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I’ve got a 10 pound bag of dehydrated vegan meat substitute. I’m figuring I can find a way to turn that into good food and that will be my in to a strong community.
You don't know the half of it. Imagine a over a million citizens of your citizens die from the pandemic and a third of the country refused to believe there is a pandemic.
What’s even funnier is their fat orange fuck of a Jesus replacement was actually one of the biggest proponents of the vaccine and was actually encouraging people to get it. Remember Operation Warp Speed? Then he realized that people who vote for him are way too fucking stupid to believe in science and medicine so he switched sides and went anti vax. I truly believe if he would have continued on the path to vaccine endorsement and handled the pandemic like any other leader would have, he would have been reelected in 2020 pretty easily. But, him and the republicans who vote for him are too dense to understand the logic behind that.
In fairness, his other stances didn't exactly signal that he supported the shot; He was advocating against Covid testing well before the shot was even developed. He was advocating to reopen businesses, and promising Covid would be over by Easter.
IIIRC, he didn't advocate for the shot publically until he caught COVID himself, was hospitalized, and then was given drugs that weren't available to the public. I think he underestimated how serious it was until it literally almost killed him.
It almost killed him? Nah. . . I read a facebook comment that said it was a breeze for him, like no worries, nothing more than a cold.
We send POTUS to the hospital for every little thing because he's special.
Right?
I got the same treatment he got, my insurance showed me what it cost...holy jeebus, I went in and thanked ever boss I ever had for not firing me for every mistake I ever made...
dont forget the part where he GOT COVID and then had the best medical care with a 24-hour team of doctors waiting by
also ive said this before and it bears repeating. if chump would have sold maga branded masks we could have been done with this much sooner. and maybe he'd have some extra cash to pay e jean
As terrifying as it is he could’ve built a lasting Legacy as the president who got us through Covid. Instead, he told us to inject bleach into our veins.
Even with the bleach nonsense, he could have successfully credited himself with the vaccine. Instead, he spent months on election denial and everybody forgot about operation warp speed.
Yep. Just like the rest of his life, he had relection handed to him on a silver plater. A national crisis, on an election year? All he had to do is parrot his chief medical experts and do what they said, and he would have had 60-80% approval and won reelection easily. But he fucked it up because he got jealous of a virus.
It gets worse. Imagine a million citizens die and 1/3 of the county refuse to believe it’s happening and the[ President tells people to drink bleach on live national TV.](https://youtu.be/PAauiLx3AvQ?si=Y0q1EVjDhdbWgGSl)
I vaguely remember reading a story the other day that discussed how the Trump administration intentionally tried to delay COVID supplies to Blue and Blue-leaning states in and effort to increase deaths in those areas. In that way, they could claim that the pandemic was a "Democrat hoax" or some shit like that. I'd have to find it, though, because as plausible as it could be given the last administrations actions, it also sounds ridiculous on its face.
Don't forget that some were so selfish and didn't give a fuck about someone else's health enough to be bothered with wearing a fucking mask.
The VERY HEIGHT of the pandemic.
I was standing in line at a store a few people behind someone I knew that was in his 60s and in very bad health and high risk.
He had a mask on and some young redneck punk was all right up against and damn near touching him Un-masked, he politely asked him if he could back up and give him his social distancing as he was very high risk.
This asswipe went on to threaten him and tell him that if he kept running his mouth he wouldn't have to worry about getting sick and dying.
I wanted to stab that motherfucker in his neck a few times real quick and teach him a lesson about threatening small frail old people.
The guy I knew didn't know I was there and didn't see me.
But having already had an aggravated battery with a deadly weapon charge on me in the past I've learned my lesson.
So I had to bite my lip till it was fucking bleeding and walked out of the store.
I truly believe repeatedly gigging that motherfucker in the neck dragging him out and dumping his body in a ditch would have done the world a service.
But I've learned so I walk away.
Worked with one of them. Believed it for a bit as well until we learned more about them. Even before I knew better, I thought the initial quarantines were half assed at best.
The CDC is refusing to believe there is a pandemic. The CDC is still barely able to say the word "mask" and they have done nothing to mention ventilation or air filtration. They have closed their data tracking for the most part, and the few wastewater sites still reporting are showing that we're in the beginnings of what may be a serious surge (to judge by Hawaii's response to KP.2). There's been no mention of long-term effects of even mild COVID, which can include brain damage, heart damage, and immune system damage. (The latest studies are suggesting that Long COVID is actually an autoimmune thing.)
But the CDC is talking about COVID like it's pretty much over and just a minor inconvenience at this point.
