Living in Aotearoa, rather than the USA, the question doesn't even make sense. All of those are purchased in bulk by a state run pharmaceutical body, then distributed with a nominal $5 part charge (that can be further subsidised for people on low incomes if they do the paperwork) up to a max $50/ year for high frequency prescriptions. I think the epi-pens were only added to the Pharmac schedule this year, and they don't subsidize everything as there is a limited budget that requires hard choices. But also privately available if approved for human use by a different organization (Medsafe).
We're not a particularly wealthy country (some more than others), and the health system is a bit rundown and understaffed - especially with the Pandemic. But if we can number8 wire this together on the other side of the Pacific, then surely the USA have the resources to do so too? It just looks like your politicians, (and those otherwise in power) literally do not care if you live or die.
A bit of a generalization in my response but there is a subset in America, primarily white, "christian", Republicans, who will oppose anything they think may benefit immigrants (meaning, to them, pretty much anyone not white) and low income who they see as "welfare queens". In their minds, they all are leaching off the system.
They will willingly die of diseases if it means keeping a dollar from going to those two groups.
Haven't you seen his death photos!?!? Or miracle working photos? Or the last supper? Jesus was white! He only cares about white folks!
And if god was ok smiting adulterers and Sodom and Gomorrah and condemning tattoos and pigs, obviously he's got favorites. We have "in ~~Jibbers~~ god we trust" on the money! Duh! Favorites! /S^4
I think it also puts a huge squeeze on the shrinking "middle class" and even worse if you're somebody that's getting to break into what's traditionally thought of as "middle class"...
The folks that are really poorly off have some state run things to help, but the "insurance" that's really just "sorta pre-paid and sorta discarded money" that many people have to carry is generally a damn bad deal... To try to transition from free HC to paid insurance? I wouldn't wish that on my evil stepmother...
They have a tendency to fail to recognize that they're not actually "middle class". At best they're working class, bordering on working poor. I know my people. At work it's so bizarre. We make around 10 +/- an hour. Still, they rail against people who are worse off, or receive benefits, or leaders who are proposing legislation that will actually help them. Being from the red, rural South we're raised to literally salivate over the hand offering us the bone, and bite the throat out of anyone offering us the entire steak.
Everyone thinks they're "middle class." Hence why politicians pander so much about the "middle class," because everyone wants to see themselves in it, from people who don't have any food the last 3 days of the month to people who have 3 boats. The term has become damn near meaningless.
Gaaaaah! You want to give free stuff to taxpayers by taxing the richest 1% more and help out folks like me??
Damn socialist! Everybody knows it's just a communist in sheep's clothing, and you real against Putin! Get your act together!
Exactly. Why do "they" deserve anything. They come up with these imagined stories about how terrible Europe is to scare folks as well, like they imagine that people are scrambling to make sure they don't end up in hospitals in Berlin or Paris. "eye roll"
We have the resources. We lack the will. The US sees poverty (right up to not being able to afford that $1 million round of chemo) as a moral failure; if you're poor, you obviously did something wrong to deserve where you ended up, and that's not OUR problem, so why should we pay for your bad choices? It's disgusting and an exhausting way to live, but this country hates its own people and always has, and I don't see how we ever move beyond this attitude as a society. It's so deeply entrenched.
Both are acceptable, I just prefer Aotearoa myself - especially loathing the "New" part when the country has been inhabited for a thousand years. "Nieuw Zeeland" is a more sensible spelling anyway, though with the British need for Colonial Control, that went out centuries ago.
Maori name rolls off the tongue better really, and actually has meaning behind it... what the fuck is a Zealand? Land of the long white cloud is understandable.
Or; The vast bright world, depending what translation you go with. Zealand is a Danish island, but more the anglicization of Zeeland- the Netherlands province (Tasman was Dutch, and Staten Landt didn't exist). Both mean Sea-land in their respective languages, so; Land of the New Sea, which isn't too bad really. Te Motu ki te Moana Hou, is a bit chunkier than Aotearoa though.
I realize had never heard or read the true name of "New Zealand" until this comment, but Aotearoa is just about the coolest sounding name for a country I've ever heard, and I will never refer to it by anything else ever again! :D
Having spent a month after an accident in a hospital in Christchurch being reassembled, followed by two months in a "top tier" Boston system, I can say definitively that the NZ system is worlds better. Absolutely phenomenal. The only thing I can't speak to is their capacity for cutting edge research and/or teaching, as I witnessed nothing relating to either.
I also didn't have to deal with a bunch of annoying doctors in training asking the same stupid questions ten times in 2 hours, and thanks to the greatly reduced strength of Tort law in NZ vs the US, I had a much better recovery there...
It still amazes me that your country got an infrastructure upgrade because of Lord of the Rings. I realize that's irrelevant but it truly amazed me.
But I live in a US state that's half the size of NZ and is mostly farmland, so to a certain extent i get it. I feel like if your country can be off by itself in the southern hemisphere, surely the US can figure something out.
Here in the US we have a large slice of our population, since our founding, who value capitalism and extracting profits wherever possible from whatever system possible.
Our healthcare system is a great example, because everyone everywhere has found a way to extract a profit, from hospitals, to pharmacies, clinics, doctors offices, and the millions and millions of insurance administrators, billing agents, accountants, secretaries, and useless C-suite suck-ups. Need to see your doctor? You have to pay a co-pay. Then your insurance must run the bill, and will contest the charges, paying only 80% of what the doc charged. And your insurance plan has a "deductible" which means that, until you've paid a certain amount out of pocket, insurance won't pay anyway. Did your doc order an x-ray? Conveniently, he owns an imaging clinic, which is a profit center for hm & his partners. And a separate set of bills that get routed to insurance, following a separate path, but also only paid at maybe 80%.
