The right has spent decades teaching white voters to cognitively encode redistribution as status loss. These people aren't expressing a genuine love for the insurance industry - that would be obviously crazy. It requires them to fear that someone they have been trained to resent might benefit from a better system too. It's amazing that the specter of "undeserving others" can outweigh self-preservation. Propagandists recognized this phenomenon many, many decades ago, and, as jaw dropping as it is depressing, it keeps working.
I am very aware of the con, want to strip these billionaires of their ability to adversely influence government for their benefit, and tax much of their wealth away as well as stopping the subsidies they get at our expense. It makes no sense to deprive ourselves of healthcare. Everyone is worth it, there are no undeserving people.
Do Trump and his mob deserve healthcare? If I were assigned to provide nursing care to them, I would do my best. My first class in nursing was a lecture on non-judgmental attitudes and care toward all patients.
I might try to trade my assignment with another nurse, though. Lol.
Kathy,you are 100% right but I guess that view is not prevalent in the south.Medicare advantage plans,perhaps,should never been approved for sale,yet about a month ago,Trump and CMS (Centers for Medicarew and Medicaid Services gave a 2.48 % increase to cos offering advantage plans. That equates to 13 billion and when accounting for what is known as the MA risk score ,the increase was $ 26 billion.
This to make sure those cos that provide medicare advantage plans continue to finally support Trump and those cos stocks have gone crazy,such as United Healthcare,CVS and others .United Healthcare was found to be denying 81% of the claims submitted 2 yrs ago. The CEO Brian Thompson was killed on 12/4.24. A survey done within 2 months found that 71% polled were OK with his killing.
The big question now and in the future will be,how long will Americans getting screwed each and every day continue to do nothing.
Medicare Advantage plans are the biggest rip-off you can ask for. I'm lucky my backup to my Medicare is Tri-Care. We have this because my husband was on active duty for 20 years, and it was our insurance after he retired. Yes, we had to pay for it, but it was reasonable. When he went on Medicare, his part of the plan became free, and mine is paid for out of his retirement check. So my coverage is excellent, and I have no problem seeing doctors. I wish everyone had that kind of coverage. Medicare for all will be great, and all would be covered, and I don't understand the hate for those who don't want others to have what you have. Sorry, selfish SOBs, you need to dance with Satan when you die for your hatred.
If you expand the collusion of health care, with the food industry that clearly promotes products that are toxic and the massive medication and chemical industry you have the trio of evil fraud.
Thom’s mortality statistics are accurate.
This is the country that monetizes death to the highest degree. The mental sickness of the billionaires is by far the most devastating disease on the earth.
My mom worked for the teacher's union and we had "Cadillac health insurance" when I was dx'd with "juvenile diabetes". Insulin had $0 copay. Appointments $5. It's not like spa services were covered. I want that for everyone, unlike the Teamster todd guy that voted for T-rump because he sees Medicare for All as a threat to his health care. %0 insulin is not a luxury!
Of course, the bodies piling up include lots of white bodies. The people dying early include white people. When it comes to healthcare, racism has negative blowback. Nevertheless, it is worth keeping in mind that racism is not the only reason America lacks a national healthcare system. The GOP has promoted the greed is good philosophy for many decades as key to prosperity.
The medical profession has long promoted the false capitalist notion that the more you pay for something, the better is its quality. That notion helped build private medical practice businesses in America, making physicians rich. But that turned out to be a double-edged sword as the doctors realized that running a small business meant they had no free time. By 2000, the AMA changed its private-practice tune, and health maintenance groups started popping up - one-stop shops for health care that provided clinics, hospitals, specialists, labs, etc. all for one low-low price that some insurance companies embraced. They also provided a business management team and an 8-to-5 workday for medical professionals. Soon, the billionaires started buying up those groups, and we are back to square one as far as access to healthcare.
There is a tiny minority of Americans who already enjoy a national health system - the military. Active and retired service members and our families get free health services, medication, and surgeries. Once we become eligible, we must join Medicare Part B, then healthcare is free for the rest of our lives. I mention that to point out that America has a system in place, rules, billing, drug price caps, etc. that could be expanded almost overnight if we started voting for legislators with spines.
Thom's excellent article reminded me of my time living in Germany in the 80's. Socialized healthcare was something my German friends were proud of. Add in a socialized education system and the results were a less stressed society. Oh and their guns were kept locked up at their gun clubs. Obviously all societies have their problems but eliminating the money worries of providing healthcare and education for our kids and ourselves would go a long way toward having a more decent and calmer society.
