From the article:
NPR, Kaiser Health News, and CBS This Morning told Sovereign Valentine’s story this week, as part of the “Bill of the Month” series, a crowdsourced investigation that seeks to understand the exorbitant health care bills faced by ordinary Americans.
Only in America!
I have a 20ish year old cousin that was diagnosed with a pilocytic astrocytoma (brain tumor) earlier this year. (Spoiler- after it was removed it was diagnosed as Grade 1, meaning no chemo or radiation).
Luckily she had health insurance. Most importantly we had family that knows people to get her the best damn doctors in the world. She was able to have consults at Yale/JH/Mass General.
There is no reason that anyone should have less access to coverage or options based on their birth. It is simply unfamothable to me that one can argue health care is not a god given right.
Democrats suck at branding as increased taxes to pay for this for everyone should be deemed more patriotic than singing the national anthem at the super bowl.
I want every single person employed in USA private health insurance to be unemployed and preferably homeless.
Not far enough
I was sweating that I’d have to pay out of pocket for two months worth of my meds.
Turned out to be £18.
America can’t get shit right
Every question about how can USA afford single payer should be met with this picture
Or some version of it
That and I’ll get my money back once I get a MedEx from NHS. Just have to get it backdated to when I got the medication.
Periodic bitching about how insurers insist that teeth and eyes need to be treated differently from the entire rest of your body
I lost a crown on my bottom left back molar eating a fucking Starburst. Dental insurance at my new job doesn’t kick in til September 1st. Hurts like hell when I brush and or eat. Should be a fun August.
You might want to check out Temparin and see if you can at least make things less painful.
Oh my vision is also getting shittier with each passing day. America’s Worst quoted $295 just for the lenses for a new pair of glasses plus another hundred for frames. They’re already into me $50 for the exam. I’ll just have to squint harder til Sept 1.
Does Medicare cover dental and vision under one umbrella or do you need additional policies for those?
Medicare doesn’t cover dental and vision at all, there are supplemental plans available though.
Bernie’s (and I believe Warren’s) version of M4A will cover vision dental and prescription IIRC
If anything, this seems like it undersells things. For example, if you look at Canada vs the US, according to this chart the US spends 17% vs 10%. But if you consider the fact that US per capita GDP is around 60k and Canada’s is 45k, 17% of 60k is a little over 10k, and 10% of 45k is 4.5k, so we actually spend over twice as much, assuming this chart is correct and my quick googled numbers are right. This seems like an insanely easy talking point to just hammer home over and over and over, but none of them do it and instead start jabbering on about paying for health care for illegal immigrants, which obviously is going to poll terribly.
Edit: Still figuring out this new forum, but obviously meant to quote NhlNut’s chart
A lot of healthcare costs scale with GDP though, most obviously wages. %GDP is the best measure.
That sounds like the kind of complex, confusing to the average voter point that Democrats/progressives should be giddy about forcing Republicans/centrists to make.
You don’t see Biden or Republicans out there admitting that the tax increases would be offset by premiums disappearing.
Given a choice between making the most accurate argument that is complex, makes voter’s eyes glaze over (what percentage even know what GDP is?), and does not make your opponents life difficult and a still generally honest, simple argument that paints your opponent into a corner, the choice should be easy.
“Medicare for All will save us money. Canada has a similar system and pays less than half as much as we pay for their healthcare! They pay $4,500 a year per person, we pay $10,000.”
Opponent says something about taxes versus premiums and %GDP vs actual dollars, 30 trillion over 10 years.
You reply:
“Wow it almost sounds like he’s trying to confuse you to trick you. That was like listening to someone read the fine print on a credit card contract. I’ll keep it simple, you only need to remember one number: $5,500 a year. That’s how much you’ll save. So in M4A not only do you get to be done with copays, provider networks, out of pocket maximums and referrals and every other health insurance company headache, you’ll save about $5,500 a year on average. What are you going to do with your $5,500?”
wages don’t really scale with GDP, at least not in the US
Warrants a re-posting. Too close to reality in the US health care system these days
I was reading old posts on another forum about a horrific disease (with familial clustering) back when pre-existing conditions were a thing. In one thread, a few inflicted parents struggled with the idea of letting their kids undergo genetic testing for the mutation in fear that the kids might be denied insurance coverage forever. Regardless of the possibility of that happening, people were definitely factoring that into their decisions. It’s hard for me to believe it even when reading it as historical record in plain text.
