Quotes of the Day -- On Health Care

Universal health care is such a complex beast that only 32 of the world's 33 nations have been able to make it work.

--Duke @Maxonsdad 

If you think Covid treatment should be free (of course it should), why do you think insulin shouldn’t be? 

Or cancer treatment? 

Or mental health?

Health care should not be run for profit. Period.

--Robert Reich @RBReich

US Healthcare System vs This Pandemic

 Can we not now, with this pandemic, recognize and admit that our for-profit health care system in the US is clearly hurting Americans? We are supposedly, reputedly the "wealthiest nation in the world" and have the "best health care system in the world" but, but it's not universal health care.

We are the only Western, industrialized nation IN THE WORLD without universal health care.

We are the only nation in the world that has citizens declaring bankruptcy due to health care costs.

The number one cause of bankruptcy in the nation is health care costs.

With all that, finally, and, again, this pandemic, we have MORE DEATHS from this pandemic than ANY OTHER NATION IN THE WORLD.

Can we not see a connection between this for-profit health care system and all these pandemic deaths?

Can't we?

And then, can we maybe do something about all this?

We are, after all, "exceptional."

Right?

At What Point, America, Do You Get This on Health Care?

Okay, America. It's 2020. Worst, most killing international pandemic in more than 100 years.

You're the only Western, industrialized nation without universal health care. You're the only nation that tied and ties health care to profit.

The U.S. is the Only Very Highly Developed Country Without Universal HealthCare

You have, far and away, THE MOST EXPENSIVE health care system IN THE WORLD. And it also gives you THE WORST OUTCOMES, for all that money.

U.S. Healthcare: Most 

Expensive and Worst Performing

The U.S. Has the Most Expensive Healthcare System in the World

And we're the only nation--IN THE WORLD--where citizens can and do go bankrupt for health care costs.

Only in America: Bankruptcy Due to Health Care Costs

And not just bankruptcies, which is bad enough, but it's the NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF BANKRUPTCY in the nation.

Health Care Costs Number One Cause of Bankruptcy for American Families

And now? As I said, with this worst, most killing international pandemic in over 100 years? And the job losses? And so, people losing their health insurance?

Millions Have Lost Health Insurance in Pandemic

COVID-19 Job Losses Threaten Insurance Coverage

27M Americans may have lost job-based health insurance

At what point do you get this?

How long are we going to let corporations and profits be more important than people? And their lives?

You didn't used to be clueless. Or heartless.

Or downright stupid.

Here's That "American Exceptionalism" For You

Here you go.

Just one more way we are "exceptional" as a nation.

There is an article out just now on countries with the best life expectancy.

Countries with the best life expectancy

And get this.

The top countries are all Democratic Socialist nations…

And they all have universal healthcare.

We, the US, are at---wait for it--the number 34 position.

34

Cuba is in the number 33 position. They live longer in Cuba, freaking Cuba, than we do here in the States.

We also have a worse life expectancy than Slovenia.

Coincidentally, Israel, to whom we give millions of dollars, has a far higher life expectancy than we in the US. They are #14 on the list. And yes, it really is true they have universal healthcare, too. We don't but they do.

People in the Republic of Korea have a longer life expectancy, at number 9.

Singapore is number 4---number 4---on the list. Far better, far higher than the US.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what lots of guns and money and zero universal healthcare gets us.

Enjoy that exceptionalism, folks.

Living In the US vs Elsewhere

A friend's post yesterday said what I've been thinking for some time:

A comment from a friend who moved to Europe a few years ago: 

"it is absolutely incredible. We've been here (several) years now...the life style for my family is spectacular. The kids are happy, my wife is happy, we're experiencing people/culture/travel that we'd never see in the US. My kids are growing up in an environment with such cultural/international awareness that we never experienced as kids.

The longer you live outside the US, the more obvious the divide becomes. Education, healthcare, and environment are top priorities in Europe. Nudity is allowed and you see it on billboards, magazines, etc., but no one cares because it is natural. Violence, on the other hand, isn’t dramatized or publicized and broadcast throughout the media. When people commit crimes, they don’t even publish their full names in the paper (it shows as 'Matt H. was found guilty'). Europe allows nudity and minimizes the broadcasting of violence, while the US takes an opposite stance"

Additionally, they have far fewer guns so far fewer shootings and killings.

And universal health care.

And then there's all that architecture. We tear our "old" buildings down after 50 years.

All that, just for starters.

The Real Reason America Doesn't Have Universal Health Care

The One Nation Without Universal Health Care

This is what Capitalism has gotten us in both health care pricing and mortality rates as well internet pricing and speed. Ours are both the most expensive and worst quality.



We're just not that bright.

