Quote of the Day -- On America and Universal Health Care

Quote today from one George D Morgan on Facebook.

He's so right.

"I spent 36 years in the insurance business. So I know a thing or two about the subject. The one thing everyone needs to understand is that insurance is an exclusionary product--though it includes good risks that the insurance companies want, it EXcludes bad risks they do not want.

Because of the exclusionary nature of insurance, health care is not, never has been, and never will be, a good candidate as an insurance product. This is because everyone needs health care.

Everyone---without exception.

So don't talk to me about Socialism or Capitalism or anything in between. We need to adopt a universal health care system because health care is universally needed--unlike what is provided by insurance.

It's really that simple."

And the rest of the Western, industrialized world does it. 

Somehow I think we could manage.

This Is How Insane, Obcene and Immoral Our US "Healthcare" Is-- And How Overpriced

This is how insanely expensive US healthcare is.

There is a fantastic, eye-opening article in today's Sunday New York Times that spells it all out and that every adult American should read or at least be aware of.

A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5,000 Check (Yes, a Check)

This patient, this woman was flown to Mexico, to Cancun, from here in the States, Wisconsin, specifically, along with her surgeon in order to get a full knee replacement.  That's one thing. You'd think that would be crazy by itself, right? After all, we have the "best healthcare in the world." don't we?

But wait, there's more. A lot more.

• The cost of her flight was included in all the costs and charges
• Her doctor was also flown there for the surgery
• Her doctor's flights down and back plus a hotel room for him were all included in these costs
•  Her doctor was paid 3 times--3 times--what he would have earned here in the States doing the same surgery
•  She received a check for $5000 to do it and then the kicker---
•  It still cost less than it would have here, in country

"The hospital costs of the American medical system are so high that it made financial sense for both a highly trained orthopedist from Milwaukee and a patient from Mississippi to leave the country and meet at an upscale private Mexican hospital for the surgery."

Repeating, this is how monumentally stupid, insane, obscene and immoral our for-profit healthcare is here in America.

Insane.

God, we're stupid.

I say again, we are the only, the only industrialized nation that does this, that ties health and healthcare to profit.

Our Obscene, Highly Immoral, Bankrupting, Even Murderous Healthcare System

In the past week, quite by accident, I've heard two different stories from two completely unconnected people, women, as chance would have it, about health care travesties. They highlight, very well, the ugly insanity of how we do health care.

The first was from a woman who said she worked full time at a law office and for her family's health insurance, she paid $600 per month.

That's it.

That's the whole story.

One person, one woman, trying to support her family and the best her company--heck, our nation--could offer her was to pay $600 per month for health care insurance.

She rightly and truly pointed out, too, that this didn't include the huge, thousands of dollars minimums she'd have to pay first if there were any health care needs nor does it include the co-pays.

That alone is, as the headline says, obscene and immoral.

Is it any wonder health care costs are the number one cause of bankruptcy in this nation?

The second example was from a co-worker, by chance, this afternoon. I heard her talking that she had, some time ago, gone to her doctor's office and had some sort of health care episode of some kind. She was in her doctor's office by coincidence, for something else, entirely. The doctor's office was physically attached to the hospital. One could go through the hallways to get there.

Once she started having this "episode"--I don't know what the ailment was--they told the doctor's staff, naturally. That staff informed the woman they would not only call an ambulance but that--get this--THEY HAD TO CALL THE AMBULANCE.  She couldn't go through the building or even go around to the front door or something. An ambulance had to be called, she had to be put into it and be taken to the emergency entrance.

So that's what happened.

And because of that, she was billed $800.

$800 for an ambulance trip, AROUND THE BUILDING, not even a block, that took seconds.

This is a woman who doesn't make a great deal of money, ladies and gentlemen.

We seem to not have any sense when it comes to health care in this nation. We're all about companies and corporations making loads of money and having big profits but we don't care about the costs.

Again, WE ARE THE ONLY NATION THAT DOES THIS.

We, the US, are the only nation in the world that ties health and health care to profit and profits.

Consequently, we are the only nation that has citizens that go bankrupt due to health care costs.

We are the only nation that has people die because they can't afford treatment. We are the only nation that has people die because they can't afford insulin, as just one perfect example.

We just are not very bright. In spite of what we tell ourselves.

Link:

Americans are dying because they can’t afford insulin

Don't Look Now But a Town In Rural Missouri Just Got Hit. And Hard

I hadn't seen anything of this but it seems a hospital in rural Missouri, in the town of Kennett, is closing.

