going to take the utter decimation of our healthcare to wake anyone up. I do agree with you, but don't think we are likely to see much change until 2024 maybe.

Yeah...not so sure it will be so drawn out when you think of all the people who rely on Medicaid to survive.
It would cause immediate havoc....but that’s just a guess.

 

[infinite dreams]

Yep...17% is pretty sad.
If anything pushes this country into a single payer or universal type healthcare plan, it will be because of the backlash from this one - should it pass.
Which right now...is stalled...but that doesn’t mean that when they return after the 4th they won’t ram it through like you said.
This is one thing I actually have faith in my fellow humankind about - if they pass this - people will NOT go along with it and will crush it.

I sincerely hope you're right about that. Given the nature of the political system in this country it's tough for me to believe that there will be significant changes. The biggest problem on the healthcare front, by far, is the massive amount of money to be made by big pharma and other industry stakeholders. Their lobbying power will ensure that lawmakers remain incentivized to steer clear of free/readily affordable healthcare coverage for all. Moneyed interests are a huge problem in the political arena as a whole, but healthcare is certainly the most significant since, as others have pointed out, people are literally paying for the government's lack of stewardship with their lives.

It is an absolute travesty that in this country, with the massive natural, economic and human resources we have at our disposal, that the question of tax dollars for healthcare vs. military spending etc. is even a debate.

 

[Skarekrow]

I sincerely hope you're right about that. Given the nature of the political system in this country it's tough for me to believe that there will be significant changes. The biggest problem on the healthcare front, by far, is the massive amount of money to be made by big pharma and other industry stakeholders. Their lobbying power will ensure that lawmakers remain incentivized to steer clear of free/readily affordable healthcare coverage for all. Moneyed interests are a huge problem in the political arena as a whole, but healthcare is certainly the most significant since, as others have pointed out, people are literally paying for the government's lack of stewardship with their lives.

It is an absolute travesty that in this country, with the massive natural, economic and human resources we have at our disposal, that the question of tax dollars for healthcare vs. military spending etc. is even a debate.

Yeah...this is the Boomer gen who is still trying to desperately maintain power and continue to take take take for themselves with little regard to future generations, so long as they get theirs.
They got basically free college...had years they could just fuck around and do drugs...then still go find a job, with little to no college anyhow that would pay them enough to support a single income family and buy a house and a car.
Now I’m not saying that is how everyone had it...but a lot of people did...I recommend the book - “A Generation of Sociopaths” for a more in depth analysis.
The US has been in this same type of power dynamic and it works to benefit the rich for a while, but it is unsustainable and there is only so long the people will stand for, or be able to afford to be gouged any further when we get little to nothing in return.
At least that is my hope.

 

[Skarekrow]

@infinite dreams @acd
Thank you for all the likes and the input!

 

[Pin]

If the Affordable Care Act increases the rate of people with high quality medical care then it works.

If repealing the Affordable Care Act increases the rate of people who are dying and destitute due to low-quality or lack-of medical care then it has failed.


We'll see which policy has the better track record in time.

 

[Skarekrow]

If the Affordable Care Act increases the rate of people with high quality medical care then it works.

If repealing the Affordable Care Act increases the rate of people who are dying and destitute due to low-quality or lack-of medical care then it has failed.


We'll see which policy has the better track record in time.

I just don't want us to return to the pre-ACA insurance days of pre-existing conditions being a factor, or lifetime limits being reinstated.
If a child is born with a heart defect...they could theoretically use up their lifetime limit ( depending on their insurance) in their first year of life and then become uninsurable.
They would just have to pay everything out of pocket.
The AHCA has already failed....it has barely double digit support (USA Today 12%).
Still the system does need to be fixed...just not by screwing our most needy...our most vulnerable, while giving out retroactive million dollar tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires on investment returns.
How is that even benefitting society that pays its taxes?
Meanwhile Trump calls himself "Smart" for not paying his fair share of the tax burden.
It was a very telling moment about how he really feels about this country and the survival of the middle class and more and more poor....most if whom are working poor.
Which again....why such a fight to raise the minimum wage?
If you give someone who lives paycheck to paycheck more income...they will spend it on goods and services....while you give it to a wealthy person and it goes into a stock portfolio to gain more interest...which Trump wants to increase.
One grows our society and one stagnates and does nothing.
Cry, cry, cry, about how many people are on welfare...on food stamps...well, then pay them enough so they no longer qualify for the assistance they are receiving...then you can say that you really did help move someone up and out of poverty.
But that would hurt profits....just like insuring all of our citizens.
Greed doesn't care if your child has cancer.