Links:

Once again, U.S. has most expensive, least effective health care

U.S. Healthcare: Most Expensive and Worst Performing

Our Ugly, Heartless, Immoral US Health Care System

I was just notified yesterday, by my brother, that a friend from childhood had had a stoke.

That was awful enough but, once again, it shows how wrong, horrible, even, our Capitalist, profit-driven health care system is in our nation.

Not only did he have a stroke, the poor guy, but was life-flighted to a local hospital here in Kansas City, from St. Joseph, an hour away. He then had a long stay in the hospital with numerous surgeries. It was apparently a massive stroke.

He's home now but to make all those matters even worse, he and his wife have no health insurance.

His wife is a middle school school teacher in St. Joseph (Missouri).

She continues to be his primary caregiver, which would be more than enough work and strain and stress as it is but then, she also has to hire help during the day for him, while she teaches.

Can you imagine the expenses?

From the life-flight to the emergency room to the surgeries to the daily expenses while he was there to, now, the medicines he no doubt has to have and the daily care for him? All of it?  It must surely be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, those poor people.

And then there's the mental anguish his wife is unquestionably going through.

It's horrible. It's nearly unthinkable what they've been through and what they're going through.

Horrible as all this is, do you know what they'd owe in the UK, England, if this occurred to a citizen?

Zero.

They would owe nothing.

Sure, they'd have expenses but they all knew better, many decades ago, than to tie health care to profit and for just these very reasons.

I say again, our American health care system is the ugliest, most inhuman, inhumane, abusive, immoral, horrible, over-expensive, over-rated, disgusting health care system in the world, bar none. In no other nation do the people have to have fund raisers to cover family member's health care costs. We, here in the US, are the only nation that does that or has to. I imagine few Americans give any thought to that fact.

This is why we needed, and so badly, the Affordable Care Act, the ACA, "Obamacare." It's why we need to go further and have a single-payer system. We need universal health care. The rest of the civilized, educated, industrial world has it.

We should, too.

Link:

U.S. Healthcare: Most Expensive and Worst Performing - 

The Atlantic

Your Sunday Thought for the Day

Socialism Worse Than Capitalism?

So many people in America claim Socialism is worse, far worse, frequently, for even people but especially for business.  They should think again.

This, from very Conservative, very Right Wing, very pro-business Forbes Magazine:

The Best Countries For Business 2015 

- Forbes

U.S. Slides Again As Denmark Comes Out On Top

Their words:

The U.S. falls in our rankings for a sixth straight year with low scores on monetary freedom and bureaucracy. Denmark leads a strong showing by Europe at the head of the class.

And who are the top ten on this "best countries for business list" from around the world? Check it out:

Denmark has ranked first in six of the 10 annual editions of FORBES’ Best Countries list. The country has been in the news in the U.S. lately thanks to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who holds up the nation of 5.6 million people as a model socialist utopia. The country does have one of the highest individual tax burdens in the world in exchange for its wide-ranging services, but it is very much a market-based economy.

Denmark ranked in the top 20 in all but one of the 11 metrics we used to gauge the Best Countries for Business (it ranked 28th for red tape). It scored particularly well for freedom (personal and monetary) and low corruption. The regulatory climate is one of the world’s “most transparent and efficient,” according to the Heritage Foundation.

From there the list goes:

2. New Zealand

3. Norway

4. Ireland

5. Sweden

6. Finland

7. Canada

8. Singapore

9. Netherlands

10. United Kingdom

So there you are.  9 of the 10 "top countries for business" are all in Europe and all Socialist.

Oh, and they all also have universal health care. 

And no one goes bankrupt for health care costs.

So where is our own United States on this list, you might ask?

We aren't even in the top 15. 

The picture isn’t as bright for the U.S., which slides four spots to No. 22. It continues a six-year descent since 2009 when the U.S. ranked second overall. The U.S. is the financial capital of the world and its largest economy at $17.4 trillion (China is second at $10.4 trillion), but it scores poorly on monetary freedom and bureaucracy/red tape. More than 150 new major regulations have been added since 2009 at a cost of $70 billion, according to the Heritage Foundation.

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. For any and all who think Socialism is horrible, period, in its own right and that any nation having it is, therefore, bad for business. It just patently isn't so.

Not only is intelligent Socialism better for the people, it can be and is also, in plenty of places in the world,  good for business. 

Let that sink in.

Seems Bernie Sanders was right all along, huh?

More proof of why we badly need "Obamacare"

And from where else today but The New York Times?

In Need of a New Hip, but Priced Out of the U.S.

Our health care system, being beyond question the most expensive in the world, is forcing some of us to have to go outside the country, to other nations that have--oops--universal health care and far less expensive systems.

A bit of the article:

WARSAW, Ind. — Michael Shopenn’s artificial hip was made by a company based in this remote town, a global center of joint manufacturing. But he had to fly to Europe to have it installed.        

