#single-payer

Rationing Health Care

You can find the transcript and a post discussing the issue and also the things I like and hate about my drawing here. If you're the first person to spot the cameo appearance by a Peanuts character, you'll win a billion dollars! Honest! Would I lie?

Ok so: honest to God I intended this to be fannish--maybe something about the complete linguistic butchery of "representation" which could still be a fun post to do. But right now, here at one A.M., when I finally have a chance to answer this, I'm salty as fuck about the American health care system. Specifically, the total lack of dental coverage for low-income adults, and how, due to completely inadequate coverage, charities are trying to fill a hole for a huge chunk of the population that's so vast that the rest of the fortunately covered have a wide variety of carriers and options, precisely because! of what a market it is.

The 2011 census, something like 46 million people live in poverty. Now, you can chop about eighteen million out of the dental pool, cause they're under eighteen, and thank fuck that even in deeply red states, those people's dental are covered. (Now, I'm speaking very specifically from a red-state perspective, and I pray it's better than this in blue states.)

In your typical red state, you're fucked once you pass eighteen in terms of dental care. And dental care without insurance is...I once had a family member who was reasonably financially solvent do me the extreme kindness of paying for a filling at a reputable dentist. We walked out the door, and they looked me dead in the eye and said: "That's the last time I can do that. It's completely wiped out my emergency funds for the next couple months."

I've been having ongoing if infrequent pain in my lower jaw since Thanksgiving, and I did what most poor folk do. I gargled with saltwater, brushed my teeth more frequently, and prayed that whatever it was would just please god go the fuck away. Fast-forward to today:I wake up, and oh holy shit pain is back, but it's so, so much worse. Queue desperate attempts at remedies. Nothing works.

I tentatively start exploring my mouth and oh I'm so fucked it looks like there's a tiny piece of my tooth that's actually broken off. So: can't go to emergency dentistry; familial aid's completely out, for various personal reasons and I don't have the money.

So, face feeling like it was low-key being drilled into with an icepick, I got online and found a list of low-cost options. On Monday, I'll call and grill all of 'em, about fillings and god forbid, maybe crowns. And then I'll pick the one that's cheapest; irregardless of appointment back-log. And then I'll spend the next couple weeks taking advil to sleep. Because I guarantee you the backlog will be that long.

And feeling profoundly fortunate; I, after all, can still eat on the other side, and my frequent brushing's kept it from becoming infected. There's no abscess; I can wait without fear of more than profoundly awful pain, and I'm privileged enough to have gotten thorough education in proper oral care, such that in the near-decade in which I haven't been covered, this's the only serious problem I've had. I know there're many. many people who aren't nearly as fortunate.

But when professional pundits wisely do the equivalent of beard-stroking and talk about how medicare-for-all, even with its dental and long-term care benefits that would be fucking revolutionary for most folks is an election killer, because republicans gonna fucking republican and spout BS, without taking into account that we can counterattack, it makes me rage. They don't have to live like this; no one should’ve had the day I’ve had. Absolutely no one. But for it to be happening in the richest country in the world is such a ludicrously dystopian level of horror that if I wronte it in a novel, people would tell me it was unrealistic, that there simply had to be more of a safetynet than this.

And part of the reason, frankly, that this horror persists is the immense cultural shame poor folks are burdened with. It’s considered gauche to discuss financial trials; too traumatic for the people around you hearing about them, and something we’re raised from the cradle to know would make others look at us with pity and a little bit of:why can’t you get your shit together??

One of the big arguments against the individual mandate (the now-overturned clause of the Affordable Care Act that required everybody to purchase insurance) is that we shouldn't force people who don't want health insurance to buy it.

Who doesn't want health insurance? That is, if you polled the general public and asked them, "In the event of an illness or injury, would you like to pay your medical bills out of pocket, or would you like to have them covered?" is there any human who is going to say that they'd prefer to pay their own way?

Are there people who need to spend their money on more immediately pressing concerns than a safety net that protects them in the event of an illness or injury that hasn't happened yet? Of course. But to characterize a young, healthy, poor person as someone who "doesn't want health insurance" is disingenuous. If that health insurance were made available to them for free or very cheap - as it would be in a single-payer system funded by a graduated tax - they would not turn it down. The issue is that the price tag is currently too high.

Four Glasses of Wine per Night Helpful: Study

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Goals Are Stupid: New England Medical Journal

You Can Use Straws Again; We’ve Learned Not to Eat Them: Dolphins

I Fiiiiinally Get Mansplaining: Men

30 Movies a Month Was the Sweet Spot: MoviePass

Thank U, Next: The Electorate

Mueller To Be Sanctified: Pope

Organized medicine, and previous generations of doctors, had for the most part staunchly opposed to any such plan. The AMA has thwarted public health insurance proposals since the 1930s and long been considered one of the policy’s most powerful opponents.

In his 50 years of teaching, students’ attitudes have changed: “The ‘Oh, keep government out of my work’ feeling is not as strong as it was with maybe older cohorts,” said Schroeder. “Students come in saying, ‘We want to make a difference through social justice. That’s why we’re here.’”

Though “single-payer” health care was long dismissed as a left-wing pipe dream, polling suggests a slim majority of Americans now support the idea — though it is not clear people know what the term means.

Meanwhile, lots of countries achieve universal health care — everyone is covered somehow — but the method can vary. For example, France requires all citizens purchase coverage, which is sold through nonprofits. In Germany, most people get insurance from a government-run “public option,” while others purchase private plans. In England, health care is provided through the tax-funded National Health System.

Some of the shift in opinion has to do with the changing realities of medical practice. Doctors now are more likely to end up working for large health systems or hospitals, rather than starting individual practices. Combined with the increasing complexity of billing private insurance, many said, that means contracting with the government may feel like less of an intrusion.

Also, doctors represent only one part of the sprawling health care industrial complex. Other health care interests — including private insurance, the drug industry and hospital trade groups — have been slower to warm to catchphrases like single-payer or universal health care, all of which would likely mean a drop in income.

 [ https://twitter.com/i/moments/913465693403787266 ]

George Martin Fell Brown | Socialist Alternative | December 8th 2017 On November 7 Maine voters approved a ballot measure to expand Medicaid health care coverage. About 268,000 people currently receive Medicaid in Maine, called MaineCare. It is estimated 70-80,000 more people will be eligible for coverage. The ballot measure passed overwhelmingly by 20 percentage points, and is seen as a rebuke to both President Trump […]

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