Got Great Health Insurance? You Can Still Go Broke From Medical Bills
Health insurance company CEOs earn millions of dollars in compensation, with the highest paid CEOs earning tens of millions.
In 2023, the average CEO of a major publicly traded health insurance company earned $20.6 million, a 5.7% increase from 2022.
Here are some examples of health insurance company CEO salaries:
Joseph Zubretsky, Molina Healthcare:
In 2022, Zubretsky earned $22,131,256, with stock incentives accounting for the majority of his compensation.
Karen Lynch, CVS Health:
In 2022, Lynch earned $21,317,055.
Brian Thompson, UnitedHealth Group:
During Mr. Thompson’s tenure as chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, the company’s profits rose, with earnings from operations topping $16 billion in 2023 from $12 billion in 2021.
Mr. Thompson received a total compensation package last year of $10.2 million, a combination of $1 million in base pay and cash and stock grants.
But the biggest names in health care still made $3.5 billion combined last year, compared with $4 billion in 2022.
The average chief executive brought home $11 million, while the median was $4.1 million.
Those figures compared to an average of $13 million and median of $4.3 million in 2022.
We are the only advanced technological country on the planet that does this to our own people.
The "greatest" country in the world has failed its own citizens so that a small number of billionaires can own more private jets and second, third and fourth homes.
And it is a catastrophic scandal
46 comments:
https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/us-health-care-non-system-1908-2008/2008-05
From the link that Mike shared:
There are no active proposals at the federal level for resolving the lack of access to health care experienced by 45 million uninsured Americans, 15 percent of the population. Ambitious efforts at universal coverage have been launched by a few individual states, namely Massachusetts, Maine, Hawaii, and California. Time will show the success of their approaches. Encouragingly, physician attitudes towards national health insurance have evolved to the point that, in April 2008, 59 percent of them supported legislation to create such a program. Certainly the next U.S. president and Congress will be under pressure to give greater attention to many aspects of the health care delivery and financing systems.
15% of the American population 45 MILLION! lack health care.
Yet, as I type this there's a case before the SCOTUS dealing with transgender issues:
According to the US Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey, about 1.14% of the US adult population identifies as transgender, which is about 3 million adults.
1.4% of youth ages 13 to 17 identifying as transgender
Pew Research Center: 1.6% of all Americans identify as transgender or nonbinary. Approximately 5 million!
There's a reason the billionaires of the Trumpublican Party want you to focus on the 5 million transgender Americans instead of the 45 MILLION UNINSURED AMERICANS!
"Certainly the next U.S. president and Congress will be under pressure to give greater attention to many aspects of the health care delivery and financing systems."
Think so? Trump and his billionaire elites who will run the country are set to TAKE AWAY MEDICARE, MEDICAID, AND SOCIAL SECURITY!
The people who never pay attention did the stupid to all of us!
Hey MAGA voters, Elon and Vivek are coming for your Social Security
"The only way Trump’s ‘efficiency’ department can trim $2 trillion from the federal budget is to cut a big hole in America’s retirement safety net. And guess who’ll fall through?"
HINT: It ain't gonna be Trump's billionaire elites!
This is from Deborah Kopaken who was denied, by United Health Care, surgery to correct her deafness caused by COVID, as her surgeon was scrubbing for the surgery!:
" Americans are tired of fighting to stay alive. We’re tired of hearing that healthcare is a privilege and not the basic human right every other country deems it to be.
We’re tired of dying, so that others can fill their pockets with our suffering."
Soon we will see the concepts of a plan to eliminate the ACA, the largest expansion of health care access for citizens of the US in a generation.
That plan will start with the elimination of that program. Then the incoming Admin, abetted by the GOP minions on Congress will aim their sites at Medicare and ultimately Social Security.
They, and their leaders, have already said as much.
This has been their dream since FDR and LBJ got Americans those benefits. They've always seen those programs as illegal and anti constitutional.
And now, elected not by a majority of Americans, they know they need to act ASAP, or risk Americans waking up to their heinous schemes.
Doctors in one of the Internet’s top medical communities have turned on the murdered UnitedHealthcare (UHC) CEO Brian Thompson in such brutal fashion that Reddit moderators deleted a thread on the killing.