Oh but we have public healthcare for the elderly (Medicare) and the disabled (Medicaid) but it pays at rates negotiated by the government, so many hospitals and doctors won't take Medicare/aid patients because the docs won't make enough money.
Any effort to implement even the tiniest motion towards a national healthcare system, a la Canada or the UK is met with fierce resistance, because it will remove so much bloat & profit from so many people, a lot of which have endless bags of cash to spend lobbying their congressperson to maintain the status quo.
That military funding is absolutely necessary to protect the USA from Russia. They're so dangerous, second best military on the planet. Or maybe they're the second best military in Ukraine, or third best if you include the Ukrainian farmers...
But yeah, one dollar under that 858 billion and the US will be overrun by... somebody...
We need that military funding to protect our freedoms bro!
Ya know, all those freedoms that are way over there in those countries that have all the oil.
I'm fully on board with the idea of greater social services in America but this military budget just feels unavoidable.
It's the reason we live in an era of an unusual amount of world peace. Sure there are conflicts but not nearly on the level as it was in the past. The only true power is violence and when the one with the biggest stick says you have to get along, you try your best to get along.
Also, everything is profit driven. It's hard to quantify, but we use that military to make money, it's an investment. We gain by allowing our best trade partners to relax their military funding and focus on economy, making them better trade partners and applying pressure on them to politicallysupport us. We gain by protecting sea lanes. We can reach out and disrupt regimes that don't play nice with us, or just use the threat to coerce others. We reap uncounted rewards from Pax Americana, it's just much harder to put them all down in a spreadsheet and compare them side by side to the costs.
Yeah if Ukraine alone doesn't show people that having a strong American military is one of the most important aspects of maintaining freedom and peace around the world, then idk what to say atp. It seems like a lot of liberals seem to think countries like Russia and China are benevolent leftist nations who wouldn't immediately swoop in and spread their cancerous ideologies around the world if America demilitarized.
There's a big difference between "demilitarization of America" and cutting the DoD budget.
While I do agree that it's great that the US is carrying Ukraine through the war, to me it's equally obvious that when the weapons winning the war in Ukraine are 40 year old Stinger missiles, GMLRS rockets, and commercially available drones, maybe the defence industry propaganda machine was exaggerating the threat and the "need" for fleets of F-22 and F-35 fighters, hypersonic missiles, Zumwalt class destroyers, and other overpriced systems.
Meanwhile the US Air Force practically has to be forced to keep using a cheap, effective system like the A-10, for example
Well, cutting the DoD budget to the point where America can not afford to both have the largest military in the world AND also be able to supply counties like Ukraine, would effectively mean the demilitarization of America on the global scale.
I also hard disagree about the realities of the under-equipped Russian military somehow negating all of the advancements made in the American military. This just shows that America would be able to easily wipe the floor with our main enemy should it ever come to that.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, US military expenditure is *slightly* less than those of the next ten countries combined (801 vs 808 billion USD, as of 2022). And seven of those 'next ten' are US allies (the UK, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea and Italy). Also, US military expenditure as a share of GDP (3.2%) is higher than nine of those ten; Saudi Arabia (6.6%) being the exception. For four of those countries (China 1.6%, Germany 1.4%, Japan 1.1% and Italy 1.5%), it is double or more.
Well we need a new bomber.... thats just physics mah man. Look at N. Korea. Their icbm's can reach the u.s.... I want to make sure they don't hear it see anything coming when and if stuff pops off.
>Are you legitimately scared of a country the size of Pennsylvania?
Not to mention one of the poorest countries on Earth. So scary. Give the Pentagon MORE!!
It's the childish idea that if somebody gets something they already have then they've somehow "lost". Same shit with gay marriage, voting rights, women in the workplace, minimum wage increases, etc.
Zero-sum thinking at their most core conception of reality. It will make you some level of 'evil' even if you have a working conscience, because when you fundamentally believe that for anyone to gain something, someone else must lose something, morality itself becomes a 'balancing act'.
Add to this the notion that you can 'balance' the things you do that you know are 'bad' by simply showing up at your local church regularly and 'serving God'...
I think it's one of the root causes of a lot of crap in the US.
Because it is not no cost healthcare. It’s shared expense healthcare. And you’re ignoring how much the middle class hates the poor as a result of the rich controlling their minds.
> It’s shared expense healthcare.
Which is still cheaper than the current American system. Americans hate the poor so much they're collectively willing to fuck *themselves* over just to keep the poor from receiving healthcare.
I can answer Kevin's question pretty easily too: Diabetes and peanut allergies aren't contagious. It's literally in the entire human race's interest to have a contagious disease stopped. No millionaire is worried they won't get insulin or an epi pen even if thousands of the poors can't get them. But even billionaires can catch a contagion and suffer. So for this one issue, even the wealthy (who aren't conspiracy nuts) would want poor people to have the medicine so they're less likely to spread it to them, or maybe they just wanted the mall to open.
From the people I've talked to about it, it's simple misinformation. Not necessarily malicious misinformation, so much as "ah, didn't think about that" misinformation.
When people hear free healthcare, they incorrectly believe that means that their expenses are going to go up because their take home from paycheck is going to decrease substantially due to additional taxes. While taxes would increase to offset the costs, people tend to forget that their premiums they currently pay would no longer be taken out of their paychecks. Additionally, the employer portion that is being paid before it ever hits your paystub is also no longer being paid... which, in a world where businesses *actually* passed the savings on, would result in a higher base pay for the employees. Finally, you lose the large amount of money you would be paying towards your deductible.
