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.

America: We're Exceptional, All Right

Professor Reich came out with this video this week on his YouTube channel. He always gets me thinking.



Then there's this important to me, anyway, article from yesterday's New York Times.

The U.S. Is Lagging Behind Many Rich Countries

The United States is different. In nearly every other high-income country, people have both become richer over the last three decades and been able to enjoy substantially longer lifespans.

But not in the United States. Even as average incomes have risen, much of the economic gains have gone to the affluent — and life expectancy has risen only three years since 1990. There is no other developed country that has suffered such a stark slowdown in lifespans.

And this.

Health Insurance Is Broken

...Nothing illuminates the problems with an employer-based health care system quite like massive unemployment in the middle of a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease outbreak. For one thing, uninsured people are less likely to seek medical care, making this coronavirus that much more difficult to contain. Also, people with chronic or immune-compromising medical conditions are particularly susceptible to this new contagion — which means the people most in need of employer-sponsored health benefits are the same ones who can least afford to return to work at the moment.

“The pandemic has amplified all the vulnerabilities in our health care system,” says Drew Altman, president of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, including “the uninsured, racial disparities, the crisis of unmanaged chronic conditions and the general lack of national planning.”

So there's just a short list of articles that I think are important to us, to Americans, to the entire nation, along with this one video from Professor Reich.

We have fixing to do, America. Let's get out, vote, vote blue and get to the hard work of more justice and equality.

It will make us all, it will make the nation, stronger.

What This Pandemic and Our Situation Is and Is Not

A friend posted this yesterday on Facebook. It was apparently written by one Paul Field.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but you need to know how silly you look if you post some variation of, "Welcome to Socialism..."

You are not seeing Socialism. What you are seeing is one of the wealthiest, geographically advantaged, productive capitalist societies in the world flounder and fail at its most basic test. Taking care of its people.

This crisis is not about the virus.

This crisis is about the massive failure of our, "Booming economy," to survive even modest challenges. It is about the market dissonance of shortages in stores, even as farmers/producers destroy unused crops and products. This crisis is about huge corporations needing an emergency bailout within days of the longest Bull Market in our history ending and despite the ability to borrow with zero percent interest rates.

This crisis is about corporatized healthcare systems being unable and ill equipped to provide basic healthcare, at the same time they post record profits. It is about crisis response depending on antiquated systems nobody remembers how to operate.

But most of all, this crisis is a direct result of the politicization of every aspect of our society for the benefit of a privileged few. The vilification of education, science, media, natural rights, rural lifestyles, urban lifestyles, charity, compassion, and virtually everything else for brief political gain has gutted our society.

What you are seeing is a quarter century of technological brilliance being reduced to a narcissistic popularity contest. You're seeing the folly of basing the health and welfare of an entire society on personal greed. You're seeing all the necessary tools, for us to shrug off this crisis, go unused while people argue over who should get the credit and profit. Even worse, you're seeing vital help withheld because recipients might not, "deserve it..."

You're seeing a lot of things nobody thought they'd ever see, but you're not seeing Socialism...

"Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves."-- Horace Mann

I think the man is spot on.

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.

All the Ways America Is "Exceptional"

That last "American Exceptionalism" post here yesterday got me thinking. In fact, I've been thinking about it for some time. So on that thought, let's have a list of some of the biggest things we're "number one" at, America.

• We pay more for health care as a percentage of GDP than any other nation
• Only nation wherein people go bankrupt for healthcare costs
• Only nation with the highest amount of bankruptcies due to healthcare costs
• More guns than any other nations, per capita
• More shootings than any other nation
• More killings, homicides than any other nation
• Spend more--far, far more--than any other nation on guns and bombs and weapons, calling it "defense." We spend 7 times more on the military than any other nation on the planet. Worse,  U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined
• We have more foreign military bases than any other nation; Empire much?
• We have more citizens incarcerated, in prisons, than any other nation
• We have the highest percentage of the population that is obese
• We have the highest divorce rate
• Highest rate of illegal drug use in the world
• More reported murders than any other nation
• More total crimes committed in the US than anywhere else in the world
• We have more student loan debt than any other country and finally, at least here and now, 
• We have the most complicated tax system in the world
• Biggest Weapons exporter in the world
• We kill more people with drones, presently, than any other nation; Some of what our big "defense" budget gets us, I'm sure

But wait. There's more. There's more of our positions in the world and these are things we're not number one at:

• The U.S. ranks 23rd in gender equality
• The U.S. ranks 33rd in internet download speeds
• The U.S. ranks 46th in freedom of the press
• The U.S. ranks 26th in child well-being
• The U.S. ranks 24th in literacy
• The U.S. ranks 19th in perceived honesty
• The U.S. ranks 27th in leisure and personal care
• The U.S. ranks 17th in happiness
• The U.S. ranks 9th in retirement security
• The U.S. ranks 99th in peacefulness
• The U.S. ranks 24th in freedom from corruption
• The U.S. ranks 16th in manufacturing compensation costs
• The U.S. ranks 29th in intellectual property protection
• The U.S. ranks 23rd in wage distribution
• The U.S. ranks 10th in purchasing power of minimum wage
• The U.S. ranks 11th in minimum wage

Don't get me wrong.  I like this place America. There are some things, plenty, I guess, we're doing well or right at. But the fact is, we need to take a good, hard, long look at ourselves and maybe, hopefully, work on changing and improving.