The moderators of r/medicine closed the thread, posted Wednesday after news broke that Thompson was shot dead outside the New York Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan, after it racked up over 500 replies.
Here's one doctor who was verified by the Daily Beast:
One medical doctor, whose identity the Daily Beast confirmed, commented with sympathy for Thompson’s family and said the killer should be charged with murder, but then wondered about the damage the CEO had done.
“I cannot even guess how many person-years UHC has taken from patients and their families through denials,” they wrote. “It has to be on the order of millions. His death won’t make that better, but it’s hard for me to sympathize when so many people have suffered because of his company.”
“What has bothered me the most is people that put «fiduciary responsibility» (eg profits) above human lives, none more so than this company as run by him," wrote another medical doctor, who also spoke to the Daily Beast to confirm their identity. “When other’s human lives are deemed worthless, it is not surprising to have others view your life of no value as well.”
The moderators of the subreddit told the Daily Beast, in a message, that they removed the original post “because it was unproductive, a time suck for the mods, without a good source, being brigaded, arguably against Reddit’s [terms of service] and [featured] too many inappropriate comments.”
The site’s communities are moderated by teams of volunteers.
“It wasn’t because of criticism of business practices,” the statement added. “We criticize insurance business practices frequently here.”
Under Thompson’s leadership, UHC faced intense criticism for being one of America’s most ruthlessly profit-minded moneymaking healthcare firms.
According to research by ValuePenguin citing in-network claim data, it “is the worst insurance company for paying claims with about one-third of claims denied.”
In September, a Senate report excoriated UHC and two other large insurers, Humana and CVS, for allegedly denying patients access to post-acute care in order to increase profits."
America is a disgrace when it comes to Healthcare and how it allows health insurance companies and pharmaceutical corporations to financially rape suffering people.
But hey, we're a capitalist country and obscene prosperity for corporations and the few is just fine. For the many struggling and barely getting by (or not) is fine too. So long as the former group thrive.
Shaw... I think everyone will agree, the US has a problem with health care.
I'm sure there are many solutions, but sadly we are forced to inhabit a world where only some of us care about finding them.
Instead, many, especially among conservatives, would rather stand on the sidelines and take potshots at whatever idea comes down the pike.
The ACA, like Medicare, was first and foremost, an idea. An idea to improve the lives of Americans of all stripes and income levels. That's what LBJ and Obama had hoped, much like FDR earlier with Social Security.
Those programs, flawed as they are have been a godsend to millions of people.
Some of the commenters here fall into the naysayer category. And that's okay, not everyone needs to be a fan. What's not okay is criticism without any real life workable solutions.
As a boss once told me back in the day, "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem". And that's how it is with some folks.
Again, America has a health care problem.
We are short doctors for a growing number of old folks like us. We are short nurses. Jobs frequently don't pay enough early in a work career to buy credible health insurance. Anything that seems to involve the government helping people either make their payments or force insurance companies to act on behalf of ppl, as opposed to shareholders, is deemed a Communist giveaway.
So what should we do?
Most of course, lefties will argue for some sort of single payer like Medicare, or the current ACA option. So this question really is for the conservatives who post here and are not fans of Medicare or the ACA.
What should America do?
And just saying get a better paying job, move to another area or pull yourself up by the bootstraps ain't, and doesn't seem to be working.
So what solutions does conservative America have?
A majority of presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to his cousin Franklin, to Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Carter, THE Bushes, Clinton, Obama, all wanted universal health care of some sort for the American people.
HERE ARE THE DETAILS up to the Bushes.
Who's stopping this? In simple terms, the insurance companies, their lobbyists, and the easily bought Congressmen and women, Democrats and Republicans. And I hate to say this, but the American people who vote against their own self-interest because they believe the lies and propaganda the insurance companies, the lobbyists, and the venal Congressmen and women have been telling them for year.
Most if not all of the democracies in the free world have universal health care, and they haven't fallen into Communism as the uninformed will tell you they will.
