Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

Corporate America | Healthcare Policy
by Richard Eskow | June 19, 2022 - 6:55am


Imagine waking up to a headline that reads, "Atlanta Demolished by Nuclear Bomb," and learning that the city's 498,715 residents were dead. The shock to our society would be unimaginable. And yet, we just learned that the American health system killed more people than that in the last two years alone and hardly anyone noticed. The fact that we've also wasted more than a trillion dollars barely merits an afterthought.

The figures are laid out in a new report from the National Academy of Sciences. The goal of the report is to calculate how many lives we could have saved and how much less money we would have spent if a single-payer health system had been in place before the COVID-19 pandemic. Its conclusion? More than 338,000 lives would have been saved between January 2020 and March 2022, and the country would have saved more than $105 billion in hospital expenses.

But that's just part of the story. Even without a pandemic, the authors conclude that we would have experienced 77,675 needless deaths and added costs of $438 billion every year because we've refused to adopt a single-payer system. If we multiply those numbers by 2.25 (for January 2020-March 2022) and add them to the Covid losses, that tells us how much our privatized system has cost us since the pandemic began: 513,363 needless deaths, and $1,007,400,000 in wasted money. (Plus even more since the end of March.)

For a country that claims to hate fiscal irresponsibility, that's sure a lot of wasted money. And for a country that claims to cherish life, that's sure a lot of needless death.

No, wait. "Needless death" is far too genteel a term for what we're doing. I've used the term "negligence" to describe deaths like these in the past, but that's too mild, too. "Human sacrifice" is better.

513,363. That's more than the population of Atlanta. Or Minneapolis, Minnesota. Or Miami, Florida. Or Kansas City, Missouri. Or Omaha, Nebraska. Bakersfield, Tampa, Tulsa. New Orleans, Cleveland, Honolulu, Cincinnati ...

I could go on, but you get the idea.

The million-plus lives we've lost in the pandemic should have convinced us that the life-and-death question of health care is ... well, a life-and-death question. It should also have disabused us of the notion that it is 'moderate' to reject single-payer care and stick with the current, lethal system instead.

That's not 'moderate.' It's murderous.

For the politicians who support the current system, don't worry. I'm sure we can figure out how to retain its most distinguishing features once we've moved to single-payer healthcare. For example, we could nuke a different American city once a year, and send half a billion dollars to United Health, Aetna, Anthem and Cigna at the same time. That would preserve the primary outcomes of the system you're so eager to embrace.

It does leave a thorny question, however. How big should our target cities be? The size of the cities listed above reflects losses during the pandemic. Won't the kill rate go down when the pandemic passes?

The answer to that question depends on whether the pandemic ever passes and whether there will be new disease catastrophes to follow. The way we're handling this one, it's possible we could be in pandemic territory forever. But, fair is fair. Let's go with the more conservative number and target smaller cities.

In non-pandemic years, the US healthcare kill rate is roughly 75-80,000, so we could plan on targeting cities of roughly that size until the next variant arises. The president's home town of Scranton, PA qualifies. So does my home town of Utica, NY. We should all share the sacrifice, so that seems only fair.

What other cities are eligible? Wilmington, Delaware? Check. Duluth, Minnesota? You're up. Flint, Michigan? Oh, wait, we've already sacrificed you. Youngstown, Ohio... Camden, New Jersey... Gary, Indiana... We've already abandoned a lot of these cities economically, so the big corporations will hardly miss them. To the people who run this economy, the people there are already excess human inventory.

Or, here's another thought: We could stop murdering our own population en masse. We could adopt single-payer healthcare and devote ourselves to saving lives and resources, rather than churning profits for Wall Street investors and wealthy executives.

Some people will call that idea radical, but it sounds pretty moderate to me.

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Smedley_buzkill

So your solution is to put our health care under the control of unelected, unaccountable, overpaid and underbrained, bureaucrat pissants?

Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

It was working just fine as a nonprofit entity.
Everyone who needed care , got care.
For profit sucks at least 40% of money spent off the top .
Profit.
Is different than
Non Profit.

David L Loc: Central Wisconsin

Health Freedom is the answer to the problem. If the covid mess taught us anything, it's that the unholy alliance of big pharma and corrupt politicians is a deadly combination. We witnessed the vicious prosecution and persecution of any doctor who actually CURED covid and told the truth about traitor Fauci and other corrupt officials.

And as we speak, there is a bill being pushed by the above mentioned criminals that would severely restrict access to nutritional and other non drug health protocols.

For anyone who believes that Govt. controlled health care is the answer needs to listen to people such as myself that got well IN SPITE of big pharma and not because of it. Mine is a long story and I might tell it some day, but to summarize, I was told 22 years ago that I would only live a few more years, and then only if I took a hand full of rugs every day. SO I went the natural route, and now I am drug free and enjoy EXCELLENT health. Did not get the covid vaccine either, and never will.

son of witless

And we should believe this horse manure because why ???????????????????????????

Gatsby

Preventable medical mistakes kill far more Americans than lack of medical "care". Bark up that tree first.

A recent report by the Journal of Patient Safety indicates that between 200,000 and 440,000 people are killed each year in the United States from preventable medical errors.

https://4patientsafety.org/2018/11/29/medical-errors-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-each-year-in-the-us/

Big Bass

You are a bolshevik. No doubt you begrudge the medical staff (doctors and nurses) their pay. As it is, I believe nurses are grossly underpaid for the job they do.

permafrost Loc: Minnesota

Im never disapointed when I expect the right wing trump mob to call for the end of civilization..

Even after it has killed well over one million Americans, they can not find in themselves to do the smallest possible effort to protect anyone else..

If the black death was still lethal, they would demand the freedom to give it to all others who did not want it..

such foolishness in the face of facts is hard to find even among the normally deranged right wingers.. these fools are a breed unto themselves..

LogicallyRight Loc: Chicago

Yep. That meme describes you and millie well.

David L Loc: Central Wisconsin

You are very good at IGNORING facts.

David L Loc: Central Wisconsin

A nurse is an angel with a strong stomach

Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

There was no problem with pay before the industry was privatized.
Once privatized , the staff was cut , hospital floors were closed as inoperable,
Employees were fired and hired back at lower pay and less benefits .
Oh the lovely people you choose to defend.
I am not a Bolshevik. Nor have I ever been a Bolshevik.
We don’t allow communists on the property.
Same is winding up for Fascists.
American Taliban
White evangelical terrorists.
Supremacists
And
Nazis , of course.

Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

No that is not my plan. That sounds more like your hair brained idea.
Medicare has been successful. Those who have it are happy to have it.
Extend this program to everyone.
Quickly because as we sit Medicare is being taken away from you and being replaced with a less enduring option that suddenly you can’t afford , again.
Called Medicare Advantage .
People who dined up for are suddenly losing their asses. Higher medical bills is forcing them to open go fund me sites to help pay for their life threatening healthcare.
This would be different than turning your healthcare options over to
A fat bald white guy who already makes too much money , and doesn’t care if you die.

Kickaha Loc: Nebraska

The single payer system sounds good and for a few it is. But for the vast majority it is a disaster, advanced treatment protocols are slow to be implemented because of the increase in costs. Resources are limited, so it becomes necessary to ration medical care. Treatments end up being delayed and what was a relatively minor problem has escalated to serious, life threatening or even terminal because the patient had to wait months or even years for the treatment.

Big Bass

Especially the ones that looked after me.👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👌👌