Mr. Shopenn, 67, an architectural photographer and avid snowboarder, had been in such pain from arthritis that he could not stand long enough to make coffee, let alone work. He had health insurance, but it would not cover a joint replacement because his degenerative disease was related to an old sports injury, thus considered a pre-existing condition.        

Desperate to find an affordable solution, he reached out to a sailing buddy with friends at a medical device manufacturer, which arranged to provide his local hospital with an implant at what was described as the “list price” of $13,000, with no markup. But when the hospital’s finance office estimated that the hospital charges would run another $65,000, not including the surgeon’s fee, he knew he had to think outside the box, and outside the country.

“That was a third of my savings at the time,” Mr. Shopenn said recently from the living room of his condo in Boulder, Colo. “It wasn’t happening.”  
     

$65,000 here in the States vs. a mere $13,000 in Belgium.

 Round trip flight included.

The isn't working, folks. The health care system we have is broken. It doesn't work for the people. The companies and corporations are getting rich--filthy, stinking--on our backs. It's good for them but it's keeping the rest of us either broke, sick, in pain or even dead prematurely.

We need the Affordable Care Act. 

We need "Obamacare."

And badly.

Big, ugly, inefficient government?

Or people working together?

From Slate.com:

"Massachusetts tops the nation in fourth and eighth grade education, has the lowest child and teen mortality rates, the lowest percentage of uninsured residents, and the second-highest per capita personal income in the country.

Maybe the liberals there are doing something right?"

Link: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2012/05/massachusetts_is_the_best_state_in_the_union_.single.html

Mitt Romney: "Trapped. Trapped like a rat"

Proof positive Mitt Romney has a mountain of opposition against him, some of it created by his past as governor of Massachussetts, of course, and the fact that he passed the very intelligent and helpful health care system for his state:

Romney won't apologize for his health care plan

On the one hand, he can't disavow his past but on the other, he has to try to say what he did somehow wasn't good for America now.

Yes, handsome, wealthy and presidential-looking Mitt Romney, Mormon or no, has troubles that will be extremely difficult to overcome in his race to be the next president of the United states.

And thank goodness.

Universal health care first in Massachussetts, now Vermont

Like it or not now, Mitt Romney did the right thing, years ago, as governor of Massachussetts, when he helped push through and pass a universal health care-type structure in that state.

Good for him.

Now all he has to do is live it down in his attempt to become our next president.

So first Massachussetts, and now Vermont is getting it, too:

Green Mountain Dreams

The not-so-secret plan to bring Canadian-style health care into America via Vermont

By David Weigel  Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The people who want America to adopt a single-payer health care system like to tell a story. It's about how universal care had a demo in one of Canada's less populous provinces, where it proved so popular and successful that the rest of the country couldn't help but copy it. "Saskatchewan was the first province in Canada to get universal health care," said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., outside Capitol Hill on Tuesday. "The most beloved Canadian is Tommy Douglas, who started it."In the early 1960s, under Premier Tommy Douglas, the rural Canadian province introduced something like Medicare that covered everyone. Panic and protests ensued. The province had to import doctors temporarily to cover for the ones who'd gone on strike. But the plan worked. It was popular. By the end of the decade, all of Canada had the plan. And in 2004 Douglas was named the "greatest Canadian" in a poll, surging past Wayne Gretzky, Pierre Trudeau, and the bassist from The Tragically Hip. So that part's not hyperbole, either.McDermott was telling this story partly to explain why he hadn't just wasted his time. He and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had just rolled out the latest version of their single-payer plan, theAmerican Health Security Act (PDF). There was not much media present; there were no other members of Congress. Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., cast a quizzical look at the event as he passed by walking his dog. The first question to McDermott and Sanders was about why they thought they could pass single-payer health care in 2011 when it couldn't win enough votes even when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress in the last session.The answer: They didn't. But the state of Vermont will. On May 26, Gov. Peter Shumlin of Vermont is expected to sign legislation that will create universal coverage in the state—eventually. Vermont will use subsidies from the Affordable Care Act to help create a Canada-style system. And its system, or so the theory goes, will become so popular and cheap that the rest of America will want to copy it.So good for them--good for Vermont.  And Massachussetts, for that matter.  At least they have the beginnings of a more fair and equitable health care system.Now for the rest of us.Just don't hold your breath.Additional, final and important side note:  To requote, here, the current Pope Benedict XVI as he addressed House Speaker--and fellow Catholic--John Boehner, regarding this issue:  "In January, the Pope personally wrote to Boehner regarding the new Speaker’s opposition to health care reform, saying, “I have been scandalized that a great and religious country like yours has taken so long to guarantee health care as a right.”That's pretty powerful right there.
Links:  http://www.slate.com/id/2293634/?from=rsshttp://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/11/catholic-scholars-letter-boehner/

HOORAY for these Catholics!!