The solution is everywhere in all the countries that manage to give their citizens universal health care. We were on the right track with the ACA, but the Republicans refused to work with the Democrats to iron out the flaws and deliver for the American citizens. I'm with those who want a single payer. Medicare for all.
We are the 3rd most populous country on the planet; we have more than enough people to pay into the fund to deliver health care for those who need it.
This country continues to fail its citizens.
"...the US has a problem with health care."
According to the stats I've read, approximately 45,000+ Americans die each year because they lack health care.
But if you listen to the Congress critters, they'll tell you the REAL problem in this country is trans people using bathrooms.
We are a foolish people.
An insurance CEO is murdered. Innocent victim? Karma? Revenge? Comeuppance?
Why does this story resonate so much? Because most of us in the "land of the free" are one accident or disease from misery, bankruptcy, and poverty.
While I abhor violence and emphatically condemn murder, it is difficult to summon much sympathy for someone who was indifferent to the human suffering he facilitated just so he can make a few more million dollars.
I hope those who mourn his death can at least equally mourn the countless people dying every day from lack of health care and insurance coverage denial.
At the root of the issue is i>ignorance. And by that statement lack of intelligence is not being implied.
A master belief in the USA is the belief in fierce individualism, which implies without shouting it that we are not our sister and brothers keeper.
While it may be true no one is responsible for the actions or circumstances of another is it not also true that no one is an island unto themselves?
There has always been strength in numbers. When the strength of those numbers is united in solidarity and resolve, to force change that serves the best interest of all beings regardless of financial wherewithal Healthcare will receive the attention and actions needed to improve the Healthcare system that is failing many Americans.
The attitude if somebody else has more then i will have less is far too prevalent in our capitalist culture.
Communism doesn't work because the governments administering it are no better than the below, albeit for different reasons.
Capitalism in theory is a great system to move a people forward. Hell, even Karl Marx said as much . Capitalism eventually became a system that serves the wealthy and connected by far better than it serves the middle and those struggling. The truth is neither the system nor the shakers and movers give a damn because the few feel they are better and therefore entitled to much more than the "masses".
Democratic Socialism is very likely the very best solution. Why? Because it is the middle way and it serves society by far better than either communism or capitalism
We are the wealthiest, most powerful nation on the planet. Yet our government treats the infirm and elderly like a burden. Rather than the beautiful and important beings they are.
On a purely personal note, I've given up believing this generation in charge will do a damn thing. Why, because it has shown it just doesn't care enough about anyone but numerous uno and immediate family. If this nation cared enough it would already have world class Healthcare for all. Not the jalopy it is now operating.
Are you familiar with the writing of Michel Foucault? Had you read his "Madness and Civilization" you'd know that the "medicalization" of health care didn't begin until "The Enlightenment". And it was done NOT to benefit the people that were institutionalized and consigned to "hospitals", but in order to CONTROL them and rob them of their freedom and independence. Centralizing control of all these medical services is a CONTROL power grab that won't benefit anyone.
As someone who suffers with a rare medical condition, I can assure you that I have not been controlled or robbed of my freedom by any hospital or medical institution. In fact, I have been given years more to live because of those medical institutions, and because I'm on government health care (Medicare and supplemental coverage), I have not lost my life's savings, home, and all that I worked for and saved for my entire life.
I have friends and relatives in Europe, and my daughter lived in Canada for several years. Their experience with health issues and what their government covers is 1,000 times more humane and practical than what Americans face:
PROFIT OVER PEOPLE, EVEN IF THAT MEANS DEATH FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PAID FOR INSURANCE FOR YEARS AND YEARS.
Our family and friends in other countries pity the US and its stupid, inhumane treatment of its own citizens.
Leave it to -FJ to pop in with his usual irrelevant pedantic deflections.
Today medical services are controlled by medical professionals and tragically, insurance companies, not the government. It may come as news to him, but Canadians, Brits, the French, Scandinavians, etc. are FREE people, not "controlled" by the government. NONE of them would trade their socialized medicine for our system of wealthcare over healthcare.
What kind of sick mind would dismiss out of hand all the millions of successfully treated patients around the world who are not one accident or disease from misery and poverty?
It would be mind absent a conscience.
