© nicolasjoseschirado, fotalia.
For all the years of screaming over the Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare by the sea of conservative idiots, who insisted death panels would be a comin’ for everyone, what actually happened was that a multitude of people not only lived, but they got healthier, too. That’s generally what happens when people have heath care. In my view, ACA isn’t enough, uStates should grow the fuck up and join all the places in the world who have figured out that healthy citizens are a good thing, and that healthcare is a basic right.
Oh, but we can’t have that, not here in this pit formerly known as America, why that, that might smack of socialism, oh no! It’s juvenile, willfully ignorant conservatives who are going to bring death, which to them, is by far more preferable than having healthcare for all citizens. Now, those who are sitting on nice piles of cash and can afford good coverage, they aren’t worried. It’s just the rest of us who will suffer, and conservatives have never rated on the empathy scale, they just don’t give a fuck about anyone except themselves. Oh, yes, conservatives are, by and large, spiteful assholes, and they just can’t wait to kill off healthcare, out of spite. Yes, a lot of people are going to die because of spite. There’s no reason to dismantle the ACA, it works. It’s not the best plan, but given how many obstacles conservatives kept throwing, it was a near act of brilliance to get most people desperately needed healthcare. When people don’t have healthcare, they can’t face any debt care would bring, and medical debt piles up fast, ask anyone who has had a medical emergency. One emergency can land you in a pit of poverty for a lifetime. Just why in the fuckety fuck do moron-minded conservatives think that’s a dandy plan? So, when people have no insurance, no care, they just keep going until they drop, literally.
Why does that define “exceptional America”? Because to me, that’s a good description of a 3rd world pit with despotic rule, where there’s at most a shrug over people dying. Condemning people to death should not be a source of pride. It should be a source of shame, but, conservatives seem to have no sense of shame, along with no empathy.
Not long ago, Americans learned that the average life expectancy for white people in this country – those most likely to have voted for Donald Trump – actually declined for the first time in many years. The pathologies and frustrations believed to have driven that decline may have motivated the tiny handful of votes that gave Trump his Electoral College victory.
But not long after their euphoria over his inauguration fades, they are going to learn why his administration is so likely to drive those statistics in the wrong direction. Despite his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare – and his vow to replace the Affordable Care Act with “something much better” – Trump’s cabinet appointees and his allies in Congress plan ruinous changes to those programs. And that will mean ruin, and in thousands of cases death, for the mostly white and working class people who depend so heavily on them.
Unless the Republicans come up with a plausible bill to replace Obamacare, which has eluded them since 2009, millions of their constituents will lose the health insurance they have only recently gained – and yes, thousands of those people will die next year.
As mentioned, the republican idea of healthcare is: none!
This is not hyperbole: Before the advent of Obamacare, tens of thousands of uninsured Americans died every year because they didn’t receive timely care. Eight years ago, one reputable study estimated that as many as 137,000 Americans had perished prematurely due to lack of health coverage – or more than twice as many as died in the Vietnam War – between 2000 and 2006 alone. The Institute of Medicine has estimated that uninsured adults are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than those with coverage, with uninsured adults between 55 and 64 years old faring even worse. For them, being uninsured is the third most significant cause of death, behind only heart disease and cancer.
Those estimates don’t include the victims of insurance company profiteering who will die if the repeal of Obamacare undoes its protection of patients suffering from “previously existing conditions.” Exposed to the tender mercies of corporate actuaries, thousands of them will lose their coverage, watch their families driven to destitution, and many of them will die, too.
The truth about the current incarnation of the Republican Party, which voters ought to have learned long ago, is that its attitudes toward working Americans of all descriptions range from careless to merciless. If not every Republican shares the “let ’em die” position on health care screamed by a GOP debate audience in 2012, all too many believe that government has no role in ensuring that every American is insured – even though that would save money as well as lives.
Is it still going to be fun to scream out “let ’em die!” when it’s your life, or the life of your loved ones on the line? Is that what you’ll tell them when they find themselves with no health care and a dire health problem? Will you pat them tenderly on the shoulder, with a tear in your eye, and say “well, dearest, you should just fucking die, it’s what you deserve.”
Let’s take a look at what a Michigan republican thinks about all this healthcare nonsense:
Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Zeeland) promised fundamental changes to the Affordable Care Act, saying the federal law places too much financial burden on health care providers, reported MLive.
The GOP lawmaker, who campaigned in his home state for Donald Trump, said patients must shoulder more of the burden for cutting medical costs.
“At some point or another we have to be responsible or have a part of the responsibility of what is going on,” Huizenga said. “Way too often, people pull out their insurance card.”
He suggested increasing the cost of insurance deductibles or offering incentives for using health savings accounts to save pre-tax money to pay for medical care.
“I don’t know the difference or cost between an X-Ray or an MRI or CT Scan,” Huizenga said. “I might make a little different decision if I did know (what) some of those costs were and those costs came back to me.”