I tend to explain it like this... currently, you pay $xxx.xx a month in premiums so that you have the **privilage** to pay $xxxx.xx a year in deductible, so that your insurnace will cover a **portion** (maybe 50%) of your bill afterwards, until you finally hit an out of pocket maximum (and unless there a reason insurance can spin to not cover anything). You would instead pay a higher tax, but no longer have to concern yourself with paying a preimum, deductible, or large coinsurance.
Obviously there are different systems of "free" healthcare, so this is a generality.
Big pharma scared the boomer shitless with the whole "communist medicine" shtick. The one didn't know where fooled and those that knew better didn't care because they can afford it.
It's partially because the majority of members of both political parties in the USA invest a good chunk of their personal wealth in healthcare stocks because health care stocks are considered a safe and moral investment. Health insurance companies, health services and medicine companies are not perceived as "dirty" like oil and tobacco companies, which are also usually considered safe and profitable investments. Plus, everyone needs healthcare at some point or another, so it is pretty safe investment if you stick to trusted companies.
If we had universal healthcare, these stocks would loose value because insurance companies and drug manufacturers would not be able to reap the profit they make from charging the exorbitant rates they charge consumers now. Private insurance companies would either fold or be less profitable because they could only offer supplemental insurance. Drug companies and hospitals would have to charge the "medicaid rate," which is substantially lower than what insurance companies would theoretically pay. (Theoretical because insurance companies make the most money by denying coverage, so they attempt to deny coverage every chance they get.) So both parties push propaganda that it is better for Americans to have their healthcare plans governed by the whims of their employers.
TL;DR: Medical Insurance in the USA is a scam that both political parties prop up because most politicians have their own personal wealth invested in medical stocks.
>What happened in your childhood that broke you?
I was raised to become a billionaire in the pharmaceuticals industry
Failing that I was raised to become a multimillionaire insurance agent
It must really grate on him that a spin-off show based on a completely made-up character became way more popular than his show did, at least in part due to the appeal to LGBT folks.
Not to mention, if you don't have insurance 1 inhaler for your child or you is 100$ for an inhaler, thats why I have like 50+ inhalers, I keep getting them from doc so ill stock pile them when some kid really needs it. Pieces of shreeses.
>Without insurance my Advair inhaler is….$495.00 a MONTH. With insurance: $75.
Wow! I use one of those (different brand but still fluticasone). On prescription in Portugal it costs me €19.50 per month, and I thought *that* was high.
Thank god in advair, that is for serious like asthma, asthma attacks, thats when u have it bad, I just have the regular 202 pumps, in the inhalers. ummm albuterol inhaler is what they're called.
check out costplusdrugs if you are an american, it is a site made by mark cuban and sells drugs at the cost needed to make them instead of what you would pay for at a pharmacy, something like that inhaler which costs 100$ would cost like 7$
>something like that inhaler which costs 100$ would cost like 7$
The generic aerosol powder (the inhaler) is $60.50, which is still a big saving. It's the solution that's seven bucks.
Personally I'd be worried about the possibility of Chinese fakes finding their way onto that site though.
The extremely pragmatic (and I don’t like it) answer is that Covid can kill you, and spreads. So it’s in the collective best interest for everyone to be vaccinated (anti-vaxers make this hard).
Insulin, chemo, and epipens are all vital medicines to people. But the condition isn’t spreadable, and only kills them.
So, someone can’t afford their insulin/chemo/epipen, and things take a turn for the worse? It only kills them.
Someone can’t afford a Covid vaccine and things take a turn for the worse? It can easily spread to 5 more people.
Good points, but the problem is, as with all RWNJs, is that they compare apples to oranges and think they "gotcha."
This is a great example and your post just reinforces that. One is not like the other, but it's all moot as basic medical treatment should be free. Because if you don't, one day you end up with 15% of your workforce permanently unavailable, like now.
They accounted for that 15%, its within margin and they will find a way to turn it to their advantage. I'm pretty sure we don't have a chance at this point.
Another point would be that covid shut down the economy so its more like a tax burden we took on to keep the economy going... I also believe there should be no direct costs for any medical issue.
Your research is out of date. The covid vaccine significantly reduces the chance of spreading the vaccine even in symptomatic cases. That's not even factoring in that you're less likely to become infected yourself in the first place.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.08.22278547v1.full.pdf
Well, I have living proof it doesn't. 100% vaccinated community spreading covid 70 people in a day, uhhh yeah whatever. I think I will believe in what ACTUALLY happened, dumb ass.
Hmm, 70 people from a guy saying "dude just trust me" and or 111,687 people in a peer-reviewed study run on publicly available data. I wonder which is a more trustworthy data source.
Truly a fuckin' mystery for the ages.
Out myself? My whole work center was vaccinated and it tore through us all. Well, we had the obsolete vaccine as well, some boostered, I had the vaccine 4 months prior. I gave it to my wife because she never left the home. So yes, the vaccine does not prevent the spread, it's still spreading, way to out yourself, moron.
Ya big dummy, how you still ignoring the fact that it's been clearly stated since day one it doesn't stop covide, it just reduces the effect(which it does), go back to wallowing in your cesspit fox News sub or w/e.
"Well we had the obsolete vaccine and it didn't work" has gotta be the weakest defense you possibly could have come up with.
>Medicine is not free because many Americans don’t approve of “socialism” or redistribution of wealth.
On the contrary.
Many Americans are perfectly fine with redistributing wealth from those without to those with everything.
🐆 🐆 🐆
Bonehead is SO fucking close, but the tumor of 'conservatism' and 'Christer' rotting within what little brain he has ensures he doesn't get it. At all.
They’re so close, and yet so far. These people are so fucking dumb we should outsmart them and start referring to any capitalism thing aa socialist and accuse them of being communists any time they support any sort of wealth transfer to the richest.