It is a pity that more of our countrymen don't understand what you've written. It's almost as though our fellow Americans seek out the worst from their representatives instead of the best for their well-being.
I've heard so many horror stories about people losing everything because of greedy insurance companies denying payment for medications, surgeries, therapies and/or cancelling a policy right in the middle of treatments!
This has been going on for years and years, and the American people just take it. The murder of the CEO unleashed a torrent of stories of how insurance companies destroy people's lives while enriching themselves from the money those people spent for policies that were supposed to protect them from ruin.
I have not been controlled or robbed of my freedom by any hospital or medical institution.
So why would you want to change that for a system that did?
Those foreign systems all parasite off the American free enterprise system, that develop all the drugs and treatments and advance medical system. All that would disappear within a generation of government mismanagement.
Shaw... I second your experience as I too was close to dying in 2015. That's when the hospital where I was being treated came to my room on a Sunday to inform me that as of that day, against the medical advice of my doctors, I was being transferred to another hospital, with new doctors and another care plan.
When I asked to speak to my insurance company, I was told by the hospital nurse in charge of discharging out of network patients that it was Sunday, so none of them worked. Then, when I asked if the discharge was being done on a Sunday so to deny patients any alternative, she left without answering except to say get my stuff ready.
I was immobile, hooked up to IVs and on multiple pain drips while the docs tried to figure out what to do.
If my doctor had not refused to sign off on the ridiculous discharge order, who knows what would have happened.
In the end, three days later I had surgery and two days after that, went home, after 11 total days.
Total Cost? I paid less that $200.00. Total billed? More than $185,000.00.
We're it not for the ACA/Obama Care, I'd likely be both dead and broke.
Because we were unable to get family insurance because when she was 25, my wife had a hysterectomy. At 13, I had a thyroidectomy. Because of this, neither of could get a policy because of pre-existing conditions.
Thank God I'm not free. And thank God for the Obama Admin and the Dems who made the ACA available, despite criticisms from conservatives.
Again, it ain't perfect. But it has helped and if the GOP wanted, they could help make it better, as Dems did when the GOP passed prescription care into Medicare.
Hey FJ, the folks that attempted to "control" me failed. And by ALL rational standards failed miserably. Why? Because as I matured, well into my 60's, I began to realize i had been played by the folks just like you who had the most to gain by playing me and everyone else who would fall for the grand lie.
So FJ, folks who actually see the reality of the situation for what it truly is, and are neither ashamed or afraid to say so tell you this, you're entitled to your beliefs. And also that you're full of ignorance and delusion.
Have a nice X'mass FJ.
You think this was because of denied cover or a ploy to push for Universal Healthcare?
This was carefully planned. There's more to this than we can possibly imagine.
But I guess people would prefer some beaurocrat in Washington deciding what treatments we can have,not to mention from some third rate ,government paid Doctor
Sooo, I Googled the term 'medicalization'. The first example used in the definition was the condition Low Testosterone. The term medicalization means to conflate a nonmedical issue as a medical problem.
Did our multi-named troll just out themselves? Troll, blue pills exist for a reason, just saying.
I watched our society as we went from a pill for everything and everything has a pill to no more pills, your diet should take care of you. Neither approach worked, in fact it's been discovered that humans are fiddly with all their differences. While statistically a pill will do the same things for most humans there is a subset of folk for whom nothing works as advertised. And those folks don't fit into the tidy actuarial charts all health insurance companies rely on in order to know how much to charge each client.
What does work is Universal Health Care. If it didn't the number of countries who already have UHC wouldn't be as big, nor have the longevity. Our troll likes to paint a gloom and doom picture but the numbers don't lie. Privatized health care leads to greed, death, and skyrocketing premiums. If it didn't We The People wouldn't be here/now and millions of citizens wouldn't have expressed their concern/no concern for the gunning down of a health insurance CEO.
There is a story I read back in the day (I read all things health care - it was an avocation, not my vocation) of a health care insurance CEO. He was traveling the country overseeing health care fairs in rural areas. He described the jet which carried him across the country, the foods served on a gold rimmed plate, the glasses made of crystal, the table covered in fine linen.
