Is dying because you can't afford insulin "poetry" or "prose"?

[left lowrider]

I want to be able to look any American in the eye and know that no matter how poor they are there is at least a baseline where they don't DIE because they are not competing well in the capitalist "game" . . . it shouldn't be life or death.

Simple, huh? . . and there are lots of other countries that provide this and cost the citizens less than our profit driven system does.

I can't believe Democrats are campaigning against universal health care. Whats next . . . is universal elementary school education "pie in the sky" ?

[DanTex]

1. No Democrats are campaigning against universal healthcare.

[Armstead]

8. Hell, even Republicans say they are for universal healthcare

The question is HOW?

[DanTex]

9. That is the question. Improvement of Obamacare, transitioning to a Dutch-style system,

or single-payer overhaul, going more for Canada or UK.

[Armstead]

10. You are correrct.

But reinforcing Obamacare's reliance on private insurance as the only source of coverage for those who aren't poor enough for Medicaid or old enough for Medicare is the wrong answer in my opinion. Nor does it represent the degree of change that is needed.

[roguevalley]

15. its repulsive to me that anyone has to pay through the nose to stay alive. My sister in law

lost her younger brother Dennis because he had no money for asthma medicine. He died one month before his son was born and left a 19 year old widow. FUCK anyone who doesn't do right on this issue.

[mythology]

25. Yet the Netherlands with much the same system as ACA

has the best health outcomes in Europe. Yes they have tighter cost regulations and all insurance companies are non-profits, but the population is mandated to purchase insurance.

[Armstead]

30. It's different in important respects

Insurers are more like contractors for govt, insurance with requirements to follow specific guidelines, including income based premiums and otehr aids to keep it affordable for consumers.

[eridani]

50. Not hardly. My husband had a root canal there thqt cost $25 American

Provider education is subsidized, as well as malpractice insurance. Who the hell can get an ACA plan for $127/month?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_the_Netherlands

Premiums paid by the insured are about 100 € per month (about US$127 in Aug. 2010 and in 2012 €150 or US$196,) with variation of about 5% between the various competing insurers, and deductible a year €220 US$288.

[Recursion]

51. A perfect example of how the financing stops mattering if you control costs.

Which, again, is why I strongly support O'Malley's global rate-setting plan. Get that going, and I don't really care how we finance it at that point.

[eridani]

53. Any single payer plan requires exactly the same thing.

In MD, they negotiate prices with hospitals, but not providers or pharma.

[Recursion]

54. Not remotely. Look at Medicare Part D

That's why details matter here. It would be entirely possible (frankly, even likely, IMO) that the AMA and the hospitals' lobby would turn any single payer plan into a "the government will pay us whatever the hell we say" plan.

That is, in our system, the one advantage of private insurance: it can't be lobbied by doctors and hospitals.

[eridani]

55. In single payer, drug prices would be regulated.

When O'M talks about MD, he mentions the hospitals, but not the other cost items.

[Recursion]

56. He mentions the hospitals because that is bar none the largest cost center

Hospital Care: $971 Billion
Physician Services: $603 Billion
Other Professional Services: $84 Billion
Dental Services: $113 Billion
Home Health Care: $83 Billion
Nursing Care: $155 Billion
Pharmaceuticals: $297 Billion
Durable Medical Equipment: $46 Billion
Consumable Medical Equipment: $57 Billion
Government Overhead: $40 Billion
Private Insurance Overhead and Profit: $195 Billion
Public Health: $79 Billion
R&D: $45.5 Billion
Structures: $108 Billion

(That's from 2014)

Hospitals are where we need to claw back the money from, followed by physicians.

[eridani]

63. The $971 billion amounts to 42% of the total

In order to cover everyone, we need to negotiate on 100% of costs.

[hobbit709]

13. Well you're right about no Democrat part.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

44. you could have fooled me?

Hillary IS campaigning against it.

[Recursion]

52. Only if you think "universal health care" and "single payer" mean the same thing

which they don't.

[NurseJackie]

2. .

[Ed Suspicious]

12. Keep rolling them.

[VulgarPoet]

14. Starting to think it's just a good idea to set full ignores on anyone with Hillary avatars

just on general goddamned principle if that kind of condescending, insensitive tripe is all we can expect from them.

[Ned_Devine]

38. I did that for a while but I took them off

Without their rude, insensitive and non-substantive comments, there wasn't that much to read in the threads. On the one hand, we should probably just not respond to their comments. The problem with that is that it makes it look like we can't fight back even if we're arguing over the sky being blue. It's your call.

[aidbo]

40. I took them off of ignore too. Helps remind me why I'm voting for Bernie.

[tazkcmo]

26. And from a "nurse"?

I'm horrified. No, disgusted.

[bvf]

33. No, the name's after some idiotic TV show. n/t

[tazkcmo]

35. Wooo!

Thank goodness! I'm relieved Nurse Jackie is ficticious. Still, there are people in the world who could give a crap if someone dies because they're poor. After all, they're friggin' poor! Who even wants them around? They're all stinky and stuff and always whining about crap like insulin, food, shelter. Ick.

[bvf]

48. There's definitely a bitterness emerging

around here. Once-idealistic, politically engaged (or at least politically aware) people finding themselves having to defend views they wouldn't have touched two years ago, and sounding more like Republican-lite with every post as a result. Embarrassment probably has a lot to do with it.