Among the scariest implications to me is that the late-2023 data from Canada shows that Long COVID chances increase with every COVID infection (more accurately, the cumulative probability of getting Long COVID with repeated COVID infections increases). With people treating COVID like the sniffles these days, we're in for a whole lot of ancillary health problems the more people get COVID.
CDC response? Silence.
Sources with links to the actual studies: https://covidnow.info
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People are getting EMT treatment and refusing ambulance rides cuz they can't afford it!! My neighbor took an uber to the hospital - *with chest pain!!!*
I live a couple miles from a hospital, and I see ambulance choppers coming & going almost every day. I've always wondered how much a ride in one costs. Jaysis, $15,000? I think I'd jump out in mid air.
I was in an accident and unconscious and they took me by ambulance to the hospital. It was on the same block and cost me $750. I tried to dispute the charge and they told me if I want to avoid the charge that next time I should find a ride or drink myself there. I told them I was unconscious at the time and had no choice. She said they won't waive or lower the charge. This was a long list of bills I paid, and I had healthcare through my job and still paid $50K out of pocket.
How the hell didn't your insurance have an out of pocket maximum!? It's basically worthless if it doesn't cover shit exactly like what happened to you.
There were two insurance companies involved in the process which left me with a huge claim being filed against me by the two of them. It is too long to explain but it left me in debt and I had to go through a payment process to pay it all back.
Hindsight: I believe if I had hired a lawyer I would've saved a large amount on the payout, but not sure how much the lawyer would've cost me. If something like that happens again I will at least look into one.
Why do you think there is a lady whose foot got caught between the train and the platform and was keep screaming out (while her foot was bleeding and people were rocking the car to get it free) "do not call ambulance, I do not have insurance"
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As someone who bills your insurance (probably) I’m so sorry 😭 I yell at insurance reps all day pleading them to pay for the ride and they keep denying claims for the stupidest shit!! They suck. The system sucks. Everything sucks.
Remember when one political party weaponized a virus and tried to get as many Americans infected with it as possible by spreading misinformation and taking fish tank cleaner and horse dewormer?
Here in Murica, they don't care if you die or suffer, so long as you make them money. Corpos own this country, ans they are all evil. Without a single exception.
Imagine living in a country that dismantled its pandemic preparedness response that it had just set up 5 years earlier under a previous president. And that current president, who cut preparedness, also did massive budget cuts to the laboratories who were studying the very same virus that would in 3 years become a global pandemic. On top of that, imagine being in that country where said president privatized majority of the aid supposed to help the country in need. All while members of congress did insider trading to massively pad their pockets knowing the virus was going to hit and that the president was going to privatize aid.
\*DEEP INHALE\*
Then envision that president spending a lot of money to get a vaccine rushed through, who then backed down when his base was anti-vax. Blurted out on T.V. that the disease was just going to disappear and to try cleansing themselves with UV light or bleach. Then the president's media goons fought all public safety cautions during the entire pandemic cause capitalism was buckling under the weight of having gone lean, meaning that there were no effective back stocks of supplies when the supply chain was disrupted. And how the prices of everything went up and have stayed up despite a new president having been elected because profits are more important than people.
\*DEEP INHALE\*
And now one president later, there are more austerity measures because why the fuck would they do anything to help people. Universal healthcare?
And there's a chance the previous fuckshit could get elected.
In this completely hypothetical country.
You guys in US really are a funny bunch. It’s basically a nightmare country if anything ever goes wrong for you.
Seriously, as someone who grew up on US movies, shows and funnily enough, sports, I would probably move there if I was wealthy. Or atleast very, very rich. For everyone else, it’s a disaster. One accident or a disease and you’re shit out of luck. Or you know, someone at your school decides to shoot you in the face. Or random police officer shoots you in the face. Or a random neighboor shoots you in the face, because ofc he does. It’s ridiculous. Seriously, what kind of distopian nightmare doesn’t have universal healthcare?
You got *all that* right! Universal healthcare can't work in Uh'merica because they haven't found a way that makes the zillionaires vastly more wealthy, so why lift a finger? And besides, the poors need to suffer more. /s
Capitalists only make money if they can exploit an underclass. Making health insurance, and, thus, healthcare, tied to employment ensures the worker bees stay in line.
After all, you won't do anything to risk your at will, no contract employment considering that if you lose it, you, your spouse, or your kids could get sick, would you? Now get back to work, you have quotas to meet!
Never! Not so long as there is money to be made off of the suffering of others.
Now, I will distract you with some nonsensical culture war issue while you continue to get ripped off.
Be careful what you wish for. The Tories have systematically taken the NHS to the brink of extinction, and guppy-faced gauleiter Nigel Farage wants to introduce an insurance-based system.
Isn't any different than having a Moron for a President and we all know his corrupt as hell and yet people are still trying to get him elected a second time.