And then he stopped by a fair held in a poorer country in one of the poorer states. People had come from several counties over, some having to walk, days in advance of the fair to ensure they had a place in line. There was excitement in the crowd because there were dental and optical tents, and much conversing as to who really needed the care and who could wait another six months or so. Families were in line, the kids needing vaccinations in order to attend school. People needed glasses. No one was pushing or shoving, everyone was polite as could be and it hit this CEO in the heartstrings.
He saw humans with nothing behaving better than his fellow executives. Flying back the food was ashes in his mouth. According to the story he resigned at the end of the month and dedicated his time to making sure programs like the ACA were brought to life to help under-served humans.
Health care isn't a partisan issue although the oligarchs would like We The People to think it is. Health care is human care and unless those who own all the things are prepared to share their properties??? No??
Well then, there are no more bootstraps to pull up, no more free acres for each and every citizen to grow healthy foods for themselves. What worked back in the day is foolish now. Hopefully those who've been ignorant of these facts will open their eyes to see the enemy isn't the person they are aimed at but is in fact the one doing the aiming.
I bet universal healthcare would work great for 350 million people ,30% of who doesn't contribute to it.
If you look at the NHS in the UK every day there's an issue going on there negligence or incompetence causing people to be permanently affected or passed away. It's almost every day there's another fail.
If we think we have a cut off of 70 years old for certain things and all the wait so we get that it'll be 60 it would be unsustainable for the amount of people we have here. plus nothing's free ,we'll be paying one way or another. Be itlonger wait times or vat taxes.
My nephew was visiting my niece in Germany they were clueless about how to help him he had a respiratory infection have given him the wrong medicine he kept getting worse , finally they allowed him to see the military doctor helped him a bit more but he still when he got home he had to go to a doctor here one visit ,all fixed.
It's interesting reading ppl like Lisa as she criticizes "some third rate ,government paid Doctor" [sic].
Of course she's right. But all of us have probably been treated in our lives by third rate public doctors too and to date, no one has suggested getting rid of all public doctors. Why not?
I know this hard for ppl who want to judge all practitioners of a skill by the worst among us, be it doctors, lawyers, politicians or even bloggers, but it's not a good look.
There are great government doctors working day and night to keep us safe, develop vaccines, cures for cancer and more. And yes, there are some dolts just grinding it out making a buck.
Just like at your neighborhood health care office.
What concerns me is the reflexive "all government workers" are crummy bureaucrats, self interested louts, outright thieves or simply incompetent. It bothers me because it simply is not true.
Yet it is what conservatives have been led to believe. And not just about government doctors, but about all levels of government. It's not a cautious point of view as some believe or assert, it's a cynical point of view, not born out of factual evidence.
Once again conservatives, as it relates to health care in the USA, we have problems, as most here would admit. What real world solutions do you have other than to be critical of it all?
So far, we seen none.
We the People have been lied to, hoodwinked, and sold a bill of goods for years as the oligarchs of capitalism lined their corporations and CEO's coffers with gold and jewels. All at the expense of We the People.
If and when We the People finally wake up completely and start really shaking the tree of greed that the goddamn oligarchs of capitalism enjoy (as they manipulate the system to serve their insatiable greedy ass desires), the entire system fueling that greed will collapse and bring those financially raping We the People down.
Universal Healthcare for all WILL eventually be a reality in the wealthiest most prosperous nation the world has ever known.
Healthcare is a human right obsence profits and wealth are not.
The selfish self serving corporatists of America and their political hack supporters are destined for a very hard fall unless the government gets its head from its dark orifice (Are you listening You Know Who?) and provides a truly compassionate and caring world class Healthcare system for ALL of its People.
Clinging to the existing system is the path to eventual unrest and potential violent repercussions in the the Home Of The Brave a b d Land Of The "Free".
Oh Lisa, I can't tell if you are willfully ignorant or just playing one on TV. Universal Health Care places a patients care in the hands of their Medical Team, not an insurance company. By having Government playing the role of payer they can negotiate for lower drug prices, establish care centers for specific diseases, subsidize the costs nurses and doctors so We The People have a pipeline of good medical talent to serve the citizens of the USA. Yes, I can tell, this would be horrible (the heaviest snark of all snarkdom).
