Tag: Health Care
Dumba$$
Hi Middle America, poor white people, and everyone else so mad that the world was no longer favoring just you and your shitty circumstances, that you voted for a maniacal egomaniac—it’s me, your liberal, elitist, east coast friend judging your dumbass choices. I used to feel sorry for you, but now I’m vacillating between abject […]
Americans Hate Insurance Companies and Really Like Medicare
This outfit called Morning Consult has done some polling to gauge American attitudes towards some aspects of our health care system and then created a word cloud of the responses. Interestingly, “expensive” and “greedy” are associated with insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies and hospitals. Americans are more positive about nurses and Medicare. I’m posting the two word clouds for Insurance Companies and Medicare (thinking that the idea of being able to buy into Medicare as a Public Option was really a missed opportunity by Congress), but you should go over and see all of their word clouds — it is an interesting narrative:
The Difference Between Being Broke And Being Poor
Re-posted, in its entirety, with permission by the author, Richard Mayhew of Balloon Juice. There is a big difference between being broke and being poor. Keep reading.
Comparing the Health Care Systems of 11 Industrial Countries
I was going to post this in the Single Payer thread and in the Open Thread for today, but this turned out to be its own post. This year’s Commonwealth Fund International Profiles of Health Systems (PDF) is out.
This is particularly useful in detailing how governments cover the health care of their citizens (as in, “single payer” looks different depending upon where you are — instructive) and in summarizing overall outcomes of these systems. We get middling quality care and pay more than anyone else for it — 17.7% of our GDP (and this is without covering everybody) vs The Netherlands (the next highest) at 11.9%. We’re in the bottom third of countries able to get same day appointments and in being able to get after hours care. We’re the highest in the number of avoidable medical system deaths and in the bottom third of overall satisfaction with the medical care system. So much for the greatest medical care in the world.
Blandly Watching Someone Die
I heard about this story yesterday, but didn’t listen to the 911 call until this morning.
March is only four days old, but this month’s “man’s inhumanity to man” award goes to Glenwood Gardens and the folks who work there. The senior living facility in Bakersfield, Calif., has a policy of calling 911 in emergencies and waiting with the afflicted until medical assistance arrives. But the lack of urgency — the seeming indifference of the personnel to the 87-year-old woman who collapsed in the dining room Feb. 26 — is stunning.
Hospital Debt Collectors Moving From Back Office to Bedside
The New York Times writes, “Hospital patients waiting in an emergency room or convalescing after surgery are being confronted by an unexpected visitor: a debt collector at bedside.”
The Idea Of Seniors Shopping For Health Insurance Is Insane
If you have ever had to purchase individual health insurance you know exactly how insane Paul Ryan’s senior health insurance vouchers are. If you haven’t then you might want to read a post I wrote in November 2008. Fact: Individual health insurance is only cost competitive if you’re young and healthy, because health insurance has […]
Socialized Health Care Before There Was Socialism
Who would have thought that the Founding Fathers were a bunch of Socialists! Teabaggers around the country are eating crow tonight. They just found out that our Founding Fathers, those gentlemen who teabaggers place on a pedestal and worship every night before going to sleep, mandated that private citizens purchase health insurance. In July of […]
Kucinich: GOP Might Give Life to Public Option
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) said on Fox News that if the Republicans try to dismantle the healthcare legislation passed in the last Congress they may “paradoxically be creating the opening to push single-payer forward again”.
Hey, I Found Those Republican Death Panels
Heartbreakingly cruel. PHOENIX — Even physicians with decades of experience telling patients that their lives are nearing an end are having difficulty discussing a potentially fatal condition that has arisen in Arizona: Death by budget cut. Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations under the state’s version of Medicaid. Many […]
The New Chicken Barter Economy
I was wrong that Republicans don’t have new ideas! Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sue Lowden thinks health care reform is wrong and she has a better idea: Sue Lowden, the likely GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada, has a novel plan for health care reform: haggling with your doctor over prices. Lowden offered her […]
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