Last night I assumed Rachel would not be on for her usual Monday evening show, but I looked to see what was in its place. She was on but with a special interview of Professor Steven J. Ross who has two books about the long fight against racial hate in the U. S. I only caught the title of one, which is "The Secret war Against Hate". He pointed out that the veterans of the second world war who thought of themselves as great patriots were livid when they returned because their world had changed while they were fighting overseas. They saw themselves as patriots fighting against the Japanese who had attacked us at Pearl Harbor, but not the against the European fascists. They saw Blacks getting civil rights protections and equality being established as the new norm and they felt betrayed. There was a great resurgence of the KKK and that was what "inspired" hundreds of radical white supremacist groups and militias, especially in the deep south. This confirms what Thom is saying. It's the racism, stupid! The good news is that there are always brave people who fight against the hate and bigotry and the racists and fascists are inept and so insecure and power hungry that they are chaotic and inept. The bad news is that they have people in powerful government positions now willing to force their sick pathology on all of us. The other bad news is that the inhospitable, stressful, and extremely competitive environment in many schools defeats all attempts to reduce racial divisions and animosities and to effectively promote true intellectual development. Equality is not top of mind when one feels alienated, vexed. confused, and neglected and when one is made to hate the little bit of boooooring history that is offered.
Robert,great post,especially the part is that we have people in powerful gov't positions willing to force their sick pathology on all of us. We can lead with Trump,Stephen Miller,RFK and the list goes on.
Without it? They do not exist. They wouldn't know what to do with themselves.
If you can't threaten a minority kid's outdoor birthday party, screaming the n-word at them from your rebel flag-strewn, monster truck . . . who even cares about healthcare?
Irrational? Utterly. But it's as solid as their cement heads.
It is one of the primary reasons this is China's century.
Because the 34% have allowed a racist kook back into the nation's cockpit.
So, a 34%er denying themselves healthcare because Black people would benefit?
Yesterday Rachel Maddow interviewed Professor Steven Ross on his new book The Secret War Against Hate---might be a good read to follow Thom's Who Killed The American Dream.
Ross explained the racists that entered the war just because of Pearl Harbor came right home only to fire-up the Klan and spawn white supremacist groups all over this country. The POC and women that helped win the war were supposed to go back to worshipping white men.
The racists' spawn and students are with us today. TRump has elevated them and now wants to pay them. It is the perfect time to point out he wants our money for that, a bunker/ballroom, and billionaire tax breaks while Americans can no longer afford health insurance or health care. Know your history in order to change the future. See you in the streets.
Of these 51 billionaires, how many have any medical training; how many ever worked in a clinic or hospital? I venture to guess nearly one. Every dollar they take is stolen from doctors, nurses, support staff, patients and taxpayers, because we have a system that supports and sustains the notion that owners own their workers and all the work they do. Racial resentment dating back to the Civil War is how to get the hoi polloi to buy into this grift.
Thom--there is a phrase in your first paragraph that is more loaded than you think. "...and it's killing us." I have long concluded that that is one of the autocrat.oligarch.dictatorship secret, hidden goals. Every one of DHS. ICE detention centers, RFKjr's policies, Iran bombs, Caribbean boat bombs, reducing funding for USAID, US childcare, veteran's benefits, etc are designed to shorten the natural Life of humans. Because the repubs in power KNOW that there are too Many Humans on Planet Earth. Sick and poor people don't have the resources to live a long Life. Putin, Orban, bin Ladin and Netanyahu know this, too, Killing humans helps diminish the population explosion. I can't quite reconcile abortion bans or falsley making contraceptives to be the bad guys, unless they only want non-white women breeding to provide servants for the whiteys in power.
I have thought about your ideas for a very long time. "Killing humans helps diminish the population explosion." There may not, or possibly will not, be enough resources for everyone on the planet. What happens when humans kill off ALL the animals, land and water animals? What happens when the water resources ALL dry up, or close to it? What happens if Mother Nature decides it 's time for a new creature? - out with the old (humans) in with the new (?)
Obama structured The Affordable Care Act to placate the health care conglomerates. In doing so he means-tested Medicaid, and in cowardly move left the use of Medicaid funds up to the states instead of just federalizing Medicaid allotment of funds. Who didn't know that these red states that reviled social programs would refuse to expand Medicaid? Meanwhile, the rest of us are subject to the whims of the for-profit insurance industry that drains us of our resources one way or another. I called you way back in 2015 to tell you that patients were being forced to change their doctors under the ACA and you hung up on me saying I was a Republican plant. One of the all-time fatal politician lies was Obama promising that patients would not have to change their doctors and premiums would not go up. While the ACA has helped some, it has overwhelmingly damaged the health care system and harmed far more than it has helped. https://barryjkaufmando.substack.com/p/no-democrats-its-not-republicans
Barry,you are right that Obama promised no change in doctors and no increase in premiums and that has not been the case.