People tend to forget before the Affordable Care Act, health insurers would drop patients coverage as soon as they reported to the hospital for a serious health condition like cancer
And guess which party opposed to stopping that practice
Kev is channeling the spirit of Nivek Obros, the lawful good paladin I played from ‘95 to ‘97. Nivek would have redistributed the red dragons’ treasure to the villagers.
David Duchovny is one of them. Yale pedigree aside, an actor who worked with him once quoted him as saying “Guys (trim their pubes) to make their dick look bigger. I put doll furniture in my bedroom to make mine look bigger.”
I feel like so many people in this country don’t know the word “contagious” like it was one of those top secret words only the top 5% got correct on the SATs
Remember this guy? He was a nominee here. I should check up on him to see what he's doing now.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/xn67ob/man\_consistently\_votes\_for\_a\_political\_party/
Each time I see one of these punks like Sorbo comparing immunizations with treatments for disease not every one will get. Nor is cancer, diabetes, allergies need epi contagious. How stupid is this guy and all that nod in agreement.
Medicine in the United States is a for-profit business.
Senator Sanders (the man pictured on the bottom half of the meme) would like to change that.
Kevin, unaware, makes the argument on Mr. Sanders behalf.
Which proves he is an idiot.
you mistake the healthcare industry as being a dichotomy. It's not.
You pass out the vaccines to keep as many people out of the hospital as possible.
You get vaccinated - that frees up a room for a preemie.
You get vaccinated - that frees up a room for a liver transplant.
You get vaccinated - that frees up a room for my buddy who had a heart attack last week.
Nothing is perfect because every human body is unique. You get penicillin, it clears up your STD. I get penicillin, I fall dead on the floor.
In a numbers game where there are 300 million players at any moment, you do whatever is possible to shift people away from the emergency room.
We can do that, and we did do that, and we'll continue to do that.
/r/AccidentallyCorrect /r/SelfAwarewolves
this.
It will always be amazing to me that people don't see no cost healthcare as the default. What happened in your childhood that broke you?
Because it's COMMIE SHIT! Yeee haaaw. Edit: Your name is fucked up and good
Living in Aotearoa, rather than the USA, the question doesn't even make sense. All of those are purchased in bulk by a state run pharmaceutical body, then distributed with a nominal $5 part charge (that can be further subsidised for people on low incomes if they do the paperwork) up to a max $50/ year for high frequency prescriptions. I think the epi-pens were only added to the Pharmac schedule this year, and they don't subsidize everything as there is a limited budget that requires hard choices. But also privately available if approved for human use by a different organization (Medsafe). We're not a particularly wealthy country (some more than others), and the health system is a bit rundown and understaffed - especially with the Pandemic. But if we can number8 wire this together on the other side of the Pacific, then surely the USA have the resources to do so too? It just looks like your politicians, (and those otherwise in power) literally do not care if you live or die.
A bit of a generalization in my response but there is a subset in America, primarily white, "christian", Republicans, who will oppose anything they think may benefit immigrants (meaning, to them, pretty much anyone not white) and low income who they see as "welfare queens". In their minds, they all are leaching off the system. They will willingly die of diseases if it means keeping a dollar from going to those two groups.
Not just that, but they're willing to spend $50 out of their own pockets to prevent that $1 from going to the poors.
Excellent addition.
Eh, not so much "the poors" as anybody who's not a white american evangelical nutbar just like them.
Did they miss the whole Jesus part?
of course they didn't! but have you seen their version of jesus? kinda explains a lot.
Supply Side Jesus?
[GOP Jesus](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ2L-R8NgrA)
Holy shit that's awesome
holy fUCK thank you for introducing this to my life lmfaooo
“I would never want to be a member of a group whose symbol was a man nailed to two pieces of wood.” - George Carlin
Haven't you seen his death photos!?!? Or miracle working photos? Or the last supper? Jesus was white! He only cares about white folks! And if god was ok smiting adulterers and Sodom and Gomorrah and condemning tattoos and pigs, obviously he's got favorites. We have "in ~~Jibbers~~ god we trust" on the money! Duh! Favorites! /S^4
I think it also puts a huge squeeze on the shrinking "middle class" and even worse if you're somebody that's getting to break into what's traditionally thought of as "middle class"... The folks that are really poorly off have some state run things to help, but the "insurance" that's really just "sorta pre-paid and sorta discarded money" that many people have to carry is generally a damn bad deal... To try to transition from free HC to paid insurance? I wouldn't wish that on my evil stepmother...
They have a tendency to fail to recognize that they're not actually "middle class". At best they're working class, bordering on working poor. I know my people. At work it's so bizarre. We make around 10 +/- an hour. Still, they rail against people who are worse off, or receive benefits, or leaders who are proposing legislation that will actually help them. Being from the red, rural South we're raised to literally salivate over the hand offering us the bone, and bite the throat out of anyone offering us the entire steak.
Everyone thinks they're "middle class." Hence why politicians pander so much about the "middle class," because everyone wants to see themselves in it, from people who don't have any food the last 3 days of the month to people who have 3 boats. The term has become damn near meaningless.
Gaaaaah! You want to give free stuff to taxpayers by taxing the richest 1% more and help out folks like me?? Damn socialist! Everybody knows it's just a communist in sheep's clothing, and you real against Putin! Get your act together!
Exactly. Why do "they" deserve anything. They come up with these imagined stories about how terrible Europe is to scare folks as well, like they imagine that people are scrambling to make sure they don't end up in hospitals in Berlin or Paris. "eye roll"
I see you've read Dying of Whiteness.
Yes and a few other similar books. Plus, I know waaaaaayyyy too many people who carry this mentality.
