Showing posts tagged Health Care

Study: Medicaid may lower death rates

invisiblelad:

tinfoilandtea:

If there’s one common gripe about Medicaid – aside from its growing price tag – it tends to be about the program’s quality. “Medicaid coverage is worse than no coverage at all,” one Wall Street Journal op-ed declared last year. Sen. Robert Corker  (R-Tenn.) dubbed the entitlement program the “worst health care system in America.” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) did him one better, describing Medicaid as a “health care gulag.”

There’s just one small problem with these claims: A growing body of research is suggesting they aren’t true. And the most recent piece of evidence is a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, published Wednesday, finding Medicaid expansions to be associated with lower state death rates.

Duh. 

Wait. So having access to health care…lowers death rates? So if this is true, then would more people having health care mean less people die needlessly? This is all such a new concept to some people I suspect they may need to sit down to absorb it all. 

(Reblogged from invisiblelad)
“
Mitt Romney said the White House wasn’t sleeping well last night. You know who else wasn’t sleeping well? The mother with a child who has leukemia. The recent college grad who’s unemployed and thinking about making a doctor’s appointment. The grandfather who isn’t sure if he’ll be able to afford the prescription medication he needs. The middle-class family who isn’t sure if they’ll be able to keep their home if their medical bills broach the lifetime cap “Obamacare” eliminated. What would Romney and his bravado do for each of them? Nothing.

Rachel Maddow (via many-worlds)

Beautiful

(via peopledontalwayssuck)

I think I’m going to reblog this every day. The anxiety people I know feel about unforseen health problems is crippling, and the alternatives to the problematically dubbed “Obamacare” besides repealing it? Nothing whatsoever. What does it say about a political party that sees a situation profoundly effecting huge swaths of the population and offering nothing as a response?

(via invisiblelad)

(Reblogged from invisiblelad)

Truth from my friend:

14kgoldnyc:

“On the other hand, I feel like a puppet. Because the Republicans moved so far too the right that they made me believe that their former right position was left, and here all us liberals and progressives are cheering for an originally Republican plan. I still feel like the Republicans are controlling our reality, and I’m still angry that the Democrats let them by not speaking progressive truth clearly to the American people.”

(Source: aka14kgold)

(Reblogged from iwantpasserbytodestroyme)

Does anyone understand Palin’s word salad tweet?

invisiblelad:

aatombomb:

He said what wasn’t a tax? Healthcare itself? Maybe I’m missing the nuance here, but Obama obviously agrees with the Court that his own legislation is Constitutional, right? And the Court just decided that striking down the mandate would be an implicit tax on the insured, right? So we all agree we shouldn’t tax the insured, right? So how does this make Obama a liar?

Seriously, what is that woman huffing out there?

I generally wouldn’t want to be the one responsible for sussing out the logic in the subtext (one assumes it has to be somewhere, right?)…but you’re reading it the way I did. Oh I weep for the loss of freedom that comes with…letting people die prematurely. 

Heaven help me but I do understand what she means. President Obama pledged that the Affordable Care Act would be paid for without raising taxes. Purely as aq riposte to that, Republicans characterized the fine that the uninsured would pay as a tax, President Obama disagreed with that characterization. Now the Supreme Court has upheld the mandate (the “carry insurance or pay this fine” clause) on the basis that the fine  falls under Congress’s power to tax.

Ergo, the fine is a tax.

Ergo, Obama was wrong in saying it wasn’t. 

This doesn’t make it a lie. It means that the Supreme Court (who has final say) subscribes to a different theory of the law than the one that the president proposed. So what Palin is doing is the equivalent of a kindergartener who, when informed of a change of plans brought about by unforeseeable outside forces like the weather, starts screaming about how she was promised they could go to the park and everyone lies and it’s awful.

(Reblogged from invisiblelad)

“When Chief Robers sides with the left-leaning side of the court”

invisiblelad:

abaldwin360:

alexeikaramazov:

SHUT UP FOX  NEWS

That’s why they get life terms so they aren’t accountable to the media or executive.

I can’t wait to hear the conspiracy theories about tihs.

The real headline should be: “Supreme Court Judge Interprets the Constitution”

(Source: basednkrumah)

(Reblogged from invisiblelad)

Healthcare mandate upheld by Supreme Court

invisiblelad:

I’ve got to look up the details but… this is good news to wake up to.