116-bed Missouri hospital to close 

next month

The website Axios simply and clearly points out three very big factors of all this:

• Many people are worried residents won't get care at all or will suffer from having to drive long distances for hospital care.
• "We have two nursing homes, and people are already talking about pulling their loved ones out because there's not a hospital close enough," one worker said.
• "This little town just lost its biggest employer...financially, a lot of businesses are going to suffer," another employee said.
• Kennett is a farming community in Dunklin County, whose residents are poor and have some of the worst health outcomes in the state. (The area overwhelmingly voted for President Trump in 2016.)

Get that.

Not only losing your town's only hospital but also it's biggest employer. Talk about a double, if not triple or worse "whammy."

Can you imagine even being elderly in that town, let alone in a nursing home, knowing your town is losing its hospital?

If you had a loved one in a nursing home there, would you keep them there?

Worse, if you were in that nursing home and in reasonably good condition otherwise, would you want to stay there, in that town, in that nursing home?

What do you bet the nursing home or homes in Kennett, Missouri will be losing patients, customers? And quickly?  I would be very surprised if, in only a couple to a few years, the nursing home or homes there don't also close, have to close. I certainly hope I'm wrong about that.

Then, can you imagine being an employee of the hospital? Thinking you had a job for life? And you're in rural Missouri, rural America. The nearest hospital is 50 miles away. Further, do you think they have many job openings? It's questionable, at least.

The heck of it is, this is not good for the town of Kennett but it's not good for that entire area. It's not good for that region, that part of the state. Simply put, it's no way good for Missouri.

It's not good for America. It's not good for the nation.

____________________________________________________________

More of the fuller situation that brought this about here, below:

When a rural hospital shuts down

Other links:

Sudden hospital closure gravely concerns Kennett doctors 

Wellington, Kan., hospital threatened 

like other rural facilities 

Possible shutdown of St. Francis hospital in Topeka

Closing of Kansas hospital adds to 

Medicaid expansion debate

America's Rural Hospitals Are Dangerously Fragile 

Fantastic Article On American Health Care Today

There is, as said above, a fantastic article in the New York Times today outlining things we ought to get, rights we ought to have, from our health care providers and system. It's an eye opener, not least of which because we all know these are out there and we can be subject to each and every one of them.

Nine Rights Every Patient Should Demand 

And they are:

1. The right to an itemized bill in plain English.

2. The right to never receive a surprise out-of-network bill.

3. The right to accurate information about the provider network in my insurance plan.

4. The right to a stable network.

5. The right to be informed of conflicts of interest.

6. The right to be informed in advance about any facility fees.

7. The right to see a price list for elective procedures.

8. The right to be informed of cheaper options.

9. The right to know that a disputed bill will not be sent to a collection agency.

Here are 9 things we're subject to, as Americans, as patients and each one is pretty outrageous, really. After all, it's our health and it's our health care system. Yet we're subject to all of these any time we go to a doctor or the hospital. It is, again, outrageous.

And why do we put up with this? Why do we tolerate this?

Partly because we have to. Partly because we know the corporations and moneyed people are in charge. They can give their Congressional representative---our Congressional representatives--some money and they get the laws and government they want.

They're in control.

Welcome to "free market", profit-driven health care, America.

What're you gonna' do about it?

Right Wing, Republican, Evangelical "Christian" America

From March For Our Lives, Columbus Ohio, this past weekend.

The kids are alright.

Here's That "American Exceptionalism"

Worst vacation policies of any developed country

America Has the Worst Vacation Policies 

Of Any Developed Country

Americans get the least paid vacation time in the world

America Has the Worst Family Leave Policies

Most expensive health care of the top 17 industrialized nations

U.S. Healthcare: Most Expensive 

and Worst Performing

And check that out--also the least effective health care of those same 17 nations

We own more guns than any other nation.

Americans own more guns than residents of any

 other country

Our gun homicide rates are more than 25% higher than other high-income nations.

America's gun culture vs. the world 

in 5 charts 

Oh, yeah. We're exceptional, all right.

At least we have Grand Canyon, eh?

What Tying Health Care to Profit(s) Gets You

Yes sir/ma'am, this, this, among many other things, is just what, exactly, tying health care to profit and profits gets a nation---us.

U.S. Health Care Ranked Worst 

in the Developed World

Note two things about the article--First, it is from Time magazine, not some wild, irresponsible rag and two, it was published June 17, 2014.  As prices and costs for health care in our nation get ever-higher, this only becomes more true and only gets worse.

This study is from just last year.

Study: US healthcare system is worst 

among 11 developed nations

Report: U.S. Has the Worst Health Care System

Here are some of the other things tying health and health care to profits gains you.

Once again, U.S. has most expensive, 

least effective health care

Health Care Costs: 

The Leading Cause of Bankruptcy

So congratulations, America. The rest of the world knows better than this. We pay more, far more, than any other nation for health care and we have the worst medical outcomes.