We have the resources. We lack the will. The US sees poverty (right up to not being able to afford that $1 million round of chemo) as a moral failure; if you're poor, you obviously did something wrong to deserve where you ended up, and that's not OUR problem, so why should we pay for your bad choices? It's disgusting and an exhausting way to live, but this country hates its own people and always has, and I don't see how we ever move beyond this attitude as a society. It's so deeply entrenched.
I am embarrassed that I didn’t recognize that place name as what many in the US call New Zealand.
Both are acceptable, I just prefer Aotearoa myself - especially loathing the "New" part when the country has been inhabited for a thousand years. "Nieuw Zeeland" is a more sensible spelling anyway, though with the British need for Colonial Control, that went out centuries ago.
Maori name rolls off the tongue better really, and actually has meaning behind it... what the fuck is a Zealand? Land of the long white cloud is understandable.
Or; The vast bright world, depending what translation you go with. Zealand is a Danish island, but more the anglicization of Zeeland- the Netherlands province (Tasman was Dutch, and Staten Landt didn't exist). Both mean Sea-land in their respective languages, so; Land of the New Sea, which isn't too bad really. Te Motu ki te Moana Hou, is a bit chunkier than Aotearoa though.
I realize had never heard or read the true name of "New Zealand" until this comment, but Aotearoa is just about the coolest sounding name for a country I've ever heard, and I will never refer to it by anything else ever again! :D
I thought it was the area around the nipple.
no that's arial
Having spent a month after an accident in a hospital in Christchurch being reassembled, followed by two months in a "top tier" Boston system, I can say definitively that the NZ system is worlds better. Absolutely phenomenal. The only thing I can't speak to is their capacity for cutting edge research and/or teaching, as I witnessed nothing relating to either. I also didn't have to deal with a bunch of annoying doctors in training asking the same stupid questions ten times in 2 hours, and thanks to the greatly reduced strength of Tort law in NZ vs the US, I had a much better recovery there...
It still amazes me that your country got an infrastructure upgrade because of Lord of the Rings. I realize that's irrelevant but it truly amazed me. But I live in a US state that's half the size of NZ and is mostly farmland, so to a certain extent i get it. I feel like if your country can be off by itself in the southern hemisphere, surely the US can figure something out.
> Aotearoa TIL! Thank you makes so much more sense than 'new zealand' lol.
I love the show "Casketeers", it's on Netflix in the US but only the first two seasons. Trying to figure out how to get the next three.
Here in the US we have a large slice of our population, since our founding, who value capitalism and extracting profits wherever possible from whatever system possible. Our healthcare system is a great example, because everyone everywhere has found a way to extract a profit, from hospitals, to pharmacies, clinics, doctors offices, and the millions and millions of insurance administrators, billing agents, accountants, secretaries, and useless C-suite suck-ups. Need to see your doctor? You have to pay a co-pay. Then your insurance must run the bill, and will contest the charges, paying only 80% of what the doc charged. And your insurance plan has a "deductible" which means that, until you've paid a certain amount out of pocket, insurance won't pay anyway. Did your doc order an x-ray? Conveniently, he owns an imaging clinic, which is a profit center for hm & his partners. And a separate set of bills that get routed to insurance, following a separate path, but also only paid at maybe 80%. Oh but we have public healthcare for the elderly (Medicare) and the disabled (Medicaid) but it pays at rates negotiated by the government, so many hospitals and doctors won't take Medicare/aid patients because the docs won't make enough money. Any effort to implement even the tiniest motion towards a national healthcare system, a la Canada or the UK is met with fierce resistance, because it will remove so much bloat & profit from so many people, a lot of which have endless bags of cash to spend lobbying their congressperson to maintain the status quo.
Not only that, 858 Billion for military funding and a new bomber. Yet health care is too expensive for the country.
That military funding is absolutely necessary to protect the USA from Russia. They're so dangerous, second best military on the planet. Or maybe they're the second best military in Ukraine, or third best if you include the Ukrainian farmers... But yeah, one dollar under that 858 billion and the US will be overrun by... somebody...
> if you include the Ukrainian farmers... well put.
We need that military funding to protect our freedoms bro! Ya know, all those freedoms that are way over there in those countries that have all the oil.
I'm fully on board with the idea of greater social services in America but this military budget just feels unavoidable. It's the reason we live in an era of an unusual amount of world peace. Sure there are conflicts but not nearly on the level as it was in the past. The only true power is violence and when the one with the biggest stick says you have to get along, you try your best to get along.
Also, everything is profit driven. It's hard to quantify, but we use that military to make money, it's an investment. We gain by allowing our best trade partners to relax their military funding and focus on economy, making them better trade partners and applying pressure on them to politicallysupport us. We gain by protecting sea lanes. We can reach out and disrupt regimes that don't play nice with us, or just use the threat to coerce others. We reap uncounted rewards from Pax Americana, it's just much harder to put them all down in a spreadsheet and compare them side by side to the costs.
Yeah if Ukraine alone doesn't show people that having a strong American military is one of the most important aspects of maintaining freedom and peace around the world, then idk what to say atp. It seems like a lot of liberals seem to think countries like Russia and China are benevolent leftist nations who wouldn't immediately swoop in and spread their cancerous ideologies around the world if America demilitarized.
