March 29, 2020

NYT National News@NYTNational: U.S. health insurance premiums could increase as much as 40%

https://twitter.com/NYTNational/status/1244091431742038017

March 29, 2020

Nina Bernstein @NinaBernstein1: The price of putting private profits over public good. ⁦

https://twitter.com/NinaBernstein1/status/1244237474299285505

March 29, 2020

We need #TestAndTrace@Noahpinion: When coronavirus overwhelms hospitals, lots of people die

https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1243747351690235905













Medicare for ALL 2020

March 28, 2020

Rideshare Drivers United: Sign Up: Submit a Wage Claim

It’s time for drivers and other misclassified workers to enforce AB5 and show the public and the State of California how much these companies are stealing from drivers – and how it not only violates basic labor law, but is morally wrong. By not following the law, the companies are making huge profits at drivers’ and our communities’ expense.

And with our State so far not enforcing the law. it’s up to us to make that happen. That's why we made this form for misclassified so-called "gig workers."

The short 5-step form below helps guide you through the 10-minute process of filing a wage claim with the California Labor Commissioner for all the back-pay you're owed from the last 3 years. We'll ask you to fill in all the information that the wage claim form requires, then with the provided data, our tool with perform calculations, fill out a completed wage claim form, and then submit it to the California Labor Commissioner via email, with your email address cc'd.

https://drivers-united.org/a/submit-a-wage-claim

March 28, 2020

Instacart Workers Set to Strike on Monday, Demanding Hazard Pay and Protections

Sam Harnett
Mar 27

People are scared to go to grocery stores right now and risk exposure to coronavirus, so they’re hiring others to do it for them. It’s been a boon for delivery services like Instacart, which is planning to hire 300,000 more shoppers.

These shoppers will join other front-line pandemic workers — at grocery stores, in delivery trucks and behind pharmacy counters — who are risking exposure to coronavirus in order to make sure essential businesses and services stay up and running.

But because Instacart continues to classify their workers as contractors, they do not have the same kind of protections and benefits as employees. Instacart workers aren’t guaranteed minimum wage, have no paid time off and their employer does not pay into unemployment insurance.

To protest working conditions and a lack of protection on the job, Instacart shoppers are planning to go on strike across the country on Monday.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11809184/instacart-workers-set-to-strike-on-monday-demanding-hazard-pay-and-protections

March 28, 2020

Parasites are here: Lee Fang @lhfang: Lobbyists for the debt collection industry tell Congress

https://twitter.com/lhfang/status/1243709276163461121

March 27, 2020

Millions of Americans are about to lose their health insurance in a pandemic ( Wendell Potter )

Fri 27 Mar 2020 06.26 EDT Last modified on Fri 27 Mar 2020

The tragic effects of our battle with the novel coronavirus are seemingly endless. But arguably the most mind-blowing is this: the very pandemic that threatens to infect and kill millions is simultaneously causing many to also lose their health coverage at their gravest time of need.

Here’s how: the virus has caused a public health crisis so severe that people have been forced to stay home, causing businesses to shutter and lay off workers. And with roughly half of Americans getting their health insurance from their employer, these layoffs mean not only losing their income but also their medical coverage. In other words, just as our need for medical care skyrockets in the face of a global pandemic, fewer will have health insurance or be able to afford it. According to one recent report, the cost of treatment for Covid-19 can run around $35,000. As the patient in the report exclaimed: “I was pretty sticker-shocked. I personally don’t know anybody who has that kind of money.”

So, how did we get to such a dire place? Many will sadly lose their jobs over the coming weeks – with one estimate projecting as many as 30%. And as they do, Americans are about to learn something horrifying: how irrational and irresponsible it is for so many to be dependent on employers for health insurance. Take it from me. I’m a former health insurance executive who once profited from this system. It’s time for it to stop.

America needs to finally get out of the business of linking health coverage to job status. Even in better times, this arrangement was a bad idea from a health perspective. Most Americans whose families depend on their employers for coverage are just a layoff away from being uninsured. And now, when many businesses are shutting down and considering layoffs, it’s a public health disaster. Across the country we’re seeing reports of layoffs in almost all industries. As we approach a global recession, some analysts suggest that a million or more US workers will lose their jobs in April alone. Consider what this means for health care in this country.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/27/coronavirus-pandemic-americans-health-insurance?CMP=share_btn_tw

March 27, 2020

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II@RevDrBarber: This virus is teaching us that from now on, living wages,

https://twitter.com/RevDrBarber/status/1243161400362631173

March 27, 2020

Sociopath Trump Administration: Don't accept help from Cuba

CNN@CNN
Cuba is offering to send doctors to more countries struggling with the coronavirus. But don't accept their help, the US State Department says.

https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1243193520053276673

March 27, 2020

In Defense Of Coronavirus Testing Strategy, Administration Cited Retracted Study

Post updated 8:15 a.m. March 27, to reflect that the abstract in PubMed has been marked retracted.

When asked why the United States didn't import coronavirus tests when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ran into difficulty developing its own, government officials have frequently questioned the quality of the foreign-made alternatives.

But NPR has learned that the key study they point to was retracted just days after it was published online in early March.

Top officials in the Trump administration have alluded to this study, including Dr. Deborah Birx, who coordinates the White House coronavirus task force. "It doesn't help to put out a test where 50% or 47% are false positives," she said at a White House briefing on March 17, explaining why health officials didn't accept tests from other countries.

Food and Drug Commissioner Stephen Hahn cited the figure as well during an interview on Morning Edition on Friday.

"It's really important to understand, getting an accurate and reliable test on the market's important," he told host David Greene. "Our team can provide you with an abstract that was recently published in the literature about a test that was performed in another country that demonstrated a 47% false positive rate. Now, think about that, David. What that means is that if you had a positive test, it was pretty close to a flip of a coin as to whether it was real or not."

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/26/822084429/in-defense-of-coronavirus-testing-strategy-administration-cited-retracted-study?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social