(Source: theonetaylordetroye)

(Reblogged from invisiblelad)
“

“Hindsight is always 20-20, but last time I checked almost every president since Teddy Roosevelt tried to do something on health care and wasn’t able to do it. It was the right thing to do, and sometimes you don’t get a second chance to do the right thing.” — Former North Carolina Rep. Bob Etheridge

“Republicans did a great job of misinforming … and scaring the American people. So did the insurance companies, and the fact is when you explain provisions of the bill, the American people support it. …I’m embarrassed for Congress that they didn’t pass health care reform long before we did. Far too many people in Congress think that they are there to get reelected and that’s unfortunate. We’re there to work for the American people, and that’s what we did. We passed a measure that allows millions of Americans to be insured. It allows people with pre-existing [conditions] to get covered.” — Former Ohio Rep. Steve Driehaus

“You have to vote with your conscience and do what’s right. In my district, I had 350,000 who had no health insurance. I came from a migrant family, and I knew the seriousness of not having insurance and people dying because they couldn’t go to the doctor. It was the right thing to do, and if I had to do it again, I would do it again. It was now or never.” — Former Texas Rep. Solomon Ortiz

Politico spoke to Democrat lawmakers who fought to pass the Affordable Care Act — and who were voted out as a result.  The consensus?  No regrets.

(via inothernews)

(Reblogged from invisiblelad)

redditor captainpixystick explains the Affordable Care Act to you like you're five.

  • Bob: Hi, insurance company. I'd like to buy some health insurance.
  • Insurance company: No. You had cancer when you were 3 years old, and the cancer could come back. We're not selling you health insurance.
  • Bob: It's not my fault I got cancer when I was three! Besides, that was years ago!
  • Insurance company: If we sell insurance to you, we'll probably lose money, and we're not doing it.
  • Bob: But I need insurance more than anyone! My cancer might come back!
  • Insurance company: We don't care. We're not selling you insurance.
  • Obama: Hey, that's totally not fair. Bob is right, he does need insurance! Sell Bob some insurance.
  • Insurance company: If we have to, I guess.
  • Mary: This is cool. Obama said the insurance company has to sell insurance to anyone who needs it.
  • Sam: Hey, I have an idea. I'm going to stop paying for health insurance. If I get sick, I can always go buy some insurance then. The insurance company won't be able to say no, because Obama's told them they have to sell it to anyone who needs it!
  • Dave: that's a great idea! I'm not paying for health insurance either, at least not until I get sick.
  • Insurance company: Hey! If everyone stops paying for insurance, we'll go bankrupt!
  • Obama: Oh come on Sam and Dave, that's not fair either.
  • Dave: I don't care. It saves me money.
  • Obama: Oh for god's sake. Sam, Dave, you have to keep paying for health insurance, and not wait until you're sick. You too, Mary and Bob.
  • Mary: But I'm broke! I can't buy insurance! I just don't have any money.
  • Obama: Mary, show me your piggy bank. Oh, wow, you really are broke. Ok, tell you what. You still have to buy insurance, but I'll help you pay 95% of the cost.
  • Mary: thank you.
  • Obama: I need an aspirin.
  • Insurance company: We're not paying for that aspirin.
(Reblogged from bluntlyblue)
barackobama: peterfeld: The Republicans are going to feel pretty stupid for spending the last three years fusing “Obama” and “care” in the public mind. As David Axelrod put it the other day: “Can you imagine if the opposition called Social Security ‘Roosevelt Security’? Or if Medicare was ‘LBJ-Care’? Seriously, have these guys ever heard of the long view?”

barackobama:

peterfeld:

The Republicans are going to feel pretty stupid for spending the last three years fusing “Obama” and “care” in the public mind.

As David Axelrod put it the other day:

“Can you imagine if the opposition called Social Security ‘Roosevelt Security’? Or if Medicare was ‘LBJ-Care’? Seriously, have these guys ever heard of the long view?”

(Reblogged from barackobama)

Man Dies From Toothache, Couldn't Afford Meds

karnythia:

cognitivedissonance:

A 24-year-old Cincinnati father died from a tooth infection this week because he couldn’t afford his medication, offering a sobering reminder of the importance of oral health and the number of people without access to dental or health care.

According to NBC affiliate WLWT, Kyle Willis’ wisdom tooth started hurting two weeks ago. When dentists told him it needed to be pulled, he decided to forgo the procedure, because he was unemployed and had no health insurance.

When his face started swelling and his head began to ache, Willis went to the emergency room, where he received prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medications. Willis couldn’t afford both, so he chose the pain medications.

The tooth infection spread, causing his brain to swell. He died Tuesday.

Before anyone criticizes this man for choosing pain medication over antibiotics (as I’ve seen some people do), let’s think about two things:

  • If you were in severe pain, and probably not thinking clearly, what would you do? 
  • Why should we live in a society where this is a choice someone must make?

How is this just? Health care is not a luxury, nor should dental care be a luxury. People do not deserve to die because they cannot afford an antibiotic prescription.

I had an abscessed tooth. Trust me, is the kind of pain that makes it impossible for you to think straight. And, it is entirely possible he thought the abscess would drain on its own (so many do), & that his body would be able to handle beating the infection. We’re a country that makes poverty painful on so many levels.

That was me, about a year and a half ago. I am privileged enough to have a great support network even when I don’t have insurance so I was able to get pain meds, antibiotics, and an extraction… but yes, the pain of one abscessed tooth can pretty much encompass your entire head and drown out everything else.

(Reblogged from karnythia)