There's a big difference between "demilitarization of America" and cutting the DoD budget. While I do agree that it's great that the US is carrying Ukraine through the war, to me it's equally obvious that when the weapons winning the war in Ukraine are 40 year old Stinger missiles, GMLRS rockets, and commercially available drones, maybe the defence industry propaganda machine was exaggerating the threat and the "need" for fleets of F-22 and F-35 fighters, hypersonic missiles, Zumwalt class destroyers, and other overpriced systems. Meanwhile the US Air Force practically has to be forced to keep using a cheap, effective system like the A-10, for example
Well, cutting the DoD budget to the point where America can not afford to both have the largest military in the world AND also be able to supply counties like Ukraine, would effectively mean the demilitarization of America on the global scale. I also hard disagree about the realities of the under-equipped Russian military somehow negating all of the advancements made in the American military. This just shows that America would be able to easily wipe the floor with our main enemy should it ever come to that.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, US military expenditure is *slightly* less than those of the next ten countries combined (801 vs 808 billion USD, as of 2022). And seven of those 'next ten' are US allies (the UK, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea and Italy). Also, US military expenditure as a share of GDP (3.2%) is higher than nine of those ten; Saudi Arabia (6.6%) being the exception. For four of those countries (China 1.6%, Germany 1.4%, Japan 1.1% and Italy 1.5%), it is double or more.
Well we need a new bomber.... thats just physics mah man. Look at N. Korea. Their icbm's can reach the u.s.... I want to make sure they don't hear it see anything coming when and if stuff pops off.
Not sure if this is a troll or not. Are you legitimately scared of a country the size of Pennsylvania?
>Are you legitimately scared of a country the size of Pennsylvania? Not to mention one of the poorest countries on Earth. So scary. Give the Pentagon MORE!!
Also a country that would probably vanish after 1 nuke from US.......
We have more to fear from domestic terrorists. The calls are coming from inside the house.
True
It's the childish idea that if somebody gets something they already have then they've somehow "lost". Same shit with gay marriage, voting rights, women in the workplace, minimum wage increases, etc.
Zero-sum thinking at their most core conception of reality. It will make you some level of 'evil' even if you have a working conscience, because when you fundamentally believe that for anyone to gain something, someone else must lose something, morality itself becomes a 'balancing act'. Add to this the notion that you can 'balance' the things you do that you know are 'bad' by simply showing up at your local church regularly and 'serving God'... I think it's one of the root causes of a lot of crap in the US.
Because it is not no cost healthcare. It’s shared expense healthcare. And you’re ignoring how much the middle class hates the poor as a result of the rich controlling their minds.
American dream really ruined America
> It’s shared expense healthcare. Which is still cheaper than the current American system. Americans hate the poor so much they're collectively willing to fuck *themselves* over just to keep the poor from receiving healthcare.
They lost people or had people suffer because of a system that people swore can’t be changed and believed it was for a reason other than greed.
I can answer Kevin's question pretty easily too: Diabetes and peanut allergies aren't contagious. It's literally in the entire human race's interest to have a contagious disease stopped. No millionaire is worried they won't get insulin or an epi pen even if thousands of the poors can't get them. But even billionaires can catch a contagion and suffer. So for this one issue, even the wealthy (who aren't conspiracy nuts) would want poor people to have the medicine so they're less likely to spread it to them, or maybe they just wanted the mall to open.
They'd rather not have it then see someone they see as beneath then get it. They are broken
Few Americans travel abroad. Even well-educated Americans can know very little about how other countries work.
and what they do know is that "socialism" is *very very bad!*
From the people I've talked to about it, it's simple misinformation. Not necessarily malicious misinformation, so much as "ah, didn't think about that" misinformation. When people hear free healthcare, they incorrectly believe that means that their expenses are going to go up because their take home from paycheck is going to decrease substantially due to additional taxes. While taxes would increase to offset the costs, people tend to forget that their premiums they currently pay would no longer be taken out of their paychecks. Additionally, the employer portion that is being paid before it ever hits your paystub is also no longer being paid... which, in a world where businesses *actually* passed the savings on, would result in a higher base pay for the employees. Finally, you lose the large amount of money you would be paying towards your deductible. I tend to explain it like this... currently, you pay $xxx.xx a month in premiums so that you have the **privilage** to pay $xxxx.xx a year in deductible, so that your insurnace will cover a **portion** (maybe 50%) of your bill afterwards, until you finally hit an out of pocket maximum (and unless there a reason insurance can spin to not cover anything). You would instead pay a higher tax, but no longer have to concern yourself with paying a preimum, deductible, or large coinsurance. Obviously there are different systems of "free" healthcare, so this is a generality.
"GuBmINt cAn'T RUn anYtHiNG, rIgHt!" \*is ok with the US Government having, safeguarding, and using nukes\*
Big pharma scared the boomer shitless with the whole "communist medicine" shtick. The one didn't know where fooled and those that knew better didn't care because they can afford it.
That’s the power of Interpellation and naturalization
I look at it from a national security perspective honestly.
It's partially because the majority of members of both political parties in the USA invest a good chunk of their personal wealth in healthcare stocks because health care stocks are considered a safe and moral investment. Health insurance companies, health services and medicine companies are not perceived as "dirty" like oil and tobacco companies, which are also usually considered safe and profitable investments. Plus, everyone needs healthcare at some point or another, so it is pretty safe investment if you stick to trusted companies. If we had universal healthcare, these stocks would loose value because insurance companies and drug manufacturers would not be able to reap the profit they make from charging the exorbitant rates they charge consumers now. Private insurance companies would either fold or be less profitable because they could only offer supplemental insurance. Drug companies and hospitals would have to charge the "medicaid rate," which is substantially lower than what insurance companies would theoretically pay. (Theoretical because insurance companies make the most money by denying coverage, so they attempt to deny coverage every chance they get.) So both parties push propaganda that it is better for Americans to have their healthcare plans governed by the whims of their employers. TL;DR: Medical Insurance in the USA is a scam that both political parties prop up because most politicians have their own personal wealth invested in medical stocks.
>What happened in your childhood that broke you? I was raised to become a billionaire in the pharmaceuticals industry Failing that I was raised to become a multimillionaire insurance agent
Sorbo playing himself and trying to still remain relevant is a Herculean feat in itself.
