In the tent at the end of the path.

nerves. He's horrible.

This makes AOC's comments on it even more ridiculous if that was possible.

>Leading Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have decided to spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize the giant health insurance companies like Aetna and United Healthcare to “cover recently laid-off workers and those who purchase their own coverage,” as The New York Times reported. There are no price restraints on the gouging insurance premiums or loophole-ridden policies. That is why giant corporate socialist insurers love the “American Rescue Plan,” which gives them socialist cash on the barrelhead. The law lets insurers decide how and whether they pay healthcare bills with co-pays, deductibles, or grant waivers. All these anti-consumer details are buried in the endless and inscrutable fine print.

Whatever happened to the Democrats’ (Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pramila Jayapal, etc.) demand for single-payer – everybody in, nobody out – with free choice of doctors and hospitals instead of the existing cruel, and profiteering industry for which enough is never enough? Senator Sanders often mentioned a Yale study, published on February 15, 2020, that found:....

Well, House Speaker Pelosi is discouraging House Democrats from supporting Representative Pramila Jayapal’s H.R. 1384, Medicare for All Act of 2019, the gold standard for single-payer. News reports indicate that Representative Jayapal (D-WA) and Representative. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) will reintroduce their Medicare for All bill next week. Speaker Pelosi is telling Democrats in the House to focus instead on the modest expansion of Obamacare with its corporate welfare, utter complexity and seriously inadequate coverage. Almost eighty million Americans are presently uninsured or underinsured – a level that will not be significantly reduced for deprived workers by tweaking Obamacare during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pelosi is anti American with Nazi tendencies and has been in the house blocking every decent bill while making herself richer that gawd through deals and insider trading that congress voted to make legal for themselves. Even when caught insider dealing they get off. Not one of the 5 members of congress were punished for selling their stocks just after being briefed on how bad the epidemic could get if not attacked. And they not only became even more filthy rich, they did not warn us about it. Not one person broke ranks and warned us what was coming and as RR mentioned, they murdered 500,000 plus of us and the only person who is responsible for EVERY GD DEATH is Don Trump. Go figure. Oh well, he killed 500,000 plus. Cuomo only has less than 20,000 elderly deaths on his hands. As does the Michigan guv. As do most guvs who did the same damn thing as Cuomo because it reduces the costs of elderly care bigly. And I mean bigly. And guess what? Other countries did the same damn thing. No one will ever be held to account for it either. As I said, we have watched a hundreds of thousands of Hitlers have risen up since they kinda put him down.

Was the response from congress a deliberate attempt or a look away from the massive deaths that they caused? Of course it was. If they actually felt bad about every preventable death we'd have had MFA long ago. Instead congress boldly doubled their health coverage and who knows what other perks they gave themselves while telling us that it just can't be done.

A modified Obamacare, with no price ceilings, will hardly reduce the tens of thousands of American deaths every year because people cannot afford health insurance to get diagnosed and treated in time to prevent fatalities. The Yale study also found that: “ensuring health-care access for all Americans would save more than 68,000 lives and 1.73 million life-years every year compared with the status quo.”

LBJ got Medicare done without much hassle. Whatever. It is here and people like it. Congress will keep cutting the budget till they get every person into medicare advantage which Trump is making mandatory starting next year unless Biden cancels the programs. He won't thought cuz he wants everyone in an HMO Medicare plan that ends up screwing people. Big Big time.

Obamacare does nothing to limit the perverse incentives of a fee-for-service system that includes unnecessary operations, over-diagnosis, and over-prescribing all of which increase the risks of preventable casualties.

It took too long for me to see what the plan is which has Hedges has been talking about, but for me to get it. Poor minority areas are where companies are allowed to dump their toxins and that of course causes sickness and disease which drives people's money into the Medical industrial complex just like our never ending wars transfers it into CEO's pockets and shareholders. Ad in every industry that has been privatized and I bet you will see massive wealth transfers.

This Cobra subsidies gives tens of billions right to insurance companies with absolutely no benefit to the insured.

It gets worse. Year after year, the corporate Democrats, along with the Republicans, are facilitating expanding corporate takeovers of Medicare and Medicaid. The giant and widening attack on Medicare is called “Medicare Advantage,” which more accurately should be called “Medicare [Dis]advantage.” Our corporatized government, under both Parties, has been allowing deceptive promotional seductions of elderly people to take Medicare [Dis]advantage – now fully 40% of all Medicare beneficiaries – which is just a corporate insurance plan with multiple undisclosed tripwires.

Yeah good luck getting Biden to overturn what Trump did. So far I am more impressed with what the GOP did during Trump's 1st 100 days when they cancelled most of Obama's last minute executive orders. Just as he planned for them to do. What have dems done with Trump's? Bueller?

