That's nothing compared to the unaccountable trillions that disappear into the military-industrial complex
There is a solution. Tax ultramillionaires and billionaires and corporations at 1950's 93% rate, fully fund comprehensive health, no co-payment, no deductible, including at least annual preventative visits.
We very specifically need single-payer universal healthcare. One of the biggies issues with healthcare is the sheer number of different insurers. Knock it down to just Medicare and give it to literally everyone. Period.
Yes, and fully funded is also key, because Medicare rates are ridiculously low.
It's appalling how much we have to alter treatment plans based on Medicare rates. If someone doesn't have a supplement plan, they probably won't be able to afford the new medications that are MASSIVE improvements on the old ones. It's so frustrating to have to try to cobble together a treatment regimen for congestive heart failure or type 2 diabetes without being able to use the new medications because Medicare doesn't cover enough of the cost for the patient to be able to afford it. It also affects how long a patient can be hospitalized and figuring out the requirements to make sure they qualify for rehab after hospitalization is aneurysm-inducing.
Yes. It's frustrating for everyone involved except those who profit from such s a convoluted system. I'm sure handing a terminally ill patient a Medicare waiver is absolutely heart-wrenching. When I worked ICU hall in the nursing home, back when two CNAs were actually required per fifty patients, and worked in teams, I can't tell you how many were quickly burned out from being disheartened by having five minutes or less to dress immobile patients, or from having to restrain patients to keep them from scratching shingles outbreaks, or being unable to find a nurse available to suction patients with death-rattle.
I just finished my second family medicine rotation and it's just so ass-backwards because if we could give them the medication they need, they won't end up in hospitals/ICUs/long term care facilities/etc. The new medications are incredible drugs and can vastly improve the quality and quantity of life for patients with diseases like diabetes, heart failure, renal failure, and more...if the patients can afford them, which they frequently cannot.
if we could give them the medication they need, they won't end up in hospitals/ICUs/long term care facilities/etc.
How are we supposed to extract what's left of their value unless they're in said facilities?
Typing that out made me throw up in my mouth a bit.
Well, JD Vance thinks grandma and grandpa should be the solution to childcare, but that only works if they aren't actively dying and need to be cared for themselves. I'm pretty sure the GOP also thinks that daughters-in-law and granddaughters should be doing the elder care for free as well, so I don't really know how they expect that all to work.
(It's not supposed to work. People are supposed to make rich people richer and then die, according to the GOP)
Oh so you've got a double dose of burnout, from overwork and trying to navigate the system. I'm sorry. What general region are you in? Wondering if we can somehow work together on getting universal passed?
I'm a third year medical student in the Midwest. I'm aiming to do my residency in Minnesota, either Emergency Med or Family Med because apparently I like doing social work and hate my sanity or something.
We're not near, and you're going to be quite overworked and under-rested, for quite some while. Trial by fire. Also plenty of data that can be used for arguing for a better system, should you decide to engage in moving that mountain, at some point. Wishing you all the best, and thanking you for taking valuable time to converse with me.
It's still good to know there's other folks out there with a good head on their shoulders that are working towards a common goal. :)
Yes it is. May I humbly recommend getting to know grant writers asap and well? Wishing you all the best in your endeavors; we need more medgremlins in our world.
Once I'm in residency, I will become very well acquainted with grant writers and social workers.
You don’t really even need to fund single payer healthcare. The U.S. spends twice as much on healthcare as other developed countries already. You just have to nationalize the insurance companies, which can cost as much as you’d like. There a no law of physics preventing it.
You still have to allocate the money.
It's already allocated to healthcare, that's the point. Instead of paying a huge insurance premium to a useless middleman you pay the government a medium tax amount.
If we changed nothing else at all besides who actually gets what you already pay it would still be significantly cheaper. If your insurance provider gets nationalized you could even cut a check to the same entity you do now.
No, those fraudster are how we got into this Mrs anyway. They can be taxed back down to regular wealth, their exorbitant extra homes sold, and we can use that money to pay for nice things for the whole public, like addressing causes of despair, correcting infrastructure, providing quality education for everyone, cleaning up pollution, food, farming, rehabilitation for offenders of all sorts, and everything else we sold ourselves for that we didn't get properly done because we slept on ourselves.
That's what taxes are for: private gains, socialized losses. Mfs out here thinking taxes are for social infrastructure -- if social infrastructure isn't making a few wealthy individuals a lot of money, or guaranteed to do so, the government can't afford it.
Medicare Disadvantage Plans suck money out of the system from 3 different sides.
(1) They cost the government more money per patient than real Medicare
(2) They falsely denied 18% of valid claims according to Medicare's Inspector General. They also screw customers by denying people specialists , requiring prior approvals etc.
(3) They cost providers more money by increasing the manpower they need to get their payments by throwing up hassles.
"Medicare Brokers" get gigantic commissions (not just the first year but EVERY year someone is on the same plan) to push Medicare Disadvantage Plans on people who don't know any better.
Medicare Advantage insurers have for years been diagnosing patients with diseases they don't have, then pocketing the money for treatment. The treatment never actually happened because the patients didn't actually have the diseases. This WSJ report said that UHC specifically got HALF of its income from this fraud.
https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/medicare-health-insurance-diagnosis-payments-b4d99a5d
There is a also a SECOND medicare scam from the GOP for people who wisely avoid Medicare Disadvantage called "Accountable Care Organizations". The bottom line is that you cannot trust your primary doctor's advice on when to seek a specialist because they pay doctors to discourage you from seeking a specialist when you need one. They don't give you a choice about belonging to an ACO but they do have to notify you when they stick you in an ACO, so at least you know when your primary doctor has a financial incentive to discourage you from getting treatment.
https://surgerycenterok.com/blog/scam-series-pay-for-performance/
These companies thus make much of their profit by routinely denying claims — 1.5 million, or 18 percent of all claims, were turned down in one year alone
they profit when human beings literally suffer, and we have all collectively decided this is ok for some reason
Which continued with every president since Bush and will continue with whoever the next president is.
Congress controls the budget
Just one?
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