The Lack of Affordable Healthcare in the US

More and more institutions and doctors are refusing to stay with the plan any longer.
More people are refusing to change doctors they have had decades because of the health plan.
 
just me said:
More and more institutions and doctors are refusing to stay with the plan any longer.
More people are refusing to change doctors they have had decades because of the health plan.
Click to expand...

What we really need to do is cut insurance out of the equation.
This is now, and always will be, the prime driver and defender of high costs associated with all aspects of our healthcare.
To put it simply...no one should me making money...using ill people as cash cows they can milk for all they can get.
But they are the biggest donors to Congress and the biggest presidential donors out there.
No one spends more lobbying.
I know people think the single payer universal healthcare is going down the path toward Socialism...but there are so many very much democratic countries who have universal healthcare that controls the costs and makes sure no one gets left in the gutter to die.
Because I'll tell you what....had it not been for my SO and family when the insurance supplied to us where I worked denied me the medication after requests from 6 physicians...denied me and never even bothered to make up a reason.
I could have very well ended up in the gutter to die....do you know how fast even a 6 month buffer of savings can disappear when you are seeing a shitload of doctors to try and not be in so much pain you seriously consider suicide as a viable option...you can't collect unemployment while you are waiting for disabity to be approved....took me about 8 months...I was approved without having to appeal my case as so many people have to do.
If I could post my X-rays up for you, there is no denying the severe damage done while I was being denied my medication and did everything possible to hang onto a physically, mentally, and emotionally stressful job...many times limping with tears running down my cheeks when I would finally get off.
You can't take pain killers and do surgery...they don't mix.
So you just suck it up.
Did that since I was 24...just wasn't possible anymore.
Was killing me.
The one doctor told me I should have stopped working 5 years ago...I didn't even want to stop then...even now I miss it terribly.
Sometimes I just go through surgeries in my mind as a kind of meditation.
Go ahead and keep the insurers everyone....but prices will always go up with them.
I think the taxes that we pay could easily cover everyone....and then, if you are dissatisfied with your care....care that has intact patient protection provisions like not allowing them to charge more for pre-existing conditions, charging more for being a woman, charging people more and more as they get older until they are priced out of the market - which is still a huge problem right now....then if you are upset you can purchase private insurance for your diamond treatment plan.
We have a huge gap of people who are getting subsidies but those on the fringes who make just a bit too much are getting screwed big time, and I can certainly see why people hate this aspect of the ACA...that and the law saying you must buy insurance or pay a fine.
That's stupid too.
That's why I say what are we even screwing around with destroying what crap healthcare we have now...destroy it...it sucks...make it a basis social service...we would save shitloads of money.
We could even then use that saved money to help put more Doctors and RNs through school...or how about...using the savings on research...or we just use it on the patients to give them the best possible service they can get.
Screw the insurers.....gouging people into bankruptcy.
Screw big pharma....ditto.
Everyone on down the line...until you get to actual patient service...is gouging us for all they can.
Remember Pharma Bro?
Buying a needed drug and jacking up the price by 6000%.
Disgusting.
Seriously...you are a Christian man...WWJD?
Make sure no one is left to die.
When I lost my private insurance I briefly went on Medicaid...the thing this new bill will destroy.
They immediately put me on the IV infusion medication that I so severely needed...not a second thought about its justification either...the private insurance even fought me once on SI Joint injections....saying, and I quote, "there is no such SI Joint, nor Sacroilliac joint within the human body."
My doctor argued basic human anatomy with my insurer for an hour.
They are the death panels...they will always choose profit over people if you give them enough rope.
I say - Be gone!
 
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acd said:
Idk if you've seen this:

McConnell: If we can't repeal Obamacare, we'll fix it

And

The ‘no’ votes in the Senate's health-care bill are piling up

(Though the Politico article does state it may be a threat to conservatives voting no because they don't think the AHCA goes far enough to repeal...)
Click to expand...
I heard part of his speech on the news.
I don't know who they think they were fooling?
Seriously cutting healthcare to give giant retroactive tax breaks to the rich?
"Let them eat cake motherfucker!"
Wow.
They should feel ashamed for even exposing it to the light of day.
This is the GOP plan they have had nearly a decade to make better than the ACA...and instead you get bigger bills...like waaaaay way way bigger, until you can't afford it.
That is, if you can get insured with any number of pre-existing conditions...or maybe you had cancer so you pay out the nose for it, but they won't cover anything related to your cancer, so if it comes back...too bad.
Or you may have reached your lifetime limit and are just uninsurable.
Half of all the births in the US are paid for by Medicaid.
Seniors who rely on it to pay for their needed nursing home.
Right now 1 out of every 3 seniors has gone without their medication they needed because it was too expensive.
This bill would devastate our society.
 
