We can't afford Medicare-For-All, but we CAN afford this
Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 07/05/2018 - 6:20pm
Awful scene on the orange line. A woman’s leg got stuck in the gap between the train and the platform. It was twisted and bloody. Skin came off. She’s in agony and weeping. Just as upsetting she begged no one call an ambulance. “It’s $3000,” she wailed. “I can’t afford that.”
— Maria Cramer (@GlobeMCramer) June 29, 2018
The word to describe our health care system: cruel.
It seems almost beyond obvious to say that there is something cruel and out-and-out immoral about making people think about their financial skin in the game when their personal dermis is literally hanging off them. Other developed countries do not do this, and somehow they manage to spend less money overall on health care and often get better outcomes, too
Comments
We can't afford a lot of things
because we're too busy maintaining hegemony. Unless you're part of the military or have family members who went overseas to kill brown Muslims at the behest of our capitalist pig overlords, you're fucked. Hell, even that isn't a guarantee.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Feeding the Military Beast
Hegemony ain't free!
A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma
Don't worry the Dems will go ballistic
when they find out this is the state of healthcare in the US. Oh wait, O-Care is THEIR monstrosity.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
no other developed nation does this
One small tweak: No other developed nation does this. None.
All we'd have to do is give up the war addiction. One month's war spending would solve this problem nationwide.
Something else no other nation, developed or otherwise, does:
source
As much as the entire rest of the world combined. Or nearly so.
No wonder we can't have nice things. Or even decent necessities.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Per capita?
Not that I disagree about our priorities (I’m an old war tax protester of sorts) but it’s better rhetorically to show that it’s bad per capita as well.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Madness! I saw a video about this but the way it was
spun it sounded like a warm community story. The way it was told, when the woman’s leg was trapped between the train and the platform, a bunch of her fellow passengers got together to push against the train, thus releasing her leg. Ain’t that America!
There was no mention of the injuries to her leg or her pleas not to call an ambulance for fear of the bill.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Of course not
The PTB that control the media don't want people to know about stories like that because it brings attention to how f*cked this country is. This is why they don't focus on how many people are having to use fundraising sites like Go Fund Me or We Pay and others to beg complete strangers to give them money so they can get treatment for serious illnesses or injuries, to help bury their loved ones or for people in Chicago and elsewhere to come up with $1,000 or more to get a death certificate for their family members who died because the coroner won't release it until they do. USA! USA! The Greatest Country in the World!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Go Fund Me and other fundraising are reported matter-
of-factly as just another part of American life like shopping at the dollar store. We are so third world already and getting more so by the day. Sucks to be us, doesn’t it.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
Kind of like the Democrats Uber driver story
Remember the pregnant woman so dedicated to her Uber route she was picking up fares right up to the point where she had to deliver the baby (and IIRC she went right back to it ASAP)? The Dems were touting this in 2016 as some shining example of American dedication, totally missing the fact that in the gig economy this woman didn’t have the luxury to not work and take care of herself and unborn child.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Which reminds me of a Bush town hall where a woman
said she had three jobs. Dubya praised her for being a hardworking American. Both sides are screwing us, but we knew that.
"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"
"sorry, faithful Uber
riders, but if I stink
to high heaven blame Reagan."
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Uber uber alles
Amazon and Verizon too.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Actually we can afford single payer
It's just congress doesn't want to give it to us for the same reasons they don't want to fully fund the social programs that more and more people are relying on. I've never understood why they continue to gut the social safety nets or try to do away with social security. It's not like they are paying for them out of their pockets now is it? Ever since the new deal was created the PTB have been dismantling it year by year. The only reason I can think of why they do that is because they don't want useless people using up the dwindling resources. In a sane world no one person would be allowed to have $142 billion while there are so many people suffering from poverty which has been increasing year after year!
In order to qualify for food stamps you cannot have more than $1,300 in assets which means that ones poverty rate is 165% !!! The republicans just voted to gut $19 billion from the food stamps program after giving rich people a massive tax cut. But some republicans didn't vote for it because they didn't think that the cuts went deep enough. This is why I hold out hope that there is a hell so people who vote on these things can experience what it's like to live on the edge and be afraid to go to the hospital when they are seriously ill or injured. Because those rich b*stards will never experience that fear will they? Nope!
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
@snoopydawg We can afford anything we
We can afford anything we want. Congress' ability to spend is not limited. They don't want us to have healthcare of adequate funds for food. They're literally murderers and sadists.
Washington I-1600
Of course we can afford it. Washington has a single payer initiative under way right now (signatures are still being gathered but I believe they are on track). Not only will it cover everyone but it will save the state residents $9 billion a year.
Here is Bernie's economist explaining it in wonky detail (he was also one of the drafters). 100 minutes, but he's a fun speaker.
The slides are not visible in the video but they are on the web site.
Edit: Hit save too soon...
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg