Riiight

[Mark J D]

But you know, FREEDOM. And people just roll over and die clinging to their delusions of how free they are. Morons.

What is actually free in the US is *private capital*; and a guiding principle of US imperialism is that US-based capital should be free everywhere else in the world also.

And, since private capital has the freedom to dominate every aspect of life in the US, including education and media, it inevitably transpires that anything that *might limit* the powers and freedoms of concentrated private wealth automatically becomes something the general population is taught to hate and fear.

M.

[Pcdunn]

Awhile ago, I called a mobile vet to look at one of my previous cats, and she told me a horror story about dealing with the same health care provider I go to, and have for years.

The Asian-American vet said she injured her wrist lifting a big dog up to exam him, and went to a doctor. They "refused" to look at the injury, wouldn't prescribe anything or give her a referral elsewhere. I was stunned, as I couldn't imagine my provider being so callous.

You know, I think I can finally explain why her experience was so different from mine. I have health insurance, first through my work, now on Medicare. But she is self-employed, and likely not covered by insurance.

Sad. And probably far more common in the USA than we know. .

[Ally]

How does a society come to be that sick?

M.

Most Americans don't even realize the full extent of how much we are getting screwed either. For example, a person near and dear to me, who fortunately is able to afford insurance, has cancer for which he takes oral chemotherapy and will have to do so, probably for the remainder of his life. During the time when it looked like the pre-existing clause of health insurance was going to be overturned (Obama signed a law that said insurance companies couldn't deny you because of a pre-existing condition, and the Republicans literally tried to overturn this law something like 65 times and fortunately failed) but anyway, we were exploring avenues of how we could pay for his medication, if the law was overturned and insurance was dropped.

Price of Medication in the USA without insurance: $12,000 per MONTH. But you could fly to any other country in the world, Canada, India and the UK and get it, without insurance for $3,000 a month. Which is still a ridiculous gank, but it's freaking ludicrous to think that we're paying four times the amount of money for the same damn medication in "FREEDOM LAND!!" than they pay anywhere else in the world. It would literally have been cheaper to move to an entirely new country and pay out of pocket for all medical expenses than stay in America. But you know, FREEDOM. And people just roll over and die clinging to their delusions of how free they are. Morons.

[Pcdunn]

As briefly as possible: socialized medicine wouldn't be buying services from businesses that siphoned that public money into a rabbit-warren of boardroom bonuses and stockholder payouts...

M.

Good. That stuff is terrible. I'm sure it led to the painkiller addiction epidemic now wreaking havoc in this country.

[Mark J D]

Maybe. I'm no economics student, truth be told. Numbers frighten me.

As briefly as possible: socialized medicine wouldn't be buying services from businesses that siphoned that public money into a rabbit-warren of boardroom bonuses and stockholder payouts...

M.

[Mark J D]

... the people who are getting it the worst are the ones who keep begging to be beat. It boggles my damn mind.

One of my old jobs was at a UK university that had pioneered 'occupational health' services for employees decades ago. We were still in touch with an immensely elderly medic who'd played a major role in this advance in combination with working in the US. He said that what he never, ever understood was how *even the medical students* he taught over there were possessed by the unchallengeable conviction that *no-one should get medical treatment unless they had the wherewithal to pay for it*. How does a society come to be that sick?

M.

[Ally]

Does this not look less like 'socialized medicine' and more like 'the increased corporate capture of government spending'?

M.

Don't even get me started on the amount of money the government gives insurance companies to deny people health coverage. It pisses me off extremely. I could rant for days. Americans are getting SCREWED by Insurance and Pharmaceutical companies to a ridiculous degree in this country and the people who are getting it the worst are the ones who keep begging to be beat. It boggles my damn mind. The insurance company I pay hundreds to denied my claim, okay let me go beg my just as poor friends to pay for my health needs while we all post memes about how Democrats and Socialism are destroying the country. I don't have a week that goes by without having some American friend/family/acquaintance/friend of a friend begging for money to fund healthcare needs and I've only ever had that happen once with any person living in a socialized medicine country and that was to pay for an experimental drug that wasn't approved. It's ... ridiculous.

[Pcdunn]

well, they MAY have been had the Trump adminisration followed the run-book that was left to them from previous administrations.

The one that was supposedly tossed in the trash can?

[Pcdunn]

Does this not look less like 'socialized medicine' and more like 'the increased corporate capture of government spending on a public health pretext'?

M.

Maybe. I'm no economics student, truth be told. Numbers frighten me.

[Mark J D]

well, they MAY have been had the Trump adminisration followed the run-book that was left to them from previous administrations.

My analysis was actually that the US is never able properly to acknowledge the catastrophic mediocrity of its healthcare services and institutions.

M.

[Mark J D]

Aren't we *already* tending toward socialized medicine, with the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters being free to all comers, and now plans being made for free N95 masks (4 to a household!) and free COVID-19 home test kits? Yeah, just so.

Does this not look less like 'socialized medicine' and more like 'the increased corporate capture of government spending on a public health pretext'?

M.

[Svensson]

I sat roaring with laughter at a Forbes graphic that proudly displayed the outrageous fantasy that the US was *number one in the world* for ability to handle a pandemic. Our hilarity proved absolutely realistic. A land of *make-believe*...

dcara9cl05j41.jpg (960×1440) (redd.it)

M.

well, they MAY have been had the Trump adminisration followed the run-book that was left to them from previous administrations.

[Ally]

It’s reminiscent of the tactic that was used by many to denigrate Darwin’s research and findings.

Well of course, because my opinion and my belief matters more than facts. Therefore your facts are wrong. Duh.

For the rest, it must be two years since my ex- and I sat roaring with laughter at a Forbes graphic that proudly displayed the outrageous fantasy that the US was *number one in the world* for ability to handle a pandemic. Our hilarity proved absolutely realistic.

dcara9cl05j41.jpg (960×1440) (redd.it)

M.

Well to be fair that graphic was ranked in 2019 and they were probably still going off the metrics from *before* Trump disbanded the Pandemic response team in 2018. Because pandemics are a thing of the past you know. They don't happen now. This is all a hoax, fake news, and JFK is coming back to lead us all into a glorious future. Or something.

[Pcdunn]

Aren't we *already* tending toward socialized medicine, with the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters being free to all comers, and now plans being made for free N95 masks (4 to a household!) and free COVID-19 home test kits? Yeah, just so.

Anti-vaccine sentiment has a lot to do with misguided information offered about a decade ago about childhood immunizations leading to autism. It's based on an observation of two things: That *some* young children who received their regular vaccines on schedule, *then* began to display symptoms of autism or other developmental irregularities. Never mind that no connection between the two has been proved in, oh, a scientific study somewhere. Nor that the early childhood vaccine schedule just may coincide with when autism symptoms begin to be seen.

Others, particularly minorities, distrust the government health system because of covert atrocities done to their ancestors-- including the forced sterilization of Native American, Latina, and Black women under the guise of "health care."

I support a socialized health care system in this country, but the battle will be very hard. Especially with the Republican Senate today clinging to the filibuster of 60 votes needed to pass, period. Who remembers the plain "talking filibuster"? Let them talk, then vote, majority gets it, whether sixty or not.

The election rights debacle annoys me, and only points out that Republicans want their power more than to preserve democracy. Exactly what they claim about Democrats.

I think Republicans want to preserve racism, while claiming the opposite. (This is an opinion.)

[Mark J D]

The boy can't even answer a simple question, asked repeatedly and given days to think about it . Don't confuse the issue Mark!

If the recording is still online and findable, you may derive amusement from the awkward moment that ensued a decade or so back when one of the US ruling elite said in a TV interview that the US military had socialized medicine because 'they need to have the very best' (or some such expression). Clearly, 'the very best' meant 'treatment according to need and free at the point of delivery', not 'treatment except when the money has been given to stockholders and you don't have the means to pay'.

For the rest, it must be two years since my ex- and I sat roaring with laughter at a Forbes graphic that proudly displayed the outrageous fantasy that the US was *number one in the world* for ability to handle a pandemic. Our hilarity proved absolutely realistic. A land of *make-believe*...

dcara9cl05j41.jpg (960×1440) (redd.it)

M.