Aren't we brilliant?  Seems "exceptional" to me, right?

Will you EVER learn?

Higher and Yet Higher Health Care Costs Thanks to This President

Yes, sir, all that bloviating and equivocating this Republican President is doing is no way going to be good for your or my health care costs in this nation. The health care companies, the pharmaceuticals and insurance companies, especially, are using it to, yet again, still more, just keep on raising and raising their prices---and so, our costs.

This came out yesterday, from the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, no less.

Study says Trump moves trigger health premium jumps for 2018

The Trump administration's own actions are triggering double-digit premium increases on individual health insurance policies purchased by many consumers, a nonpartisan study has found.

So to all the Trump voters and supporters, once again, to you and The Donald, both, we say, THANK, FELLAS!!

Presidential Campaign/Candidate, Now Officeholder Quote of the Day

That was then.

"We’re going to have insurance for everybody. There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”

--Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump

This is now.

G.O.P. Health Bill Would Leave 

23 Million More Uninsured

I'd laugh but I think I'm going to be sick to my stomach.

Links:

Trump vows 'insurance for everybody' 

in Obamacare replacement plan

Republican Health Care Bill Delivers Big Tax Cut For The Rich

More on the Republicans' Wealthcare Proposal

Because that's what this AHCA, "Trumpcare" is, of course.


Definitely.

Wealthcare.

It's certainly not healhcare.

Nations That Have Universal Health Care

Yes, nations that have universal health care--health care for all--and so, don't tie its cost to profit like we in America. A partial list.

Check that out.

Slovenia, for God's sake.

But no, we can't do it.

Idiots.

Quote of the Day -- On Our Health Care

Quote of the Day -- On Yesterday's House Health Care Debacle

How can you prescribe a cure for heartlessness? 

What a deplorable day for America. 

Perhaps the Senate will stop this assault; we will see. 

Meanwhile the congressional GOP, and its fundamentalists, are full of real bastards, replete with the hubris and conceits that blind white people of privilege. 

It’s the stuff of fiction. 

All of them are the pious and stunted Babbits who have shown up time after time in American history. In the 19th century, these ignoramus moralists used to tar and feather the wicked and clutch their skirts and get the vapors, when their real motive was fleecing someone. 

And now? 

Snake Oil comes in Red, White, and Blue with a GOP pin. 

Once again, the officiously comfortable afflict the poor, elderly and vulnerable, and proclaim their righteous glory and salvation while killing them, Alleluiah. No dunking chairs, stocks or nooses are being used here, and no one is quite being run out of town, but it's a bonfire of hubris. 

And of course, a rancid lecher like Trump and his administration target women and the poor. 

He is enabled in so many ways by those who obsess over the organ Trump is so fond of and yet horrified by, the organ which does all those things he and his coterie are so terribly, demonstrably, shamed by. Misogyny, racism and an orgy of white class privilege define today; NOT American ideals. 

This is ancient, orgiastic Rome on the Potomac. 

Or, leap ahead to the 17th century: You don't have to endorse everything HRC did in her campaign to be appalled by her burning at the stake by Comey and the rest with casual, partial, deadly “reveals". (Comey tosssed letter bombs.) 

So, friends, what comes next? 

Demonstrations, protests, and 2018. 

The Democrats may have been less than elegant today -- but really, who can blame a visceral reaction in the face of an Orwellian overload of cant? We're watching democracy be trampled, and decent people be trampled, and our way of life -- I don't think I'm exaggerating here -- be peeled off to appease and enrich the exalted triumphalists. 

They should start wearing togas. 

Staid, pleasant rhetoric doesn't cut it for me in these times. And unless we're really willing to do the hard work of connecting people, this ugliness dominates. I think we're on the cusp of a radical act: Democracy, and yanking it back in 2018 from the worst, most venal characters since the days of Vigilantes, boss rule and segregation and other nativist elements. 

Can we provide the cure for the diseased heart of the American power structure? 

For the heartlessness and greed which lie at the heart of Trumpism and the GOP? 

That's my definition of palliative care: vote them into oblivion. Whatever it takes, wherever we are, but link arms, and do not be silent.

--Jacki Lyden

Link:

Jacki Lyden - Wikipedia

Republican Party America

Click on the picture for easier reading.

On This Day, March 25, 1966

How completely timely is that, given the Republicans attempts, once again, to keep health care only for the wealthy, to keep it unattainable for the middle- and lower-classes?

It was true then, in 1966, all those many years ago and it's become ever more true, with every increase in pharmaceutical prices and health care insurance premiums and especially with the Republicans' attempts to repeal the ACA, "Obamacare."