To close, tell me Lisa you know nothing of how healthcare operates here and around the globe without saying so. Oh, yeah, you did that. Well done you.
An aside - back in the day when I was learning about health care systems we spent an afternoon on identifying future health care crisis. It is disturbing how no one is looking at how many of our elderly citizens are facing a diagnosis included in the dementia umbrella. Folks with Alzheimer's Disease can't be housed in regular nursing homes or assisted living facilities. There must be security to ensure those suffering from sundowners syndrome don't wander off and get lost. There are the costs of health care workers, unsung heroes who take care of our most vulnerable when they really don't have a clue what is happening around them, to them. This all costs money. Privatized healthcare is massively expensive. Our democratic government may be horrible just like all other forms of government but it's better than the rest. Universal Health Care. Universal Basic Income. Tax the rich. They owe We The People. The world is ready for democracy, too bad the oligarchs think it's 1399.
Joe Con seems oblivious to the fact that the "free enterprise system" for drug research is largely SOCIALIZED by federal NIH support.
Yes, we pay corporate welfare for big Pharma. And look how they show their appreciation, by gouging the same people who help pay for drug research.
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/us-tax-dollars-funded-every-new-pharmaceutical-in-the-last-decade
"Our analysis also suggests that the NIH is remarkably efficient at funding research that is utilized in the discovery or development of new drugs, commercialized, and publicly available. The $230 billion in NIH funding (2000-2019) that was directly or indirectly related to these drugs represents 40% of NIH budget allocations over this period. Furthermore, the NIH has a stated strategy of dedicating half of its research budget to basic research, and the $195 billion in NIH funding that was characterized as basic research in our study, represents more than 65% of this total."
Lisa shows insight about one thing. "There's more to this than we can possibly imagine."
Her head is full of garbage. Govt. bureaucrats DO NOT "decide what treatments" we get. INSURANCE COMPANIES DO!
As explained to her at HER blog, in Canada and elsewhere only medical professionals make these decisions. Lisa can't get it through her head that the ONLY role of government is as PAYER.
Lisa also IGNORED the pertinent question posed:
"Insurance CEO's provide zero health care. Why should they get the free money?"
Does she think VA doctors are "third rate" and their funding should be cut? Seems so. So much for their LIE about "supporting the troops".
Universal Health Care works for countries who are younger, not inhabited by polluting industry and smaller. Most of those listed fall into that category except England which has the best system in the world. You get clinic healthcare, get in line and wait for first available or you can pay for individual specialized care. In Canada providers cannot accept private payments and if you talk to someone young their system is great. If you have are older and not healthy and need care you are not satisfied. Kind of like polls, depends on the question and who is asked.
Maybe we can go with universal healthcare and have billionaires pay for it, worked well in the last election.
A recent report showed that the for-profit US Health care system ranks LAST among peer nations.
The US spends twice as much per capita on health care, and we have the worst outcomes.
Medicare for all would save $450billion in costs and 68,000 lives per year.
Your anecdotal example of what happened to your relative in Germany is meaningless, since we can cite thousands of incidents just like that right here in for-profit-health-care U.S.A.
Show us some links to back up your anecdotal examples and anything that would show that the U.S. has a superior health care system over other peer countries.
If you don't link to evidence, than your comment is nothing more than an uninformed opinion.
Minus FJ's comment is incredibly uninformed, paranoid, and just plain dumb. I've linked to facts down thread in Lisa's comment. Minus FJ is carrying water for the elite billionaire heads of the ghoulish medical insurance companies.
Funny how the very drivers (supporters) of predatory health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and the obscenely wealthy all support the status quo. Wondering why that is. Guessing they believe the more security and happiness others secure the less they all will have.
Get with reality skud, let go of your conditioning and attachment to the lies of the capitalist oligarchs.
Grey, I totally agree that that healthcare is massively expensive. Maybe everyone should pay Their Fair Share. The rich just take advantage of our tax system so the answer is change the tax codes and go to a Fair Tax system.