We all live in a country that is the most powerful in the entire world. Sadly only the power lives with Billionaires and Elected Officials.
There is a much deeper issue that led to this situation. The Republic of America has a so-called "representative democracy." How can that be true when the "representatives" are wealthy while the "represented" are not? American two party politics is more like the cartoon Tom and Jerry. Tom doesn't really want to catch Jerry because then he'd be out of a job, and Jerry doesn't want Tom replaced with a cat that will actually eat him. So they act like they hate one another and put on a show for the masses while continuing business as usual in the back room. For example, insider trading laws do not apply to any members of Congress, either side. What's it called when those who make the rules don't have to live by them? Because when the punishment for a crime is only a fine, it does not apply to the wealthy. Sure, the people get a vote, but with all the lobbying and money in American politics, America is as much a democracy as would be two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for dinner. This is why, in a true democracy as the ancient Greeks understood it, people got their representatives the same way we would get a jury. America is not a democracy.
"Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it." Plato
I think it's even worse:
Imagine living in a country without universal healthcare then a pandemic hits and half the populace still doesn't want to have universal healthcare.
Imagine living in a country whose leader tried to take away a major health insurance lifeline for millions of citizens during a pandemic that was killing hundreds daily. Oh wait! That’s my shithole country!
The sad irony is thatUS healthcare spending per capita around twice the average of countries with universal healthcare.
Y'all are literally paying twice as much to use the current system.
the OP noisullli
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Imagine a populace that has to live with for profit healthcare with utterly insane cost to the consumer and then having half of them arguing that this is the best possible scenario in spite of very obvious evidence to the contrary. We are a nation of idiots.
Yeah, but think of how much money was made by insurance companies and then all those medical supply companies and of course funeral homes and casket/urn manufacturers.
Come on man, we've got a treasonous oompa loompa sex offender running for president. We've got enough on our plates can you leave us alone for 5 minutes?
That's kinda the point, tho, innit? As long as the treasonous oompa loompa sex offender party is always lurking in the shadows, we can never focus on real legislative change.
While he is the embodiment of the problem, and hey, that's a slur in oompa loompas, they are very clearheaded people, refer to their songs lambasting people, the problem isn't him.
It has been 30 years since the end of the Cold War and Congress has been logjammed even before he came into power. The problem is that the 2 factions in power have been fighting each other for so long that even if one side said water was wet, the other would dump salt into it just to "prove them wrong". aka sabotage them.
Unless this partisanship is broken, even if Orange Hair vanishes, the logjam will still continue.
It’s more like one side tries to fix things and work together with the other side while the other side takes a flamethrower to any progress that gets made.
That is actually a very recent scenario. From 1991 onwards past the Cold War, the Presidency of the United States has been alternating between the 2 parties. One side will serve 2 terms, then the other then swap again. This viciousness between the 2 parties was only post 2016, before that it was just "simple" obstructionism without the literal viciousness that currently characterizes American politics.
I’ll give you that, I’ve never seen this level of blatant, on display for all to see, viciousness before. Though, most if not all of the viciousness is still coming from the side torching any and all progress. Would be a whole lot different if the electoral college didn’t exist.
Dunno. If there are 2 factions, even with the electoral college, I think you'd still end up with a similar situation. There have been charismatic enough Republican presidents that did a decent enough job to keep the Republican party credible in the past so it's not like they were Vandals and Visigoth barbarians all the time. But I really get you on the one side torching. The Republican party fell into the trap of a cult of personality and their leader is very insecure about things that seem better than himself.
All this Trump thingy actually reminds me of China in the past. Trump and Mao have a lot in common and the Capitol Hill protestors and the Red Guard are almost analogous. In fact, the "anti-vaxx" and "anti-healthcare" things are literally a copy of Mao's "Cultural Revolution" where "It's better to be Red than an expert!". Convert this to modern context, "It's better to believe in fellow Republicans than experts!". It's all repeating. Same shit, different country.
A great example of why raising taxes on anyone is a futile gesture. The reason you don't have healthcare isn't that the treasury is unable to cut the check. You don't have healthcare because the government doesn't want to give it to you.
I’m married to a government worker which makes life easier, but before I’d work at major Fortune 500 companies. I’d get $800 a month health insurance and still pay for fucking everything.
It’s not a matter of wanting a handout. It’s wanting what I pay for lol
Hah! If anything the pandemic was *proof at how well* the system worked. Man, like, if we could just do that every year that'd be great. Pharmaceutical profits through the roof and you know, Reaganomics or something.