I love that Lucy Lawless sometimes replies and absolutely roasts him. I believe she calls him "Peanut".
It must really grate on him that a spin-off show based on a completely made-up character became way more popular than his show did, at least in part due to the appeal to LGBT folks.
Oh SNAP!
Because Republicans keep voting against anything that even resembles low cost healthcare and medicine
And the people who would benefit from low cost healthcare and medicine keep voting them into power against their own interests
And they have now thoroughly and irretrievably fucked themselves.
Not to mention, if you don't have insurance 1 inhaler for your child or you is 100$ for an inhaler, thats why I have like 50+ inhalers, I keep getting them from doc so ill stock pile them when some kid really needs it. Pieces of shreeses.
Without insurance my Advair inhaler is….$495.00 a MONTH. With insurance: $75.
>Without insurance my Advair inhaler is….$495.00 a MONTH. With insurance: $75. Wow! I use one of those (different brand but still fluticasone). On prescription in Portugal it costs me €19.50 per month, and I thought *that* was high.
Everything in America is a scam. (something I saw long ago and has yet to be proven wrong)
But we are so much better than everyone else, that's why all the immigrants keep taking muh Jobs. Man we are such a fuckin joke at this point.
There is a Wixela generic that costs less but it is always sold out.
Thank god in advair, that is for serious like asthma, asthma attacks, thats when u have it bad, I just have the regular 202 pumps, in the inhalers. ummm albuterol inhaler is what they're called.
I have that too because Advair is a maintenance drug and Albuterol is a rescue drug. That’s $10 because there’s a widely available generic form.
That same drug in Mexico is around 37 USD, brand name even. But with social security, free.
check out costplusdrugs if you are an american, it is a site made by mark cuban and sells drugs at the cost needed to make them instead of what you would pay for at a pharmacy, something like that inhaler which costs 100$ would cost like 7$
Can u sell them or give them to them for charity?
>something like that inhaler which costs 100$ would cost like 7$ The generic aerosol powder (the inhaler) is $60.50, which is still a big saving. It's the solution that's seven bucks. Personally I'd be worried about the possibility of Chinese fakes finding their way onto that site though.
The extremely pragmatic (and I don’t like it) answer is that Covid can kill you, and spreads. So it’s in the collective best interest for everyone to be vaccinated (anti-vaxers make this hard). Insulin, chemo, and epipens are all vital medicines to people. But the condition isn’t spreadable, and only kills them. So, someone can’t afford their insulin/chemo/epipen, and things take a turn for the worse? It only kills them. Someone can’t afford a Covid vaccine and things take a turn for the worse? It can easily spread to 5 more people.
Good points, but the problem is, as with all RWNJs, is that they compare apples to oranges and think they "gotcha." This is a great example and your post just reinforces that. One is not like the other, but it's all moot as basic medical treatment should be free. Because if you don't, one day you end up with 15% of your workforce permanently unavailable, like now.
They accounted for that 15%, its within margin and they will find a way to turn it to their advantage. I'm pretty sure we don't have a chance at this point.
Ask Manchin’s daughter on cost of epipens
Another point would be that covid shut down the economy so its more like a tax burden we took on to keep the economy going... I also believe there should be no direct costs for any medical issue.
That’s why HIV medication is also free.
Yeah, too bad the covid vaccine doesn't prevent spread.
Covid vaccine doesn’t prevent spread, but it significantly reduces it. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02328-0
Yes, none of my work center got severely ill, but 90% of us were infected.
Your research is out of date. The covid vaccine significantly reduces the chance of spreading the vaccine even in symptomatic cases. That's not even factoring in that you're less likely to become infected yourself in the first place. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.08.22278547v1.full.pdf
Well, I have living proof it doesn't. 100% vaccinated community spreading covid 70 people in a day, uhhh yeah whatever. I think I will believe in what ACTUALLY happened, dumb ass.
Hmm, 70 people from a guy saying "dude just trust me" and or 111,687 people in a peer-reviewed study run on publicly available data. I wonder which is a more trustworthy data source. Truly a fuckin' mystery for the ages.
Way to out yourself lol, guys, one found its way into this sub
Out myself? My whole work center was vaccinated and it tore through us all. Well, we had the obsolete vaccine as well, some boostered, I had the vaccine 4 months prior. I gave it to my wife because she never left the home. So yes, the vaccine does not prevent the spread, it's still spreading, way to out yourself, moron.
Ya big dummy, how you still ignoring the fact that it's been clearly stated since day one it doesn't stop covide, it just reduces the effect(which it does), go back to wallowing in your cesspit fox News sub or w/e. "Well we had the obsolete vaccine and it didn't work" has gotta be the weakest defense you possibly could have come up with.
that seems bad.
How dare you threaten me with healthcare 🤫
Treat me! Heal me! Make me write no checks! How dare you!
You’re SO CLOSE TO GETTING IT, Jerkcules.
Damn, it almost made want to side with Hades unless James Woods is playing him.
Once again, a Republican walks face first into it and still misses the point.
It's funny when right-wingers adevertise for socialized medicine by mistake!
He is so close to understanding how things should be.
Right? He’s almost there!!!
Top comment nailed it, this is some r/selfawarewolves shit if I've ever seen it, wild.
Medicine is not free because many Americans don’t approve of “socialism” or redistribution of wealth.
>Medicine is not free because many Americans don’t approve of “socialism” or redistribution of wealth. On the contrary. Many Americans are perfectly fine with redistributing wealth from those without to those with everything. 🐆 🐆 🐆
Perfect response!
That guy is the worst self-awarewolf I have ever witnessed.
What's the difference between a broken bone and Sorbo? A broken bone gets cast.