You do know that we have a form universal basic income, called welfare, and look how well that has worked when we have generations of families who have never worked because why should they. That is a way the government keeps people under control because they are totally dependent on the government. It is the mantra of the left to want penalize the rich and has been for decades. It didn't work in the last election so the left needs a new excuse and platform.
You don't have to have a relative for something to happen to know that the systems are really not that great. That's just one story I've heard quite a few of people that lived in Canada people that lived in Ireland and and someone else that went to Germany and got poor care in the emergency I can cite them for you but I don't think you'd be interested . But I will tell you one another case in Gernany. A friend of mine was living there when her husband was in the service and she cut her arm I don't remember how she did it but she went to the emergency room they put a Band-Aid on it not a stitch not a tetanus shot not an antibiotic nothing next day her arm blew up it got all infected. They did admit her and put her on an antibiotic IV but it probably could have been prevented but it's probably not in the budget. Okay I'll tell you the other one my neighbors uncle was lives in Ireland and he needed a bypass but since he only had one blocked artery he couldn't have it he had to wait like a year because they felt it wasn't urgent enough see that's the government making these decisions for you for you. And yes our healthcare system is better here a lot of our doctors travel to other countries for difficult surgeries because our standards are higher
Whatever the reason is with the amount of people we have in this country it's not going to be you're just going to walk into a place and get care you're going to wait you're going to be put on a list I do think you're going to be denied from an insurance company just wait till the government' starts denying you because you're not in the budget and it will be a big budget with so many people in this country
Whay I should have said is it would be a tight budget
Trump should get 2 more terms to fix this backward system. He will get it started though by deporting one of the largest burdens to our society
I've been on Medicare, Lisa. And I've had to have three major surgeries, plus dozens of probes and minor procedures which required anesthesia. On my GOVERNMENT Medicare (which I've been paying into and still pay for) I have NEVER been denied any of my surgeries, procedures, or probes over the 20 years that I've needed them to keep me alive. NEVER.
You're setting up strawman arguments to bolster your incorrect information.
PS. My experience is not unique.
Lisa still hasn't answered the question why insurance CEOs should be paid $millions for NOT delivering any healthcare AND denying it to suffering Americans.
How about you, Skud? What's the big advantage to rewarding corporate middlemen standing between us and medical care?
If neither of you can support this travesty, then admit it.
Lisa,
What makes you think Trump would prioritize healthcare reform?
He's shown no interest or concern for people in need of care.
He did NOTHING but break his promise in his first four years. Now he STILL HAS NO PLAN. "Concepts" of a plan is bullshit, and we all know it, except for those who think he's some kind of savior.
Do you think for a second he would get in the way of corporate insurance CEO's gouging Americans and denying care?
Just what DO you think?
Row row row your boat gently down the stream.
Merrily merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.
I have a paddle for those who are confused.
BTW lisa, a narcissistic dude with
multiple bankruptcies to his record of failures, a failed coup attempt, a felon, and a sexual predators is likely to do the same to the nation as he has done to his own personal life.
But hey, when the trump shit hits ya where it hurts we won't say we told ya so. We'll just smile and know you'll keep kissing his ring.
Face it Dave, face it Les, face it the rest of you. Skud has no ideas at all about how to improve access to and the quality of our health care system. He does talk a lot of the "fair tax" idea, so named as to grab low info ppl. The "fair tax" has never been something US leaders have seen as fair, is indeed not fair and will not balance the budget, lower the deficit or maintain the US safety net.
Most economists believe the "fair tax", at 10% across the board, will be about 20-30% short of what we need to even replace current tax income. Which is why the GOP and conservatives favor it. It's essentially a tax cut for the highest earners, but under a name that makes it seem fair.
But those facts escape most ppl.
Now Skud does have a point in that there are some ppl at the lowest economic rung who pay no income taxes. Perhaps those ppl DO need to pay something into the income tax system. I think there's a way to make that happen without resorting to what is the budget busting clownish "fair tax" system.
But back to the theme of this post, which Skud seems unable to digest. It's health care and solutions, which of course, we will never see from Skud.
Because thinking about real world workable solutions are just too hard for many ppl. It's easier and more fun to just carp and/or post video links.
All of what you said Dave is reasonable, sensible, and true.
