Coronavirus: Many Claim We Can't Afford Medicare-for-all, But, It Appears We Are About To Discover How Costly Our For-Profit Healthcare Is
By Thom Hartmann A...
The coronavirus is now in the United States, and apparently the infection in California goes beyond just one person, because they can't figure out how that one person got it. Which means lots of people need to get tested, particularly if they have symptoms of a severe cold or flu which could indicate that they have the coronavirus. Here's the problem. The average deductible for Obamacare insurance programs is $4000, which means if a person has these symptoms and takes a half a day off work to go get tested, they could end up with a bill of several thousand dollars as well as the lost time from work.And Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar, the guy who made his fortune doubling the price of insulin when he was in the drug business, just said that he couldn't guarantee that a coronavirus vaccine would be affordable to the average person. In the name of so-called "free markets" we have created a country where paid sick time is rare and pretty much everybody has to pay thousands of dollars in co-pays and deductibles if they make a trip to the doctor or the hospital because they're concerned about being exposed to the coronavirus. Of all the developed countries in the world, we are the least prepared for this outbreak because of Republican policies.
And on top of that, Trump just put a guy in charge of the coronavirus crisis who's big public health policy program when he was governor of Indiana was to force women to have funerals for miscarriages or be arrested. Putting failed right wing talk show host Mike Pence in charge of public health is like putting Hannibal Lecter in charge of a restaurant. We need a political revolution in this country and we need it now.
-Thom
Comments
#2
I wholeheartedly agree Thom with going further .The whole world could do with a evolution revolution.
#3
This virus will really put to the test our for profit healthcare system. With millions of uninsured. Millions with high deductibles that will not go to a doctor until very sick. Millions of homeless. We are probably set up worse that most countries for a pandemic. Pence was put in charge so that Trump can throw him under the bus when it fails. Worse of all I am seeing the setup to declare an emergency and cancel elections in November.
#4
That certainly fits -- another desperate move by a deranged despot to avoid inevitable checkmate, damn the rules! Guess we'll find out the hard way just how well our crumbling democratic institutions hold up under another yearlong onslaught of withering stupidity and in-your-face criminality. The last three years doesn't exactly inspire confidence, to put it politely without cussing.
#5
Is anybody else being barraged by Michael Bloomburg? I am getting 2 to 3 mailings a day. At least a text a day. And probaly phone calls (I do not answer unless I recognize the number). In Russia they are called Oligarchs. In the USA they are called Billionaires. They are one in the same.
#6
Fortunately he has shown no interest in me over here. Are you in a state having a primary or causus soon?
#7
Tried to answer the other day but could not log in. Live in Super Tuesday state. Colorado, a Bernie state. Voted like 2 weeks ago though by mail. Colorado has its act together on voting.
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...and now, more from MAGA Land on Bizarro World:
NEWS FLASH: Your "president" (not mine) -- that orange, puffy-eyed, flimflam buffoon who lied to you 17,000 times in 3 years -- waddled up to the podium to assure a numbed-out nation (at least his hopelessly deluded base) that "everything is totally, totally under control, very, very good, really, really great. Believe me. Believe me. Huh, you mean that people can actually die from the flu? Wow, didn't know that. Who cares." (Baghdad Bob put on a better performance.)
Translation: Oh please, oh please, oh please, c'mon, baby, make daddy happy, blow on the dice, make the stock go up -- my only hope!
So don't worry your pretty little MAGA heads over the fake pandemic. Just don't breathe on me, you filthy, infected little people. And no shaking hands on the campaign trail, goddamnit!
Gotta keep the rich rich and the big donors happy. Gotta fire up my red-hatted lunatics. Thank God that's easy. Ask Limbaugh. The useful idiots, the damn fools -- to them, the outside reality staring them in the face is just a hoax to bring down the stock market, an elaborate, hyped-up conspiracy by the wicked DemocRATs to take down Trump. (We only wish.)
Because it's not about other people suffering and dying; it's always about me, me, me -- tweeting on the toilet, preening in the mirror, lying to the cameras, playing golf, charging the taxpayers, clinging to money and power, staying out of jail, barely. "F*ckface Von Clownstick."
And always, always blame the DemocRATs and media for my own words and actions and breathtaking failures as a fake president and severely damaged human being.
Oh yeah: Let's put religious wacko Mike Pence in charge of the evil coronavirus; he's expendable. (I mean, really expendable ...wink, wink.) Pray it away, whatever, Lil Mikie; just keep any responsibility and negative coverage away from me, me, me.