Sorry this could be a stand alone essay, but it fits with the Obiden SCAM. Remember when Chicago sold their toll roads to the Saudis and they raised the fees. They also sold their parking meters to JP Morgan Chase. Guess what happened with them? Congress is helping to privatize everything they can. Look for Amazon and Walmart to crack down harder on union workers and to possibly lower their wages. Robots are coming and congress is washing their hands knowing how much misery it will entail and they are gleefully doing not a gd thing.

Former President Trump worsened what he inherited from the Democrats in outsourcing Medicare. He launched something called “direct contracting” that, “could fully turn Medicare over to private health insurers” declared Diane Archer, former chair of Consumer Reports, in her article on March 8, 2021. Medicare Advantage premiums can be pricey. According to Kay Tillow, Executive Director of the Nurses Professional Organization, “The Medicare Advantage Plans are smiling all the way to the bank. In 2019 each Medicare Advantage beneficiary cost taxpayers $11,822 while those in original Medicare cost $10,813 each – that’s over $1,000 more and over 9% more per person for the for-profit insurers!”

Where is the outcry among Democratic politicians to reverse completely the corporate takeover of Medicare? Last year, many Democratic candidates pontificated about the need for single-payer health insurance, but now in Congress, we are scarcely hearing a peep about this vital human right. Their campaign rhetoric is just distant memory. Tragically, it is now harder than ever for the elderly to get out of Medicare [Dis]advantage and go back to traditional Medicare.

On a side note, this is a really good diary on nursing homes (DK link)and what is allowed to be done. Congress has for years been letting nursing home lobbyists write bills that further deregulate what can happen to people in homes and there is no legal recourse anymore to hold them accountable. If I am ever in the position that I know I am heading to one I am checking out. I saw the hell holes of Medicaid nursing homes close to 45 years ago and I hated going into it then. I was 18. Ugh. Then it happened to be the only one in Ogden that would allow my brother because of the IVs he was on and the meds. And of course his disease. My heart broke when I heard he was at Madison Gardens. Such a lovely name for a hell hole. Nope. I am not going to be at the mercy of underpaid and overworked people. That the lowest paid workers are in charge of what is supposed to be our cherished elders should appall every one,, but it does not.

A tad on the MA essay:

Advocates Sound Alarm Over Quiet Trump Era Move That Could Further Privatize Medicare

On December 3, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)—then under the leadership of Seema Verma—unveiled an innocuous-sounding proposal titled the Geographic Direct Contracting Model (Geo) with the purported goal of delivering "Medicare beneficiaries value through better care and improved quality."

"Perhaps due to the wonky nature of the discussion," Lieberman added, "the proposed change has generated almost no media coverage although it would upend the health insurance for millions of Americans."

CMS has identified 15 regions as potential sites and will select between four and 10. All are large urban areas, many in counties with the highest per capita Medicare spending in the country. In demonstration regions, virtually all beneficiaries in traditional Medicare will be required to enroll in a DCE, including people dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Guidance from CMS emphasizes that beneficiaries' out-of-pocket costs will not increase, and that cost-sharing or premiums could decrease if they use in-network providers. DCEs also may offer additional benefits, similar to Medicare Advantage plans.

The extent to which the Geo program resembles privately run Medicare Advantage plans was cause for alarm for Archer, who said that "overall, [MA] enrollees have less access to high quality hospitals and nursing homes than people in traditional Medicare and are subject to widespread and inappropriate delays and denials of care."

There is more and the article is worth a read and a share so others can be aware of what not to do.

Oh cool. A 3 wheel motorcycle just drove by. Do you know how bad I want another one? But can my body drive one anymore? Hmm. Dilemmas.

I just transitioned from SSI to either SSDI or regular SS and was told I would automatically be enrolled in Medicare/Medicaid, but then everything went wonky. I kept getting a new message every week.

You will not have Medicaid after this month...
You will get it but have to pay $332 month
You don't have to pay that cuz you are poor.
You have to only pay $22 a month spend down cuz you make too much money. (I am actually $2,000 under Utah's Medicaid limit)
You only have to pay $12 a month spend down.

There were a few I've forgotten of course so I am waiting to see what happens next week. Yes I have called. Yes I have gotten 50 different answers.

However I am pretty sure that I need to pick a different secondary so I am asking for help if you are able. Please message me and detail what you picked, the good and bad and see if I can get this straighten before I am dumped into Medicare Advantage. The worst thing is that you have networked doctors, hospitals and pharmacies. On a trip to the other side of the country and get sick? You might be on the hook for your whole medical bill.

Pushing people into MA is just a huge show from congress that MFA will never, ever happen here. We are going backwards and gutting the new deal ASAP-er than ever. Yikes. I too want to flee.

Perfidy Meets Putty—Congressional Democrats Betray Voters

The Democrats’ leaders are abandoning their promises and retreating into a cowardly corporatist future.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErU1fkNVcAEHCun?format=jpg&name=large