British guess cost of US Health care (5 minutes)

Note this video is 4 years old:

The corporate media pretty much sets the agenda for our elections. Understanding that “corporate” media is also a nice way of saying that the media is controlled by leadership that bends a knee to the Republican (now MAGA) Party. 

The agenda that the corporate media has set for this year includes 1) making immigrants into a super evil entity in this country 2) misogyny (Hatred of women) 3) ignoring DonOLD Trump’s criminal background and 4) the make-believe tales that MAGAs invent out of whole cloth that corporate media features to divert from real issues.

So I want to remind readers that there are real issues. Two issues in particular have been almost completely ignored and subsumed by the corporate media I guess in an attempt to avoid bringing them up because MAGAs are so awful on them. One is health care that I will say a few things on today. The other is climate change which I will discuss tomorrow.

I was reminded this week of what a gawd-awful system of health care the USA has. As I have said before we get half the care of other countries at more than twice the price. In health care the USA is in a class by itself in what I would call a fourth world country.

We pay for a Rolls Royce and get a Yugo. The US does not really have a system. It is more of bunch of disconnected entities that do not function together. Rather than a holistic approach to a person in medical need it is much more of a series of mechanics specializing in a single part or system. And then there are the payments for those services that are another structure outside but attached to the health care system.

The US has arrived at this state due to some untouchable political issues that politicians have been exploiting for centuries. One is of course racism. Using disinformation and misinformation since the first ships with slaves came from Africa racism has colored many political decisions in this country. One of course is who “deserves” health care.

Another force in creating this god-awful mess is religion. Once again we have people who is worthy of getting health care and whether a certain procedure fits within a given religion’s doctrines. For example, no abortions in Catholic hospitals. 

One other stopper is the recognition by the MAGA Party that if Americans were able to get universal health care, then MAGAs would have a hard time winning any election at any level. Thus stopping any upgrade to health care is at the top of any MAGA playbook. 

Finally and probably most significant is money, especially these days the role of “insurance.” These days some bureaucrat sitting in a corner office makes decisions on whether a procedure will be done or not. Often the most significant question to be answered by the bureaucrat is the insurance company’s financial position and not the patient’s health or the doctor’s statements.

That is probably the worst part of the situation, but there is also the role of the specialist and whether or not they will take insurance or government sponsored coverage. Just to add to that there is also the variety of doctors specializing in eyes or teeth who are not covered by insurance. For an individual, it is overwhelming.

An individual these days almost fears a trip to the doctor’s office for fear that something will be uncovered that will wipe out their life savings despite having medical insurance as some bureaucrat decided to procedure wasn’t needed or wasn’t covered. So the choice is lose your life savings or maybe your life.

I could expand on the above scenario forever. Many reading this no doubt have their own horror story of having to make a decision for themselves or their child. Whatever the case we have to ask ourselves – why in a political system where we (the people) supposedly are the ones who decide what we can do for ourselves – do we put up with such an antiquated, expensive system?

We have the power to change it. Even though health care as a specific topic is not on the ballot this year, you can be assured that it is on the candidates for office issues list. And it is not hard to figure out who is on what side. Democrats are on the side of creating a universal health care system that will save us huge money while delivering vastly better outcomes.

MAGAs on the other hand, are greatly in favor of our current antiquated system that wastes money, discriminates, and puts huge, huge returns in the pockets of insurance companies that have nothing to do with your health outcome. But they do have a lot to do with access to the system and your monetary outcome.

It only makes sense that America upgrade its health system to be the best in the world. We can do it if we want to. And that begins by voting for Democrats this fall from the White House to the court house. From Kamala Harris to your local legislator.