• Zoboomafoo@slrpnk.net
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    40 minutes ago

    That’s nothing compared to the unaccountable trillions that disappear into the military-industrial complex

  • Juice@midwest.social
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    5 hours ago

    That’s what taxes are for: private gains, socialized losses. Mfs out here thinking taxes are for social infrastructure – if social infrastructure isn’t making a few wealthy individuals a lot of money, or guaranteed to do so, the government can’t afford it.

  • btaf45@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    Medicare Disadvantage Plans suck money out of the system from 3 different sides.

    (1) They cost the government more money per patient than real Medicare

    (2) They falsely denied 18% of valid claims according to Medicare’s Inspector General. They also screw customers by denying people specialists , requiring prior approvals etc.

    (3) They cost providers more money by increasing the manpower they need to get their payments by throwing up hassles.

    “Medicare Brokers” get gigantic commissions (not just the first year but EVERY year someone is on the same plan) to push Medicare Disadvantage Plans on people who don’t know any better.

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
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    12 hours ago

    There is a solution. Tax ultramillionaires and billionaires and corporations at 1950’s 93% rate, fully fund comprehensive health, no co-payment, no deductible, including at least annual preventative visits.

    • SuiXi3D@fedia.io
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      11 hours ago

      We very specifically need single-payer universal healthcare. One of the biggies issues with healthcare is the sheer number of different insurers. Knock it down to just Medicare and give it to literally everyone. Period.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
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        11 hours ago

        Yes, and fully funded is also key, because Medicare rates are ridiculously low.

        • medgremlin@midwest.social
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          11 hours ago

          It’s appalling how much we have to alter treatment plans based on Medicare rates. If someone doesn’t have a supplement plan, they probably won’t be able to afford the new medications that are MASSIVE improvements on the old ones. It’s so frustrating to have to try to cobble together a treatment regimen for congestive heart failure or type 2 diabetes without being able to use the new medications because Medicare doesn’t cover enough of the cost for the patient to be able to afford it. It also affects how long a patient can be hospitalized and figuring out the requirements to make sure they qualify for rehab after hospitalization is aneurysm-inducing.

          • Maeve@kbin.earth
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            11 hours ago

            Yes. It’s frustrating for everyone involved except those who profit from such s a convoluted system. I’m sure handing a terminally ill patient a Medicare waiver is absolutely heart-wrenching. When I worked ICU hall in the nursing home, back when two CNAs were actually required per fifty patients, and worked in teams, I can’t tell you how many were quickly burned out from being disheartened by having five minutes or less to dress immobile patients, or from having to restrain patients to keep them from scratching shingles outbreaks, or being unable to find a nurse available to suction patients with death-rattle.

            • medgremlin@midwest.social
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              11 hours ago

              I just finished my second family medicine rotation and it’s just so ass-backwards because if we could give them the medication they need, they won’t end up in hospitals/ICUs/long term care facilities/etc. The new medications are incredible drugs and can vastly improve the quality and quantity of life for patients with diseases like diabetes, heart failure, renal failure, and more…if the patients can afford them, which they frequently cannot.

              • MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net
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                42 minutes ago

                if we could give them the medication they need, they won’t end up in hospitals/ICUs/long term care facilities/etc.

                How are we supposed to extract what’s left of their value unless they’re in said facilities?

                Typing that out made me throw up in my mouth a bit.

              • Maeve@kbin.earth
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                11 hours ago

                Oh so you’ve got a double dose of burnout, from overwork and trying to navigate the system. I’m sorry. What general region are you in? Wondering if we can somehow work together on getting universal passed?

                • medgremlin@midwest.social
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                  9 hours ago

                  I’m a third year medical student in the Midwest. I’m aiming to do my residency in Minnesota, either Emergency Med or Family Med because apparently I like doing social work and hate my sanity or something.

    • ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      You don’t really even need to fund single payer healthcare. The U.S. spends twice as much on healthcare as other developed countries already. You just have to nationalize the insurance companies, which can cost as much as you’d like. There a no law of physics preventing it.

        • krashmo@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          It’s already allocated to healthcare, that’s the point. Instead of paying a huge insurance premium to a useless middleman you pay the government a medium tax amount.

          If we changed nothing else at all besides who actually gets what you already pay it would still be significantly cheaper. If your insurance provider gets nationalized you could even cut a check to the same entity you do now.

          • Maeve@kbin.earth
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            5 hours ago

            No, those fraudster are how we got into this Mrs anyway. They can be taxed back down to regular wealth, their exorbitant extra homes sold, and we can use that money to pay for nice things for the whole public, like addressing causes of despair, correcting infrastructure, providing quality education for everyone, cleaning up pollution, food, farming, rehabilitation for offenders of all sorts, and everything else we sold ourselves for that we didn’t get properly done because we slept on ourselves.

  • btaf45@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    There is a also a SECOND medicare scam from the GOP for people who wisely avoid Medicare Disadvantage called “Accountable Care Organizations”. The bottom line is that you cannot trust your primary doctor’s advice on when to seek a specialist because they pay doctors to discourage you from seeking a specialist when you need one. They don’t give you a choice about belonging to an ACO but they do have to notify you when they stick you in an ACO, so at least you know when your primary doctor has a financial incentive to discourage you from getting treatment.

    https://surgerycenterok.com/blog/scam-series-pay-for-performance/

  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
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    11 hours ago

    These companies thus make much of their profit by routinely denying claims — 1.5 million, or 18 percent of all claims, were turned down in one year alone

    they profit when human beings literally suffer, and we have all collectively decided this is ok for some reason