Before the ACA,I had a small insurance brokerage and wrote some health insurance business for a variety of cos. The rate of declinations for pre-existing conditions was off the charts especially with Public cos(Have stock) . If you were 50,had a broken ankle 10 yrs ago and tried to get health insurance you were declined. If you admitted on the application you had sinus headache 5 yrs ago,you were getting declined.
The ACA simply said cos cannot decline because of pre-existing conditions. While not perfect,Americans could avail themselves of health insurance and through Gov't subsidies be able to afford to have some type of health insurance.
Your last comment about the ACA overwhelmingly damaging the health care system and harmed more than has helped is flatly a lie.
I have seen your posting in the past and I suggest you get your facts together before making stupid,uniformed comments.
So Barry,if as smart as think you are,what is the solution to the healthcare,insurance crisis. Post it out their so all the Hartmann subscribers can see what you have to say. If you do not post,it will show, you have no intestinal fortitude or to make it simple,you have no guts.
Thank you, Thom, for answering the question many of us have pondered for years..."why do these people in red states keep voting against their best interests". LBJ was a visionary in the sense he predicted exactly what would happen if the Civil Rights Act became law. It is hard to fathom that, just because the color of one's skin is brown or black, white people (and I am a white woman) would be so narrow, so indoctrinated, so racist and evil that they would rather let their children die of sickness than provide healthcare for all.
Housing, healthcare, food on the table, a decent education should be the right for every person living in the good ole US of A. Sadly, I don't think this will come to pass in my lifetime. I am heartbroken. I am angry. I am determined to protest injustice until the injustice becomes history.
The right has spent decades teaching white voters to cognitively encode redistribution as status loss. These people aren't expressing a genuine love for the insurance industry - that would be obviously crazy. It requires them to fear that someone they have been trained to resent might benefit from a better system too. It's amazing that the specter of "undeserving others" can outweigh self-preservation. Propagandists recognized this phenomenon many, many decades ago, and, as jaw dropping as it is depressing, it keeps working.
I am very aware of the con, want to strip these billionaires of their ability to adversely influence government for their benefit, and tax much of their wealth away as well as stopping the subsidies they get at our expense. It makes no sense to deprive ourselves of healthcare. Everyone is worth it, there are no undeserving people.
Do Trump and his mob deserve healthcare? If I were assigned to provide nursing care to them, I would do my best. My first class in nursing was a lecture on non-judgmental attitudes and care toward all patients.
I might try to trade my assignment with another nurse, though. Lol.
I can understand that.
Kathy,you are 100% right but I guess that view is not prevalent in the south.Medicare advantage plans,perhaps,should never been approved for sale,yet about a month ago,Trump and CMS (Centers for Medicarew and Medicaid Services gave a 2.48 % increase to cos offering advantage plans. That equates to 13 billion and when accounting for what is known as the MA risk score ,the increase was $ 26 billion.
This to make sure those cos that provide medicare advantage plans continue to finally support Trump and those cos stocks have gone crazy,such as United Healthcare,CVS and others .United Healthcare was found to be denying 81% of the claims submitted 2 yrs ago. The CEO Brian Thompson was killed on 12/4.24. A survey done within 2 months found that 71% polled were OK with his killing.
The big question now and in the future will be,how long will Americans getting screwed each and every day continue to do nothing.
Medicare Advantage plans are the biggest rip-off you can ask for. I'm lucky my backup to my Medicare is Tri-Care. We have this because my husband was on active duty for 20 years, and it was our insurance after he retired. Yes, we had to pay for it, but it was reasonable. When he went on Medicare, his part of the plan became free, and mine is paid for out of his retirement check. So my coverage is excellent, and I have no problem seeing doctors. I wish everyone had that kind of coverage. Medicare for all will be great, and all would be covered, and I don't understand the hate for those who don't want others to have what you have. Sorry, selfish SOBs, you need to dance with Satan when you die for your hatred.
If you expand the collusion of health care, with the food industry that clearly promotes products that are toxic and the massive medication and chemical industry you have the trio of evil fraud.
Thom’s mortality statistics are accurate.
This is the country that monetizes death to the highest degree. The mental sickness of the billionaires is by far the most devastating disease on the earth.