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Henry Rollins:
America's Real Safety Net Is
Drugs, Alcohol, Cheap Food and Free Porn
​
Since the inception of America, as much concept as actual thing, the poor have been despised by the rich.
It is an adversarial relationship that has not relented from then to this moment.

This antagonism and the agony it engenders is not only our collective story but informs much of our behavior now.

No matter who you are or how you’re living in this country, it has saturated your life.

A lot of good things have happened in America, but many of them were attempts to neutralize or correct some incredibly awful things that eventually became so egregious that enough people stood up.

Rarely has there been a spontaneous act of kindness.
There were presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson who went hammer and tongs at change and tried to improve things.

While they weathered a ton of harsh criticism that persists to this day, their accomplishments are monumental but rare.

Since I’ve been alive, the country has operated like a stick-shift car, driven by someone who has no idea how the parts work.

There’s been a lot of damage without a lot of movement to show for it.
For many wealthy people, the poor are, for lack of a better term, a pain in the ass.

“Illegals” often are preferred in the workplace because they know they have no recourse and just take it.
This harkens back to a time when, for a stark minority, America was truly great.

Slavery and indentured servitude were perfect deals.
These other Homo sapiens were considered subhuman.

They took what they were given and did what they were told.

Imagine how angry early America’s rich were when they lost the right to own a person.
Look at what they did to preserve their way of life; see how tenaciously their ancestors cling to these values and seek to roll back progress.

Just think how pleased Paul Ryan would be if millions of Americans would finally do the jobs that Americans don’t want to do, for the wage that the boss tells them they’re going to get.

Try to calculate the level of Mitch McConnell’s joy when millions of Americans would, rather than have the audacity to demand affordable health care, just die off when the quality of life determined by their pay grade ushered them to the end of their existence.

The plea for equality is a hoarse cry in a country that was birthed in and operates on inequality.
There’s enough money and resources to allow all American citizens access to health care, but it has simply never been a sustained priority.

It’s been fascinating listening to politicians and think tankers assure interviewers that the health care plan that was recently given a toxic bill of health by the CBO is the smart and sustainable replacement to Obamacare.

They’re trying to open a lemonade stand that sells piss.
Not a single one of the members in either house of Congress will ever have to taste it.

There is no existential threat to America that rivals what America inflicts upon itself.
Centuries of this is one of the reasons Americans are such rugged individuals.

I say this with no irony.
I have been all over the world and have witnessed some rough scenes, but none of these places were self-promoted as the greatest country in the history of humanity.

That being said, America is still one of the harshest places I have ever been to.
For a large fraction of the American population, this country is a coast-to-coast school of hard knocks and sucker punches.

It has always been this way, and that’s one of the reasons why “Obamacare” was met with such opposition.

The Affordable Care Act, like the president, threatened too many long-standing ways of the road.

The new bill, a version of which could very likely become law, will be back to business as usual.
The “safety net” is more pretty talk than anything else.

The real safety net is drugs, tobacco, alcohol, cheap food, free porn and other ways to cheaply distract oneself from the pain of contemporary general population lockdown.

There’s no safety in any of it, just something to get you through for a little while.

It would be so refreshing if the GOP would just own up to it.
Sure, there would be a lot of angry people but there’s a lot of angry people already.

At least we could have it all on the table.
If they could just say that the country’s always been the land of opportunity but with some basic and inflexible rules attached.

There will be many, regrettably, who will have an endlessly challenging life, rife with misery and frustration. They’ll have justice like they’ll have equality and access to health care based on their race and economic class.

No one’s trying to be “mean” or in any way untoward.
It’s not us, it’s history’s great momentum!

The frustration you feel is part and parcel of America trying to become great again.

I’m not saying lie down and die.
I’m saying that it will be a miracle if America ever becomes scientifically inclined and peaceful, with levels of violence and discrimination that are less than horrifying.

We’re the scariest species on the planet, but one of the hardest parts to wrap your head around is that the one country that constantly reminds all the others of its greatness, supremacy and awesome military power, which also professes to be the fairest and free-est, has some of the most unenviable statistics.