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

Good on you, Catholics!

Speaking truth--and fairness and sheer decency--to power!

Great news out today from the Think Progress blog:

Catholic Scholars To Boehner: Your Agenda Defies ‘Church’s Most Ancient Moral Teachings’ On Helping Poor

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) will give the commencement address at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Ahead of the visit, dozens of faculty members from the school and other other Catholic universities are writing to Boehner — who is himself an observant Catholic — challenging his willingness to “gut” social programs while protecting “new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.” “Mr. Speaker, your voting record is at variance from one of the Church’s most ancient moral teachings” of caring for the poor, they write:

Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress. This fundamental concern should have great urgency for Catholic policy makers. Yet, even now, you work in opposition to it.

The 2012 budget you shepherded to passage in the House of Representatives guts long-established protections for the most vulnerable members of society. It is particularly cruel to pregnant women and children, gutting Maternal and Child Health grants and slashing $500 million from the highly successful Women Infants and Children nutrition program. When they graduate from WIC at age 5, these children will face a 20% cut in food stamps. The House budget radically cuts Medicaid and effectively ends Medicare. It invokes the deficit to justify visiting such hardship upon the vulnerable, while it carves out $3 trillion in new tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

The letter goes on to cite a separate letter from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, written last month, which also raised moral issues with the GOP budget. “A just framework for future budgets cannot rely on disproportionate cuts in essential services to poor persons,” the bishops wrote, adding:

Converting Medicare into a voucher program could shift rising health care costs to vulnerable seniors and those who are poor without controlling these costs. We also fear the human and social costs of substantial cuts to programs that serve families working to escape poverty, especially food and nutrition, child development and education, and affordable housing.

Indeed, according to official Vatican doctrine, “The responsibility for attaining the common good, besides falling to individual persons, belongs also to the State.” “Tax revenues and public spending take on crucial economic importance,” the Vatican guidance continues, because “[j]ust, efficient and effective public financing will havevery positive effects.”

“Speaker Boehner’s budget eviscerates vital programs that protect the poor, the elderly, the homeless and at-risk pregnant women and children. This is not pro-life,” Stephen Schneck, Director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at Catholic and a signatory of the letter, said in press release.

And here might be my favorite part of this of all:

In January, the Pope personally wrote to Boehner regarding the new Speaker’s opposition to health care reform, saying, “I have been scandalized that a great and religious country like yours has taken so long to guarantee health care as a right.” The Church has also voiced support for labor unions.

This, to me, is the kind of things churches should be standing up for and haven't, particularly the Right-wing, "Conservative" arms of churches which have  also aligned themselves so closely and shamelessly with the Republicans, while all the while these same Rethugs are handing out tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations and, as said above, eviscerating services to the lowest classes.


It seems there may be some shame left in the world after all.


How does that saying go from their Bible about "the wealthy man" and that "eye of the needle", anyway?

Oh, yeah, here it is:  

"And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."     

King James Bible

Everyone seems to have totally forgotten that one, haven't they?  Hell, we don't just envy the rich, we worship them now.

American vs. European thought and lifesyle

A)  Does this not seem true, all down the line? and 

B)  Doesn't theirs seem vastly wiser than ours?

Discuss.

Link to original source:  http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/2846110150/furryogre-now-france-is-on-the-attack-maybe-i

What would YOU do?

Forethought, anyone?

All right, now we have our big solution passed.

Congress passed this 700 billion dollar boondoggle to bail out Wall Street and bankers and the big bank houses and set the world right, after 2 weeks of screaming about the sky falling. (See yesterday's entry).

Now what?

And see? That's the problem.

We focused for 2 weeks, our government did--and they tried to get us to do the same thing--on how bad the economy is/was and how we needed to give them this three-quarters of a trillion dollars. Now that they've added some trinkets for themselves and their friends, it's okay to go.

The question now is, has anyone thought about what all this debt will mean for us? H

We already have a ton of debt, thanks to out horrible spending of the last 8 years. Then we've added this little lump on top of that.

Has anyone thought ahead to what all this debt is going to do to us and our budgets and spending?

I'm sure Hank Paulson has, to an extent. And economists.

It's going to keep us from spending big time.

Universal health care?

Don't make me laugh. Ain't gonna happen.

It's been suggested again and again over time that the core cabal of Republicans have wanted this very thing to happen so they can rid the country of things like Social Security, "entitlements", universal health care and the like.

And who can disagree with that? That's exactly what it looks like, true or no.

Naomi Klein agrees and says so in her latest book.

And the biggest benefit? In the meantime, they gave all kinds of gifts in the form of money--millions, billions and trillions--to friends and corporations.