[…]
He said the cost of medical care should be driven more by cost to encourage patients to delay or even avoid treatment that might not be necessary.
“If you don’t have a cost difference, you’ll make different decisions,” Huizenga said.
Gosh, that indifferent ignorance is just dazzling, isn’t it? I’d like to know when the screaming over the death panels is going to happen. So far, all I hear is silence from the ignorant, idiotic conservative faction. Now would be a good time to prove you aren’t truly stupid.
Unreal. Line em up and shoot em all. How fucking broken of a human being do you have to be to think this is okay?
Shiv:
Apparently, all it takes is being a republican. Fuck, I hate this country.
Fucking bullshit, going to the doc early and getting treatment early is what keeps costs low. Because quite obviously getting a few stitches is quite cheaper than waiting until blood poisoning has set in.
That jackass was quoted in the article about how proud he was that he and his wife made their ten year old child sleep with a broken arm, because they weren’t sure if it was broken, so sleep on it, and that way we don’t have to go to the ER.
I fractured my wrist when I was 10, and it hurt like fucking hell. I can’t imagine my parent making me sleep with it untreated.
healthy citizens are a good thing, and that healthcare is a basic right.
I would frame it not as a matter of rights but an issue of public service: Government exists to do things like provide for the common defense, education, roads, health-care, and social services. It is in order that government can do those things that we pay taxes (otherwise: who needs them?) When government takes the people’s tax money, it should be spending that money on the people not on endless handouts to defense contractors and government cronies. Yes, healthcare is a basic right -- it’s something any citizen should expect from any working government -- but in the US it’s something we have already paid for and the government should be obligated to provide it under the social contract.
How are the various for-profit parasites on the healthcare system supposed to make astronomical sums of money if people go for the cheaper option?
They don’t want to keep costs down. They want to maximise revenues.
Child abuse.
The little one once half-broke her arm (I don’t know how to call that in English: when the still very young bones have a very fine fracture that you cannot even see on the x-rays and only interfere from the bleeding visible around the fracture. And no, we didn’t go to the ER right away cause she’s a little hypochondriac*, and really didn’t show much pain when distracted. That night she cried in her sleep, which was the absolute sign to go to the paediatrician (and give her a dose of painkiller). To willingly do that I cannot imagine.
*They gave her cast for two weeks and the day the cast came off she started to cry at the paediatrician’s whenever someone entered the room we were waiting she started to cry and hold her arm. Afterwards I took her out for breakfast and when I came back with the food she was dangling from both arms in the play area…
@Marcus:
You’re talking about SOSHALIZM, and as we all know, SOSHALIZM is an evil which must be opposed at all costs. Present US conservatives with the argument that we’ve already paid for it, therefore we should get it, and the response will be to cut taxes on rich people then say it’s not in the budget.
The Affordable Care Act increased taxes on the wealthy and used that money to subsidize health coverage for the poor. Repealing it is just another tax break for the wealthy, which is why it must go. All the noise being made by Trump to keep some of the benefits of the ACA can’t be paid for without those taxes, but the taxes are the real reason for repeal, so the benefits must go as well.
Gileill@7,
Greenstick fracture, I think:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenstick_fracture
That is why such decisions should be made at least in part by the physician, who is capable of at least somewhat assesing the cost/benefit ratio for any procedure.
No system is perfect, but the republicans seem to be hell bent on taking that too literally and insist on no system.
MRIs cost $1,000 to $5,000 a scan. Well, that’s for a spinal MRI, of which, I’ve lost count of how many I’ve had. I’ve also had two CT scans, one a full body, and I don’t want to know how much that cost.
Even at 1K a scan, I couldn’t afford an MRI scan.
I was not in any way trying to say that the patient should carry the bulk of the costs, Caine, I hope it did not come across that way. For that there should be universal, compulsory health insurance.
I think however that for some procedures/medicaments it is appropriate for the patient to carry some symbolic cost, in order to prevent abusing the system or overusing/wasting medicaments.
But finding the right balance is definitively tricky, as we are finding out in CZ and DE. Neverhteless a system where a little resources are wasted is preferable over one where people needlesly suffer and die. The problem is that greedy oligarchs see the world differently -- I got mine, fuck everyone else.
Charly:
No, it did not! I’m still pissy about that Rep. mouthing off over how people should shoulder the cost, when he doesn’t have the slightest idea of what things cost. Poor people know how much this shit costs, and it takes all of 5 seconds to find out. The fact that he makes a very fat gov’t salary isn’t making me very happy.
It’s easy for him to say “not necessary” when he doesn’t know jack shit. My pain clinic doc is a fantastic person, but he would not have been able to do one thing unless I’d been able to hand over my MRI scans -- that’s how my treatment was determined.
Remember the Republican crowds cheering a few years ago when one of the candidates said they would just let people die?
Yeah, I expect that clip to be played a lot until Trump bans it.