If America’s the best country, you would think that all other countries would want to do the same thing, right? If all countries were like America, how many more years do you think the planet would be able to sustain life of any kind?

USA is not only No. 1; it’s the only one
 
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A deer somehow got into our pasture yesterday. We let our dogs out yesterday afternoon in a small area attached to the pasture and my German Shepherd went nuts. This morning when we let them out, we saw a full sized deer running into the fence of about 3.5 acres in this heat. My wife wanted me to do something right then. We brought the dogs in and I rested awhile. That deer needed to calm down before I could help it.

Those deer are watching their land diminish. All the human fireworks and gunfire for the holidays has them looking for safety. They need somewhere to live peacefully and safely. Last time it was three bucks in the pasture. Plenty of grass to eat with seeds, corn to eat from feeding the ducks and geese, water from the small pond, acorns from the oaks: they were where they wanted to be. I removed some fence for them to "escape" back into the limited area they have left, and they wouldn't leave. They were safe here, and had been for over a week. It took help from my wife to herd them like two shepherds out of the pasture. We fixed the fence. Hated to see them go, as I had enjoyed their presence. They were well taken care of and I asked nothing in return from them, but the laws made me either force them to leave or leave part of the fence open. I hope not to find this one dead on the highway out front.

Why not allow them to come and go? Humans and their children. Over the years they killed my neighbor's pygmy goats with bow and arrows. Someone shot the Great Blue Heron in the head with a .22 caliber rifle and left it there by my pond. Someone shot all six of our pinioned Canada Geese and left them scattered about the property dead with a hole in their head. Those came from two families that had to move, so we took the geese in. Had to fence the property and post it, call my attorney, and get him to promise he would prosecute the next visitors.

If I fail to mend the fence today, we will most likely have several deer tomorrow. We will go without to help feed them. The bucks would walk behind a bush so one couldn't see them if one were to walk through the pasture. We enjoyed them from our backyard and at night under our light. We watched them from our windows. Laws make it difficult to enjoy them, as do some people.
 
just me said:
A deer somehow got into our pasture yesterday. We let our dogs out yesterday afternoon in a small area attached to the pasture and my German Shepherd went nuts. This morning when we let them out, we saw a full sized deer running into the fence of about 3.5 acres in this heat. My wife wanted me to do something right then. We brought the dogs in and I rested awhile. That deer needed to calm down before I could help it.

Those deer are watching their land diminish. All the human fireworks and gunfire for the holidays has them looking for safety. They need somewhere to live peacefully and safely. Last time it was three bucks in the pasture. Plenty of grass to eat with seeds, corn to eat from feeding the ducks and geese, water from the small pond, acorns from the oaks: they were where they wanted to be. I removed some fence for them to "escape" back into the limited area they have left, and they wouldn't leave. They were safe here, and had been for over a week. It took help from my wife to herd them like two shepherds out of the pasture. We fixed the fence. Hated to see them go, as I had enjoyed their presence. They were well taken care of and I asked nothing in return from them, but the laws made me either force them to leave or leave part of the fence open. I hope not to find this one dead on the highway out front.

Why not allow them to come and go? Humans and their children. Over the years they killed my neighbor's pygmy goats with bow and arrows. Someone shot the Great Blue Heron in the head with a .22 caliber rifle and left it there by my pond. Someone shot all six of our pinioned Canada Geese and left them scattered about the property dead with a hole in their head. Those came from two families that had to move, so we took the geese in. Had to fence the property and post it, call my attorney, and get him to promise he would prosecute the next visitors.

If I fail to mend the fence today, we will most likely have several deer tomorrow. We will go without to help feed them. The bucks would walk behind a bush so one couldn't see them if one were to walk through the pasture. We enjoyed them from our backyard and at night under our light. We watched them from our windows. Laws make it difficult to enjoy them, as do some people.
Click to expand...

So how are you relating this to what I wrote to you and the general discussion of healthcare.
It’s a very nice story, show me what point you were trying to get at?
Or was there not one?
Which is fine too @just me
Have a good week.
 