To Trump Voters, Supporters

Here's to all of the people who voted for Trump:

Remember when the so-called President said he was going to donate his salary?

He just accepted his second paycheck. Says he'll pay it back later.

Remember when he said Mexico was going to pay for the wall?

He has asked Congress to appropriate the $25 billion of taxpayer money to cover costs.

Remember when he said he was going to divest from his businesses?

He changed his mind.

Remember when he said he was going to release his tax returns?

Again, changed his mind.

Remember when he said he wasn't going to go on vacation or play golf?

5 of the last 7 weekends he went on vacation and played golf, costing taxpayers $11.1 million.

And he's going again this weekend.

Remember when he said he was going to use American steel to build these dangerous pipelines?

Russian steel arrived last week for the Keystone Pipeline XL.

Remember when he said would defeat ISIS in 30 days?

He still has no plan whatever.

Remember when he said he was going to appropriate money to historic Black colleges?

He lied to get a photo-op.

Remember when he said he was going to drain the swamp of Washington insiders?

His cabinet is filled with lobbyists, oil and Wall Street executives.

Remember when he said he wasn't going to cut social security and Medicare?

The Republican bill does just that.

Remember when he said that nobody on his campaign has any communications with Russian govt?

7 in his administration--so far--have now admitted they spoke and/or met with Russian officials, after they lied and got caught.

Remember when he said that the Obamacare replacement would cover more people at lower cost?

The AHCA that the GOP and he are now pushing; they now admit will cover fewer people at a higher cost.

So here's to you, Trump voters, Trump supporters.

Unless you regret that vote and now, that support, the rest of us out here in America have no idea what you're thinking. You got duped but we have to pay the costs for your mistakes, too. And the poor and elderly have to pay a "higher price" than just about any of us.

Kudos.

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

Republicans: Political Party First, Then Money, THEN People

The Republicans in Congress and in state houses all across America have been putting money and their political party ahead of their constituents, ahead of Americans and for years.
After the horrible, horrific Newtown shooting/slaying of 20 school children and 6 adults at the school, the first thing out of their mouths was that this murder "shouldn't be politicized" in a clear effort to protect the NRA and the gun lobby and weapons manufacturers.

Once again, guns--and money--before people, before us Americans. They put their political party and the money they get from their "sponsors" before Americans and before American lives.

This one they just recently, rather famously did.

House GOP Blocks Measure to 

Keep Guns from Mentally Ill

They ruled that people who are clinically diagnosed as being mentally ill and/or unstable should be able to have weapons, guns. In their terms, they should "be able to exercise their Second Amendment rights."

People be damned.

And now, with Republicans finally, finally creating and releasing a plan of any kind to replace "Obamacare", which is so important to them, they once again did the same thing. They put money and the deficit and the budget ahead of people, ahead of Americans, ahead of American lives.

This headline proves, shows where the Republicans' priorities are and proves my point with their health care plan is right here:

Health Bill Would Add 24 Million Uninsured but Save $337 Billion, Report Says

Here's another.

No Magic in How G.O.P. Plan Lowers Premiums: It Pushes Out Older People

They’ve put guns before American lives for years and now, budgets before American lives. Everything boils down to money with these people. And then they’re doing it so they can get and keep more money in their pockets, from their sponsors and overlords, in the form of “campaign contributions.”

Ryan’s Strategy: Stress Savings, Play Down Rise in Uninsured

Though it's estimated 24 million Americans would lose their health care insurance completely, these Republicans want and plan to give the already-wealthy yet more tax breaks, with the very same bill.

GOP health care plan gives wealthiest a $275 billion tax break

It's easy, so easy, to see what these people's priorities are. It's political party first, their interest groups second and money. Always.

Links:

The Original Lie About Obamacare

GOP health plan would hit Iowa especially hard

GOP health plan would hit Bay Area hard

Medicaid in Florida will be hit hard by Obamacare repeal bill

GOP Health Plan Would Hit Seniors Hard says AARP

Highway to Hell

Republicans, swept into power, controlling all of Congress, now about to end Obamacare and supporting Russia's Vladimir Putin; know-nothing, emotional, insecure, vindictive Donald "The Chump" Trump wins the presidency; Right Wing, Eric "Pretty Boy" Greitens wins the Missouri Governor's office, still vowing and pressing to foist "Right to work" laws on Missourians so we can all work for less for the already-wealthy and corporations and they can further bust Unions and all the rest and now this.

Chargers are moving to Los Angeles 

after 56 years in San Diego

I tell you, the world is coming apart.

It's all going to Hell.

The common denominator in all of it is money. We are drowning in money. We're being bought. And sold. All over. Politically and in all other ways. I need to write a book. It would be titled "Money and Capitalism Are Smothering America."