My mom worked for the teacher's union and we had "Cadillac health insurance" when I was dx'd with "juvenile diabetes". Insulin had $0 copay. Appointments $5. It's not like spa services were covered. I want that for everyone, unlike the Teamster todd guy that voted for T-rump because he sees Medicare for All as a threat to his health care. %0 insulin is not a luxury!
Of course, the bodies piling up include lots of white bodies. The people dying early include white people. When it comes to healthcare, racism has negative blowback. Nevertheless, it is worth keeping in mind that racism is not the only reason America lacks a national healthcare system. The GOP has promoted the greed is good philosophy for many decades as key to prosperity.
The medical profession has long promoted the false capitalist notion that the more you pay for something, the better is its quality. That notion helped build private medical practice businesses in America, making physicians rich. But that turned out to be a double-edged sword as the doctors realized that running a small business meant they had no free time. By 2000, the AMA changed its private-practice tune, and health maintenance groups started popping up - one-stop shops for health care that provided clinics, hospitals, specialists, labs, etc. all for one low-low price that some insurance companies embraced. They also provided a business management team and an 8-to-5 workday for medical professionals. Soon, the billionaires started buying up those groups, and we are back to square one as far as access to healthcare.
There is a tiny minority of Americans who already enjoy a national health system - the military. Active and retired service members and our families get free health services, medication, and surgeries. Once we become eligible, we must join Medicare Part B, then healthcare is free for the rest of our lives. I mention that to point out that America has a system in place, rules, billing, drug price caps, etc. that could be expanded almost overnight if we started voting for legislators with spines.
Thom's excellent article reminded me of my time living in Germany in the 80's. Socialized healthcare was something my German friends were proud of. Add in a socialized education system and the results were a less stressed society. Oh and their guns were kept locked up at their gun clubs. Obviously all societies have their problems but eliminating the money worries of providing healthcare and education for our kids and ourselves would go a long way toward having a more decent and calmer society.
Last night I assumed Rachel would not be on for her usual Monday evening show, but I looked to see what was in its place. She was on but with a special interview of Professor Steven J. Ross who has two books about the long fight against racial hate in the U. S. I only caught the title of one, which is "The Secret war Against Hate". He pointed out that the veterans of the second world war who thought of themselves as great patriots were livid when they returned because their world had changed while they were fighting overseas. They saw themselves as patriots fighting against the Japanese who had attacked us at Pearl Harbor, but not the against the European fascists. They saw Blacks getting civil rights protections and equality being established as the new norm and they felt betrayed. There was a great resurgence of the KKK and that was what "inspired" hundreds of radical white supremacist groups and militias, especially in the deep south. This confirms what Thom is saying. It's the racism, stupid! The good news is that there are always brave people who fight against the hate and bigotry and the racists and fascists are inept and so insecure and power hungry that they are chaotic and inept. The bad news is that they have people in powerful government positions now willing to force their sick pathology on all of us. The other bad news is that the inhospitable, stressful, and extremely competitive environment in many schools defeats all attempts to reduce racial divisions and animosities and to effectively promote true intellectual development. Equality is not top of mind when one feels alienated, vexed. confused, and neglected and when one is made to hate the little bit of boooooring history that is offered.
Robert,great post,especially the part is that we have people in powerful gov't positions willing to force their sick pathology on all of us. We can lead with Trump,Stephen Miller,RFK and the list goes on.
Race Hate is the base's, i.e., his 34%'s crack.
Without it? They do not exist. They wouldn't know what to do with themselves.
If you can't threaten a minority kid's outdoor birthday party, screaming the n-word at them from your rebel flag-strewn, monster truck . . . who even cares about healthcare?
Irrational? Utterly. But it's as solid as their cement heads.
It is one of the primary reasons this is China's century.
Because the 34% have allowed a racist kook back into the nation's cockpit.
So, a 34%er denying themselves healthcare because Black people would benefit?
= racial resentment causing self‑harm
= self‑destructive racialized policy preference
= symbolic racism overriding self‑interest
Priorities matter. [Unless you're mental.]
# VOTE them out # Don Jr. to Kharg Island
Yesterday Rachel Maddow interviewed Professor Steven Ross on his new book The Secret War Against Hate---might be a good read to follow Thom's Who Killed The American Dream.
Ross explained the racists that entered the war just because of Pearl Harbor came right home only to fire-up the Klan and spawn white supremacist groups all over this country. The POC and women that helped win the war were supposed to go back to worshipping white men.
