Folks, we need Medicare for all. Yesterday I read a heartbreaking story about a breast cancer survivor who had a new bout with a different kind of cancer caused by her implants. Then today I read that Miss USA made the shocking statement that healthcare is a privilege and had to make some comments.
Health care must be a right. It is essential that Americans understand that our medical system does not have to be inhumane as they have programmed us to accept.
A few days ago I read an article in my local paper about a guy who would lose his mom’s house after she died because Texas billed for all her Medicaid expenses. I wanted to get that word out for folks who were unaware that Texas and other states could do this.
I wrote a post titled “You better understand that Medicaid may take all of your inheritance” to inform. I posted it on my Facebook page and the Coffee Party USA Facebook page. It was incredible to see the number of comments of people who had the same experience as the man in the article. What was incredulous is the number of people that are comfortable with the idea that one has to be destitute to qualify for any health care assistance. Worse some believe it is OK for the state to recoup Medicaid bills from the dead person’s estate depriving their offspring of any accumulated assets of any kind.
Yesterday I read the New York Times article titled “A Shocking Diagnosis: Breast Implants ‘Gave Me Cancer’” in which implants inserted in breast cancer survivors caused cancer other than breast cancer years later. The rough outside texture used for stability in the breast implants seem to exacerbate the condition. The following segment in the article should upset us all.
Late last year, an alliance of cancer centers, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, issued treatment guidelines. Experts agree that the essential first step is to remove the implant and the entire capsule of scar tissue around it. Otherwise, the disease is likely to recur, and the prognosis to worsen.
Not all women have been able to get the recommended treatment. Kimra Rogers, 50, a nursing assistant in Caldwell, Idaho, learned last May that she had lymphoma, from textured implants she had for more than 10 years. But instead of removing the implants and capsules immediately, her doctor prescribed six rounds of chemotherapy and 25 rounds of radiation. A year later, she still has the implants.
“Unfortunately, my doctor didn’t know the first line of defense,” Ms. Rogers said.
She learned about the importance of having the implants removed only from other women in a Facebook group for those with the disease.Her health insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana, covered the chemotherapy and radiation but has refused to pay for removal of the implants, and told her that her appeal rights were “exhausted.” In a statement sent to The New York Times, a spokesman said, “Cosmetic breast implants are a contract exclusion, as are any services related to complications of the cosmetic breast implants, including implant removal and reconstruction.”
Physicians dispute that reasoning, saying the surgery is needed to treat cancer. Her lawyer, Graham Newman, from Columbia, S.C., said he was planning a lawsuit against the implant makers, and had about 20 other clients with breast-implant lymphoma from Australia, Canada, England and the United States.
Ms. Rogers has been unable to work for a year. If she has to pay to have the implants removed, it will mean taking out a $12,000 loan. “But it’s worth my life,” she said.
The above is what happens in a segmented health care system when each insurer tries to minimize their costs to increase profits for the shareholders and bonuses for the executives. Our system is insane, immoral, and nothing more than a way to take money away from us all and put it into the pockets of a few.
Think about this. America goes to war all of the time. We got to war under various pretexts, but ultimately it is to safeguard commerce. When was the last time that corporations were asked to pay extra for the wars that benefit them? When the banking system crashed, we afforded bankers billions in the form of very-low-interest rates, quantitative easing, and more. These policies hurt many savers. It was yet another form of wealth transfer from the masses to the few.
Middle-class, working-class, and poor America always lose. We pay extremely high prices for prescription drugs that taxpayers help developed yet get nothing back from the huge profits they amass.
It is time to rid ourselves of private insurance companies. They serve no purpose other than a middleman skimming our premiums and keeping some profits for a few by denying coverage. It does not take rocket science to pay a bill. It is time for the treasury to take the portions of drug profits consummate with the research taxpayers paid for throughout the years.
Single-payer Medicare for all the only answer
Donald Trump and Paul Ryan are playing with the lives of every poor and middle-class American. As MSNBC’s Ali Velshi explained, the free market does not work for health insurance, period. Chuck Todd recently pointed out that the new plan decimates coverage for all but mostly to the Trump voter.
Learn why Single-Payer/Medicare-For-All is our future.
Call your Senators and Congressional Representatives every day and let them know you do not want the Affordable Care Act repealed. Also tell them they must support H.R. 676, Medicare-for-all. If you are not sure how to get in touch with them, then click here.