Perhaps we might find ourselves somewhere we don't belong, disliking the parameters we must deal with, and we might panic. Someone is smart enough to let us calm down about it. Maybe we find it better there, so we might not wish to leave. We know we don't wish to be where we were. Suddenly, someone is making our lives easier. This is great. Of course, somebody else somewhere is having to pay for all this. After a while, the people selling the corn to help us tires of getting less from us for their corn, so our costs go up. Then we are told we cannot help them any longer and they must leave. Please don't ask me to spell it all out. I would rather you just ignore it. Nobody will ever agree with it all until they must.
 
just me said:
Perhaps we might find ourselves somewhere we don't belong, disliking the parameters we must deal with, and we might panic. Someone is smart enough to let us calm down about it. Maybe we find it better there, so we might not wish to leave. We know we don't wish to be where we were. Suddenly, someone is making our lives easier. This is great. Of course, somebody else somewhere is having to pay for all this. After a while, the people selling the corn to help us tires of getting less from us for their corn, so our costs go up. Then we are told we cannot help them any longer and they must leave. Please don't ask me to spell it all out. I would rather you just ignore it. Nobody will ever agree with it all until they must.
Click to expand...
succinct! amazing insight!
but if they don't sell us their corn, what are they gonna do with it?
 
just me said:
Perhaps we might find ourselves somewhere we don't belong, disliking the parameters we must deal with, and we might panic. Someone is smart enough to let us calm down about it. Maybe we find it better there, so we might not wish to leave. We know we don't wish to be where we were. Suddenly, someone is making our lives easier. This is great. Of course, somebody else somewhere is having to pay for all this. After a while, the people selling the corn to help us tires of getting less from us for their corn, so our costs go up. Then we are told we cannot help them any longer and they must leave. Please don't ask me to spell it all out. I would rather you just ignore it. Nobody will ever agree with it all until they must.
Click to expand...
You pay one way or the other...through higher premiums from cost passed down from people being uninsured, or through your taxes?
Seems like one would be more easily regulated and transparent than the other who is out to make a profit.
 

Don’t let our Congress and Presidential cabinet further destroy a program that once had laws protecting it from the very things
(like borrowing from it, still hasn’t been repaid) that our Govt. is doing.
Had it been privatized like Bush Jr. pushed for, it would have been decimated when Wall St. collapsed in 2009...
yet we still hear people talking about trying to privatize it...why?
To make more money off of us....everything is gouging you, why not SS too?
When they talk about cutting SS or cutting Medicare - they can take a long run off a short cliff.
It’s not their money to play with, to borrow and not repay....it’s the peoples’ money that is taken out of their paychecks every time they’re paid.
There was a 0.1% cost of living increase in SS last year...the year before none.
I think it’s high time the money is no longer managed by Congress, they have proven time and time again that they are dishonest for their reasons,
do not pay back what they borrowed (with interest please), and make decisions with it and
Medicare that don’t have the best interest of the people they are supposed to represent in mind.
Enough already.
This is BS, and peoples’ lives you are messing with.

19756833_1614922691860998_4773239846043572065_n.jpg
 


U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders — US Senator for Vermont
23 hrs

It is time to get our priorities right as a country.
We are not going broke.

We do not need to be cutting essential programs for working families and we can move toward universal health care.
President Trump has proposed a $54 billion increase in military spending, a time when we have a defense budget larger than the next 12 countries combined.

Now, Bloomberg is reporting that the F-35 fighter jet budget being submitted to Congress will exceed $406 billion.

I ask you — at a time when nearly half of children live near the poverty line, when millions of people are without health care, when our infrastructure is crumbling — should we really be pouring more money into the military industrial complex?

Should that be our main priority as a nation?
I think not.

Nation "Too Broke" for Universal Healthcare to Spend $406 Billion More on F-35
There always another $27 billion or lying around, it seems, when Lockheed Martin needs more money for expensive weapons system
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2...versal-healthcare-spend-406-billion-more-f-35

f-35_.jpg
 
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just me said:
Perhaps we might find ourselves somewhere we don't belong, disliking the parameters we must deal with, and we might panic. Someone is smart enough to let us calm down about it. Maybe we find it better there, so we might not wish to leave. We know we don't wish to be where we were. Suddenly, someone is making our lives easier. This is great. Of course, somebody else somewhere is having to pay for all this. After a while, the people selling the corn to help us tires of getting less from us for their corn, so our costs go up. Then we are told we cannot help them any longer and they must leave. Please don't ask me to spell it all out. I would rather you just ignore it. Nobody will ever agree with it all until they must.
Click to expand...
So poetic it's meaningless!
 
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