Yeahhhhh, about that… I’m at the tail end of my second bout of MRSA in 2 months. I went to my doctor about 5 days after I noticed my initial abscess back in October, went to Urgent Care in excruciating pain 2 days later, and the ER for I&D the day after that. Total cost for 2 doctor visits, 1 Urgent Care visit, and 2 ER visits, including drugs and labwork? About $3000, including insurance co-pays. When I noticed my second abscess forming a couple of weeks ago, I immediately began taking my left-over antibiotics (yay, 2 prescription changes!) and immediately went in to the doctor’s office. Total cost for this abscess? $50--2 co-pays and antibiotics.
I’m sure this dingleberry thinks I should have just ignored a potentially life-threatening infection and just gone about my daily life, though. Jerk.
I’m 49, HIV+, and back in school because I was laid off from my job of 18 years and was unable to get employment as a programmer. The antiretrovirals keeping me alive retail for not quite $3,200 for each 30 day supply. When — not if — the ACA is repealed, I will have two choices: quit school and find any kind of job I can that offers health care, or die a very messy death within 6 to 9 months because there is no way I can afford to buy my meds out-of-pocket.
And yeah, I’m scared shitless.
gondwanarama
Almost the same in German, thanks!
Gregory in Seatle
Fuck I’m sorry. Hoping the best for you.
Gregory in Seattle @ 17
I’m sorry and hope for the best for you.
I’m furious about the depravity of the right-wingers, oh so pro-life when you’re in the womb.
Of all the things I find appalling about America’s inner workings, this attitude towards healthcare is probably the worst. My country is a developing nation not nearly as rich and powerful as the US, and yet we have public hospitals where you can get treatment for free, even if you’re a foreigner (though our local xenophobes would really like to change that last part.) Sure it’s not the best possible care and many of those hospitals lack in personnel and resources, but it certainly beats no access to healthcare at all! An acquaintance of mine recently got an emergency appendectomy done in a public hospital.
Gregory @ 17:
Oh gods, that is a terrifying situation to find yourself in, and there’s no way anyone should ever have to face that. I don’t have words. If there is ever anything I can do, please, just say.
Basically, be your own doctor, eh? That always works. On TV.
I thought the reason for going to the ER or to see a doctor or other specialist was to find out if you need treatment, and if you don’t, you leave, paying for the consultation (honestly, this should be a cost-free thing, but anyway). It’s doctors who sometimes prescribe unnecessary medication or unnecessary procedures, but I doubt the ones who do this will be slowed by rising costs to patients.
And who the hell is he to decide that people have been getting too many unnecessary treatments? He doesn’t know the difference between an MRI, a CAT scan and an X-ray -- and most laypeople don’t, either. It’s the doctors who do know this shit who should be making that decision. Perhaps the extra costs should be shuffled off to doctors, then? Maybe then they’ll send people to less unnecessary treatments? Or maybe they’ll send patients to less treatments, period, to avoid the costs themselves…?
But yeah, his whole opinion comes down to acting like people in need of medical assistance are themselves qualified doctors making their own treatment decisions. A hospital isn’t like a supermarket, hello. Or maybe it is, where he is. Then he should question the competence of his own treatment, if his doctors are letting him make all his own decisions and diagnoses.
Anyway.
Gregory
Do you accept *hugs*? You can have *higs* if you don’t. I’m just afraid that anything I say will be completely useless. What a fucked up world it is.
“He said the cost of medical care should be driven more by cost to encourage patients to delay or even avoid treatment that might not be necessary.”
You ever notice that it’s stupid old Republicans who use that logic? You see, they are stuck in the ‘good old days’ when you didn’t go to the doctor until you were barely able to stand, because you weren’t going to be seen as a p*ssy who went to the doctor or ‘every little thing.’
Maybe they could produce some stats that show people are getting ‘non-necessary’ treatments? Things like MRIs (they cost a lot) are not ‘treatments’ they are diagnostics. Without them, you don’t know what you even have, let alone what treatment would be effective or necessary.
““I don’t know the difference or cost between an X-Ray or an MRI or CT Scan,” Huizenga said. “I might make a little different decision if I did know (what) some of those costs were and those costs came back to me.””
So, he doesn’t know the difference, but all he cares about is the cost. Does Huizenga even know what sort of health issues you diagnose using which method? I mean, I’ve had an MRI, a CT scan, and an ultrasound within the last few years. The difference is what types of health issues each test could diagnose. Costs aside, there are problems that you need an MRI to find, some for an Xray, others for other tests. And, without a diagnostic test, who knows what you have or what treatments would work? You can’t decide ‘that MRI is too expensive, let’s do an Xray!’ If you have an issue that an MRI can detect, you can’t substitute a different, cheaper diagnostic
IF anything should be done, they should be working on finding ways to reduce costs of the actual expensive diagnostic tests and treatments. MRIs were going up i cost owing to supply and demand with helium. Does this Dumb White Male even know that?