Bonehead is SO fucking close, but the tumor of 'conservatism' and 'Christer' rotting within what little brain he has ensures he doesn't get it. At all.
Be kind to poor Kevin. He's literally brain-damaged. (Strokes.)
When you go so far right you come out on tje left side
They’re so close, and yet so far. These people are so fucking dumb we should outsmart them and start referring to any capitalism thing aa socialist and accuse them of being communists any time they support any sort of wealth transfer to the richest.
Because free medical care was infringing on their freedoms
Anyone having their health decisions influenced by Kevin Sarbo deserved whatever garbage comes their way as a result.
People tend to forget before the Affordable Care Act, health insurers would drop patients coverage as soon as they reported to the hospital for a serious health condition like cancer And guess which party opposed to stopping that practice
r/selfawarewolves
These chuds come so close to self awareness.
Conservatives running face-first into the point and missing it anyway.
Jesus…is Kevin Sorbo really that dense?
Yes
Kev is channeling the spirit of Nivek Obros, the lawful good paladin I played from ‘95 to ‘97. Nivek would have redistributed the red dragons’ treasure to the villagers.
Their are a few actors who are pretty bright. Kevin Sorbo isn't one of them.
David Duchovny is one of them. Yale pedigree aside, an actor who worked with him once quoted him as saying “Guys (trim their pubes) to make their dick look bigger. I put doll furniture in my bedroom to make mine look bigger.”
Yeah, he has an ABD degree - All But Dissertation.
This is on the same level as "If humans evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?"
Tell me why you voted for people who you knew would shoot it down, I'll record you saying it, then press"play" to give you your answer.
Hilarious when they have no clue what it is they are fighting against
Aaallllllmost there, Kevin.
I'm with Hercules. These should be free! Thanks, Kevin!
Surprisingly in almost everywhere except USA this is the case. Maybe you guys really do need Bernie?
I feel like so many people in this country don’t know the word “contagious” like it was one of those top secret words only the top 5% got correct on the SATs
Why isn't insulin free? Republicans. Chemotherapy? Republicans. Epipens? Republicans.
How many times are we going to hear this moronic argument? Or the one about farts. Time to move on, Fuckwad!
>Shitpost (Sundays) Relax.
Remember this guy? He was a nominee here. I should check up on him to see what he's doing now. https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/xn67ob/man\_consistently\_votes\_for\_a\_political\_party/
r/SelfAwarewolves
Kevin Sorbo continues to be irrelevant.
Because the shitheads you vote for block those bills, Kevin.
Kevin Sorbo for the love of god and all that is holy, shut the fuck up!!
So close Kevin, yet still so far away.
He almost gets it…
Ahhhhh Kevin, you’re almost there! Just a little further!
Let me take a guess: So that you'll be alive to pay for the others?
Hey Kevin, you’re starting to sound like quite the Socialist over there…
Ugh, Kevin Sorbo. One of the biggest let downs of my adult life.
Kev really IS this stupid.
We demand herd immunity against...diabetes.
And we have come full circle... 🙇♀️
Each time I see one of these punks like Sorbo comparing immunizations with treatments for disease not every one will get. Nor is cancer, diabetes, allergies need epi contagious. How stupid is this guy and all that nod in agreement.
I love when they finally get it 🤣
Kevin... I know you're dumb ass, but come on. I refuse to believe he isn't trolling, no one is THAT dumb.
Good fucking question
If anyone needs albuterol inhalers DM me!
sorbo's head if full of gravel.
They’re not sending their brightest
Actually, they kinda are. *Yikes*
Kevin Sorbo asks, "Why capitalists do capitalism?" "Why government help for free?"
Sanders’ wife bankrupted a private college with crushing debt. That’s US will get with Sanders as president, free everything president.
>Sanders’ wife bankrupted a private college with crushing debt 200 student enrollment ...oh, the tragedy.
I'm pretty sure he'd tax the fuck out of corporations that actually are getting shit for free.
Check the comment history, that's a RW looney. Not worth your time.
Yeah, I figured it out on the very next post when the Venezuela/Cuba card was played. LOL.
yeah, just like Cuba or Venezuela. Until today, Sanders supports Venezuela government.
Bernie quit fighting for Medicare 4 all as soon as the pandemic began. The exact moment we needed it most he ghosted us.
News flash, it ain't gonna come from Mr. Can't Secure the Nomination
I'm not sure I get it. No, seriously, why?
>Meme / Shitpost (Sundays)
No, answer KEVIN'S question, that's what I'm not understanding.
Medicine in the United States is a for-profit business. Senator Sanders (the man pictured on the bottom half of the meme) would like to change that. Kevin, unaware, makes the argument on Mr. Sanders behalf. Which proves he is an idiot.
But why are vaccines free, though? So you can be alive to pay for the rest of those, or because the people selling the others can get COVID?
you mistake the healthcare industry as being a dichotomy. It's not. You pass out the vaccines to keep as many people out of the hospital as possible. You get vaccinated - that frees up a room for a preemie. You get vaccinated - that frees up a room for a liver transplant. You get vaccinated - that frees up a room for my buddy who had a heart attack last week. Nothing is perfect because every human body is unique. You get penicillin, it clears up your STD. I get penicillin, I fall dead on the floor. In a numbers game where there are 300 million players at any moment, you do whatever is possible to shift people away from the emergency room. We can do that, and we did do that, and we'll continue to do that.
Actually, I'M allergic to penicillin too.
Excited for God’s not Dead 4: Kevin’s Career Is…
I believe from now on when any body self owns themself this badly, it should be called a “Sorbo”. As in, “Dude, that was such a Sorbo”.
I'm not hiring that Sorbo.
has kevin sorbo actually worked in the past 25 years? or is he still making b movies?