Let's do this.

Links:

The Myth of American Exceptionalism

The myth of American exceptionalism 

Myth of American Exceptionalism 

American Exceptionalism Is a Dangerous Myth

NUMBER ONE? 20 Shameful Categories In Which America Leads

One Is The Loneliest Number - America Is Number One At Things We Shouldn't Brag About

Robert Reich: Is America Becoming a Third World Country?

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.

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

Capitalism--And Our American Suicide Rates

There is a new study out from the Center for Disease Control, the CDC, on suicide in America. It's fascinating. Very telling, in fact.

New Study on Rising Suicide Rates Suggests 

Capitalism Is Quite Literally Killing Us

A bit from the article:

A study released late last week showed that suicide rates have risen significantly across the country. The culprit appears to be capitalism.

It’s largely assumed that people who decide to kill themselves are suffering from a mental illness. Mental Health America estimates that 30 to 70 percent of Americans who end their own lives are suffering from either severe depression or bipolar disorder. However, according to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 54 percent of Americans who committed suicide in 27 states in 2015 had no known mental health condition.

The CDC study, which examined suicide rates in all 50 states between 1999 and 2016, found that the rate of Americans taking their own lives increased by an alarming 38 to 58 percent in 12 states, 31 to 37 percent in another 12 states, and 19 percent to 30 percent in another 12 states. The CDC found that on average, suicide rates jumped by more than 30 percent for all 50 states.
The fact that more than half of these suicides were not attributed to any mental illness in a majority of states for at least one year of the period the CDC studied is remarkable, and begs the question of what other factors led to thousands of Americans taking their own lives. CDC researchers discovered that, outside of problems with intimate partners, the prime causes of suicide for Americans with no known mental illnesses were primarily financial in nature.
And really, think about it. Think about what's true for the most of us. We have--

--Long work hours, the longest of the industrialized nations.
--Highest costs for
     --health care:  worst outcomes and lowest mortality rate of the industrialized nations
     --internet:  highest costs, slowest speeds of the industrialized nations
--Highest bankruptcy rate of the industrialized nations (40% due to health care costs)
--Short, very short vacation time, shortest of any industrialized nation
--High education costs, highest costs of secondary education of any industrialized nation
--Highest wealth inequality of any industrialized nation
--Highest poverty rate of the industrialized nations

--Highest child poverty rate of the industrialized nations

And this is just a partial list.

But we have high suicide rates why?

Links:

Why Missouri and Kansas are lousy places to live 

if you're poor

If you're poor, Kansas is one of the worst places to live, 

study says

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?

"American Exceptionalism" -- Exposed

Herewith, things we Americans do that no other Western, industrialized nation does.

First, we don't control weapons

Why the US has the most mass shootings

U.S. has the most public mass shooters 

in the world, study shows

Gun Control: 

How Australia Stopped Mass Shootings

Second, we tie health care to profits.

Report: US Spends More Per Person On Health Care

And these are the results:

U.S. Healthcare: Most Expensive 

and Worst Performing 

U.S. Health Care Ranked Worst 

in the Developed World

And it's killing our mothers and children.

U.S. Has The Worst Rate of Maternal Deaths 

In The Developed World

Infant Mortality Rates Fall 15 Percent in U.S.

US child mortality ranks worst 

among 20 wealthy countries, study finds

Third, we don't take care of our people, instead, we spend outrageously, even obscenely on what we call "defense."

US military spending dwarfs rest of world

The US spends more on defence than 

all of these countries combined

US spends more on military than next 

8 nations combined

And we do it exponentially greater than any other nation, to the point of actually making us weaker.

US Military Spending Actually Weakens 

Nation's Defenses

Fourth and finally here, we, lots of us, think of ourselves, proudly, as the "wealthiest nation in the world" presently, if not ever, on the face of the planet, through time, when statistics show some pretty incredible insights to it.

Why is poverty higher in the U.S. 

than in other countries?

Why USA has more poverty 

than any other developed country?

The U.S. Can No Longer Hide 

From Its Deep Poverty

So here's to you, America. This is how you really are and this is what you do.

Aren't you exceptional?

Isn't just enough to make you proud?

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?

The Real Reason America Doesn't Have Universal Health Care