In a moment of self reflection I recall I used to share more of skud's views (or a close facsimile of them) than i now care to acknowledge. Most of which were based on the conservative conditioning that society's shakers and movers preached at all of us. I mistakenly chose to listen.That and being a manager much of my life i circled in a conservative environment most of the time.
It has been my great good fortune to have ultimately been blessed with an inquisitive mind. So at some point, when I realized the game was truly rigged to benefit the wealthy and corporations i started my journey to identify the truth, devoid of the noise of the conservative and liberal media wasteland. I went inside, turning off the noises of the external grasping and clinging external world.
The result? Liberation. Calm. Balance. Clarity. When I put aside age old reified beliefs that had roots all the way back to my early developmental years I was free to look at, observe, and really see actual reality.
For most reaction to phenomenon is determined by their hopes and fears. skud, as well as very many others, display both their hopes as well as fears in their comments and their narrative is always founded in their long conditioned and therefore reified beliefs.
I usually completely disagree with skud's comments. But I do understand what platform and narative informs his belifs.
Conservative fear won the 2024 election for You Know Who. In 2028 conservative fear will once again determine their reaction and vote. Let's simply hope they are wiser in 2028.
Tell me you know NOTHING about how "welfare" works without saying the words skud. And if you don't think demonizing the wealthy didn't work, well all one need do is read the lack of compassion expressed by all sides for the unaliving of the UnitedHealth CEO. The most stated comment is that he was responsible for more American deaths than Osama Bin Laden.
For the record, no, what was called welfare isn't the same as UBI. If you were knowledgeable about anything aside from bigotry you'd know that (generations of families who've never worked - sheesh).
skudrunner: just when you think they can't double down any more on ignorance and bigotry they go, but wait, there's more!!!
Got a question - anyone on any assistance programs? EBT (food assistance)? Subsidized housing? Medicaid?
Before I aged into early retirement I was on a program called SSI. Even though disabled I don't qualify for disability. Why not? Well, short story is the my lawyer (who works for the Social Security Admin, not me) and the judge gamed the system so all my work effort didn't count towards my disability claim. Yes, officially I'm disabled, unable to work but no, did not get the monies. And yes, the Social Security Admin is allowed to make changes to eligibility without the approval of Congress or the American people.
Just in case you think there is a safety net, nope, not at all.
Now that I have 'benefits' how bad can it be? I go through yearly recertifications for EBT, housing, Medicaid, and before I took early retirement SSI (supplemental income). As with all my benefits they are supposed to be an aid, not what I live on. Bwahahhhahahahhaaa. Oh my. Supplemental. OK.
For those reading this, if you have a job, keep it. If you think disability is the way for you, hire a lawyer that works for you and not the system. And by all means, don't get sick. There is a waiting line for Medicaid approval. Not that those who staff the agencies are so far behind but the demand is so great that the system is overwhelmed. Same for food assistance. Same for housing. I love the building where I live but it has issues too. Why not move? Because I have to have subsidized housing. I can enter a lottery for Section 8 but applications are accepted only once a year and if you win, great, if not? Well, yeah, find somewhere else to live. Also a reason to not move is the waiting list for buildings who take my benefits is three years long.
Again for the MAGA folk who like to think there is someone out there taking advantage - maybe a couple of humans but for the most part the only reason our assistance system doesn't work is due to underfunding by Congress and too many humans needing help.
For those who say why not let the churches do it? Oh my - heard that clinker a lot on the interwebz - because most insist on some sort of adherence to their specific faith and because they don't want to do it. You do know the Southern Baptists backed out of all the social aid programs they funded a couple of years ago. Honestly it was because they were about to get hit with their sexual abuse coverup scandal but still... If the Baptists quit helping you know things are not going well.
I told you more about myself than I'd have liked but if you don't know, you don't know. I' never planned my life to be this way, living where your apartment is only as clean as your neighbors (aka I use DE but still suffer from roaches walking in my front door and bedbugs in the washers and dryers - double wash, dry everything at high for at least an hour. I have no more fluffy clothes, everything has been baked within an inch of it's life). I manage but it's expensive. And it's not for the weak, just saying.
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