Healthcare Thread (really "Sickcare" in America)

[Bi_3]

Anyone know what the total amount of medical debt is in the US? May google skills are failing me today.

I tried this:

Saw that one, but I think that was the debt from last year alone, not the total outstanding debt.

[McParadigm]

Based on the quotes coming out of the Fifth Circuit today, there’s not a terrible chance that the GOP will be in front of the Supreme Court trying to eradicate the ACA right as the 2020 election begins to speed up.

[Bi_3]

Somehow he’s gonna fuck this up. Somehow.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/ ... et-1573651

[4/5]

You could always just allow people to sell a kidney.

[B]

You could always just allow people to sell a kidney.

People with 2 working kidneys





People with 1 failing kidney and $100

[Bi_3]

You could always just allow people to sell a kidney.

People with 2 working kidneys





People with 1 failing kidney and $100

Did you reverse those images?

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[Mickey]

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[Bi_3]

Purdue Pharma just filed for bankruptcy. This was expected, as the terms of their multi-state settlement were reported to require them to file for bankruptcy, then restructure as a sort of treatment-based trust. Still crazy, and I think the story is far from over.

What did the business do, exactly?

[tragabigzanda]

FUCK ICE

[McParadigm]

Meanwhile, the Sackler family is moving billions out of the country to protect it from being subject to any settlement.

[Bi_3]

Purdue Pharma just filed for bankruptcy. This was expected, as the terms of their multi-state settlement were reported to require them to file for bankruptcy, then restructure as a sort of treatment-based trust. Still crazy, and I think the story is far from over.

What did the business do, exactly?

Helped kill over 200k by flooding communities with opioids

I've caught up a bit now, thanks.

[Stickman]

Here’s how a dark money group spent $30 million to stop Congress from ending ‘surprising medical bills’

[McParadigm]

State lawmakers acknowledge lobbyists helped craft their op-eds attacking Medicare-for-all
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... e-for-all/

Lobbyists either helped draft or made extensive revisions to opinion columns published by three state lawmakers in a way that warned against the dangers of Medicare-for-all and other government involvement in health care, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.

Montana state Rep. Kathy Kelker (D) and Sen. Jen Gross (D) acknowledged in interviews that editorials they published separately about the single-payer health proposal included language provided by John MacDonald, a lobbyist and consultant in the state who disclosed in private emails that he worked for an unnamed client.

Gross said MacDonald contacted her on behalf of the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a multimillion-dollar industry group founded in 2018 and funded by hospitals, private insurers, drug companies, and other private health-care firms.

None of the lawmakers’ columns disclose that they were written with the help of a lobbyist.

The emails show how, even at the state and local levels, lobbyists are trying to bend public opinion away from an idea that has seized much of the debate during the current Democratic presidential primary. Two candidates, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (Vt.), have proposed a massive redesign of the health-care system that would place all Americans on a single government health insurer.

[Stickman]

Well that's a new low.
Border Patrol arrested these doctors who were trying to give flu shots to detained migrant kids

[McParadigm]

Uh oh

[Stickman]

Utah man's son dies while rationing insulin

[McParadigm]

[Dscans]

I'm curious to know if this pandemic has changed the way people feel about M4A.
One the one hand, you could point to the number of people who have died or will die because they don't have health insurance. On the other hand, this is a good example of big government bungling the management of a massively-scaled response.
For me, it's enhanced my view that employer-based insurance is a terrible system. Boot strap politics has no answer for the millions of people out of work and insurance due to some virus that they had no control over.