The dismissive, screw-the-poor eyeroll above doesn't surprise me one bit. From a content standpoint, it's typical NJ, showing no intellectual investment whatsoever. If it weren't for smilies, some people would have no reason (or even ability, in certain cases) to post at all.

[Matariki]

41. This is one of the ugliest posts I've seen here in a long time

[Dont call me Shirley]

61. See post 43.

[Warren DeMontague]

64. classy.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, left lowrider.

[kenfrequed]

4. Oh my gods yes!

You should expand on this and write a letter to the editor on it.

I would ask whether sending people to die in a pointless, destabalizing war would be poetry or prose? Because whichever one she claims it is, I want the other one.

[TheBlackAdder]

5. Contemporary Media Journalism- The lowest form of writing there is. nt

[HassleCat]

6. All Democrats are solidly for universal heath care.

And they're opposed to the death penalty, and they support public education, and they believe college should be free for everyone who can qualify, and they support gay marriage. After all, they're Democrats, right? If they didn't support Democratic positions, they would be Republicans. How simple is that?

[in_cog_ni_to]

18. Pretty simple

In a reality based world.

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

[Motown_Johnny]

7. Epitaph n/t

[jkbRN]

11. They sound like right wingers

It's so pathetic.

[Broward]

16. That's how far right these corporate Dems have taken us.

[Matariki]

17. Thank you.

And welcome to DU

[QC]

19. I think insulin is considered "free pizza" now.

It's much like the way LGBT equality was not so long ago dismissed as a "fabulous pink pony" around here.

[VulgarPoet]

20. Can't remember if affordable insulin was considered "free pizza" or "rainbows and unicorns" anymore

the dissonance is fuckin staggering some days

[QC]

31. Maybe it's a unicorn with free pizza

shooting out of its butt.

I have a hard time keeping up with these things.

[VulgarPoet]

32. Ok not even gonna lie

I really like pizza, so if anyone ever finds one of those... well, dibs

[Helen Borg]

21. And how about "basic income"?

By the way, check this out: https://blog.ycombinator.com/basic-income

[VulgarPoet]

22. Nope.

Far as they're concerned, the status quo works.

[drm604]

23. I really like how you put that.

There should at least be a baseline where you don't die just because you aren't competing well in the capitalist game.

That should become a social media meme. We just need to get the wording exactly right.

[John Poet]

24. Insulin is "a pony".

.

[valerief]

27. Progressives aren't campaigning against it. nt

[onecaliberal]

28. It's stupid bullshit from people who care more about money than 26 million people

without healthcare. People have and will continue to die because of that. Even poor folks who are forced to spend money on premiums and can't see a doctor and have less for food and rent and other things they need to survive.
This is one of the top 3 deal breakers for me. Although I have great healthcare (I pay a mint for it) it doesn't mean the 26 million people without doesn't matter to me. That is NOT okay. Especially while some asshole got a 4 million dollar raise at the expense of more jobs at his bank. I wonder how many people could have received healthcare on that alone.

[historylovr]

29. Mic drop.

[Jack Rabbit]

34. For the person dying, it's neither poetry nor prose

It's a disaster.

Any Democrat campaigning against universal health care should be primaired. No such Democrat represents this party, at least not 80% of us.

[NorthCarolina]

36. It's a symptom of incremental change.

eom

[Enthusiast]

37. Kicked and recommended!

[99th_Monkey]

39. It's unconscionably cruel and heartless to frame it that way.

and to simply give-up on 29 Million still uninsured Americans, not to
mention all the inner-insureds folks.

[Tab]

42. Neither; it's tragedy

You can phrase it in poetry or prose, but regardless it's tragedy.

[Dont call me Shirley]

43. It's a fucking tragedy. I almost died because I had no health insurance nor a way to pay the

enormous medical bills. I HATE this ugly medical system, HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE the ugly disease treatment system in this country and the disgusting people who uphold it are vile criminals who belong in prison for life.

Bernie. Medicare E for everyone. We are all created equal. No one is more deserving of care when they need it than any other and everyone who thinks they are can go straight to hell!

Welcome welcome welcome to du, lowrider

[malokvale77]

49. What you said. nt

[Lorien]

59. Yep, me too

I nearly died of pneumonia while unemployed, but a friend stepped forward and paid for a trip to the doctor which saved my life. I fractured my ankle a few years later but couldn't afford to see a doctor, so now it's permanently swollen and I walk with a limp. I see so many Americans now with missing teeth, untreated cataracts, unset bones, and those are just the visible problems. The invisible stuff is killing people, and Hillary and her ilk honestly don't care!

[Dont call me Shirley]

62. ...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

45. I'm sick of this "we can't do it because the republicans won't like it"

If we want healthcare for all we should march on republican headquarters and demand it.

[Lorien]

60. Registered Dems outnumber Repugs 7 to 1

but they haven't been voting because we keep giving them faux "Democrats" and asking them to turn out for the lesser of evils. They need to change "we can't do it because the republicans won't like it" to "we won't do it because our corporate backers won't allow it." That would be honest. Getting money out of politics needs to be job #1, and Bernie is all for that!

[Bernblu]

46. Neither poetry or prose, it's pure Clintonian Republican tragedy

[SoLeftIAmRight]

57. so true - so sad

...

[beam me up scottie]

47. How did I miss this gem?

We just bought insulin Monday, it was over $200.

Thank you.