The racists' spawn and students are with us today. TRump has elevated them and now wants to pay them. It is the perfect time to point out he wants our money for that, a bunker/ballroom, and billionaire tax breaks while Americans can no longer afford health insurance or health care. Know your history in order to change the future. See you in the streets.
The world's worst "for profit" scheme.
The MOST cost for the poor.
The MOST profit for the billionaires.
Time for change - they call it private instead of public -
I agree with Thom - It's racist to the core..
There should be no profit-making in the treatment of human health.
Excessive or otherwise.
I can't approve of his method, but I can't disagree with Luigi Mangione's message.
71% didn't disagree with Luigi Mangione's message.
Of these 51 billionaires, how many have any medical training; how many ever worked in a clinic or hospital? I venture to guess nearly one. Every dollar they take is stolen from doctors, nurses, support staff, patients and taxpayers, because we have a system that supports and sustains the notion that owners own their workers and all the work they do. Racial resentment dating back to the Civil War is how to get the hoi polloi to buy into this grift.
Thom--there is a phrase in your first paragraph that is more loaded than you think. "...and it's killing us." I have long concluded that that is one of the autocrat.oligarch.dictatorship secret, hidden goals. Every one of DHS. ICE detention centers, RFKjr's policies, Iran bombs, Caribbean boat bombs, reducing funding for USAID, US childcare, veteran's benefits, etc are designed to shorten the natural Life of humans. Because the repubs in power KNOW that there are too Many Humans on Planet Earth. Sick and poor people don't have the resources to live a long Life. Putin, Orban, bin Ladin and Netanyahu know this, too, Killing humans helps diminish the population explosion. I can't quite reconcile abortion bans or falsley making contraceptives to be the bad guys, unless they only want non-white women breeding to provide servants for the whiteys in power.
I have thought about your ideas for a very long time. "Killing humans helps diminish the population explosion." There may not, or possibly will not, be enough resources for everyone on the planet. What happens when humans kill off ALL the animals, land and water animals? What happens when the water resources ALL dry up, or close to it? What happens if Mother Nature decides it 's time for a new creature? - out with the old (humans) in with the new (?)
Obama structured The Affordable Care Act to placate the health care conglomerates. In doing so he means-tested Medicaid, and in cowardly move left the use of Medicaid funds up to the states instead of just federalizing Medicaid allotment of funds. Who didn't know that these red states that reviled social programs would refuse to expand Medicaid? Meanwhile, the rest of us are subject to the whims of the for-profit insurance industry that drains us of our resources one way or another. I called you way back in 2015 to tell you that patients were being forced to change their doctors under the ACA and you hung up on me saying I was a Republican plant. One of the all-time fatal politician lies was Obama promising that patients would not have to change their doctors and premiums would not go up. While the ACA has helped some, it has overwhelmingly damaged the health care system and harmed far more than it has helped. https://barryjkaufmando.substack.com/p/no-democrats-its-not-republicans
Barry,you are right that Obama promised no change in doctors and no increase in premiums and that has not been the case.
Before the ACA,I had a small insurance brokerage and wrote some health insurance business for a variety of cos. The rate of declinations for pre-existing conditions was off the charts especially with Public cos(Have stock) . If you were 50,had a broken ankle 10 yrs ago and tried to get health insurance you were declined. If you admitted on the application you had sinus headache 5 yrs ago,you were getting declined.
The ACA simply said cos cannot decline because of pre-existing conditions. While not perfect,Americans could avail themselves of health insurance and through Gov't subsidies be able to afford to have some type of health insurance.
Your last comment about the ACA overwhelmingly damaging the health care system and harmed more than has helped is flatly a lie.
I have seen your posting in the past and I suggest you get your facts together before making stupid,uniformed comments.
So Barry,if as smart as think you are,what is the solution to the healthcare,insurance crisis. Post it out their so all the Hartmann subscribers can see what you have to say. If you do not post,it will show, you have no intestinal fortitude or to make it simple,you have no guts.
Thank you, Thom, for answering the question many of us have pondered for years..."why do these people in red states keep voting against their best interests". LBJ was a visionary in the sense he predicted exactly what would happen if the Civil Rights Act became law. It is hard to fathom that, just because the color of one's skin is brown or black, white people (and I am a white woman) would be so narrow, so indoctrinated, so racist and evil that they would rather let their children die of sickness than provide healthcare for all.
Housing, healthcare, food on the table, a decent education should be the right for every person living in the good ole US of A. Sadly, I don't think this will come to pass in my lifetime. I am heartbroken. I am angry. I am determined to protest injustice until the injustice becomes history.
To be clear, this is also a condemnation of corporate Democrats. Vote accordingly.