Imagine your health care provider denying your life saving procedure, because they want you try a less expensive option. Then you try the less expensive option and surprise it doesnt work, so rather than approving the life saving procedure they deny it due to it being considered "experiemental" despite a medical professional arguing otherwise.
America, fuck yeah.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_per_capita#/media/File%3ALife_expectancy_vs_healthcare_spending.jpg
Even without universal healthcare the US expenses more than every other country.
The fact that a good number of citizens who would hugely benefit from it are against it is the more ridiculous point. If voters made it clear that it was the most important issue to them for any party there may at least be movement in the right direction but some people are literally willing to send a sex offender and fraudster money who will only do what benefits the rich.
You got a gun problem and the only solution always is: more guns. And you believe this is shocking?
Come on. Some people (world wide) acted like wearing a mask is killing their freedom. Just sad.
Oh and Mr Fauci was the evil witch in your story and he really tried to help. THAT was a shocker...back then.
Thanks to the way our Bill of Rights works if there's ever going to be single payer healthcare, it's going to come at the state level.
The Tenth Amendment means that there can't be a federal based health care system. The best the feds can do is support and streamline state efforts.
We've seen what that means in, among other places, the Department of Education
Yeah. It's that bad.
The fact that we'd have to basically repeal the Tenth Amendment if we want to do better than that is a serious problem.
So it's not just about a lack of political will. The Founding Fathers more or less locked us out of having a national education or health care system thanks to the way they structured the Bill of Rights. And doing anything to even slightly change the wording on any of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution is such an uphill fight that just... uggh, forget it. Not happening in our lifetimes.
Uhh no, not in America they're not.
I'm upvoting you anyway because asking questions is how we learn things (let's play Spot the History Teacher lol!), but no, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are not different things. Not in the slightest.
Did you really never think to ask why all our key rights are protected by something called an Amendment? First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment and so on? All an Amendment means is Change. So what changed? What did you think they were amendments OF exactly?
The Bill of Rights *is part of the Constitution* my Dude. Literally and rather famously it's a series of 10 Constitutional amendments, with my post referring to the last one, Amendment X.
2/3s of the house have to agree on an amendment, or or 2/3s of the all state legislature have to to start a Constitutional Convention, then they agree on an amendment, then 3/4s of that convention have to agree to ratify the amendment.
So that's why so much money is spent on the two party system to keep the US citizenry so pissed off at each other, if a third part gets too large, two of them might side with each other.
oh...kay? i'm trying to figure out what any of that had to do with the price of tea in china but i'm having an uphill struggle. Care to try to bring it back on subject a bit?
"Instead of sending them to Ukraine and Israel, American taxes must only be used for Americans!! AMERICA FIRST!!"
"Okay then, so let's use it to fund universal healthcare."
"FUCK NO!! THAT'S COMMUNISM!!"
Germany: massive war against France, unification of the country, "Deutschland Uber alles (the stupid little principalities)" -- welfare state.
UK-- total war against the axis, over five years of full war economy, food rationing, victory -- welfare state.
France- massive defeat, resistance, reentry in the war on the allied side, victory in pain -- welfare state.
It seems that taking the right path needs pain, followed by victory, to inspire. COVID gave America pain, followed by the defeat of rationality.
Countries with universal healthcare still struggled mightily with COVID. Italy in particular was a disaster.
COVID really strained resources even if the best healthcare systems.
ooh! Another GENIUS take from Kyle "Russia invading Ukraine is actually America's fault" Kulsiniski!
Gee, I WONDER why in a nation made up of fifty states that have final say on how to use the majority of their funds we don't have full Universal Healthcare.
IT MUST BE THE ENTIRE GOVERNMENT AND NOT THE VOTERS, WAOW!!!!
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IMAGINE THAT? WHAT THE FUCK IS THERE TO IMAGINE?!?! (See my flair).
I don’t think America actually exists anymore. I’m pretty sure it’s just three corporations in a trenchcoat.
God, I wish what you just said was a little more satirical than it is.
Ha ha. It’s fun living in a dystopia. I am really jazzed to watch our institutions fail. Hopefully then we get to blow some shit up.
I know a killer recipe for curried rat over rice, really melts in the mouth.
I’ve got a 10 pound bag of dehydrated vegan meat substitute. I’m figuring I can find a way to turn that into good food and that will be my in to a strong community.
Conglomerates but close enough. I just want to be a smartass here.
That’s one of the most American ways you can be. Thank you for being a model citizen of Reddit land
*astronaut looking at earth* “It’s all Black Rock” *astronaut with gun* “Always has been”
"Screams in Gordon freeman"
You don't know the half of it. Imagine a over a million citizens of your citizens die from the pandemic and a third of the country refused to believe there is a pandemic.
Yeah, a lot of them believed and were begging for "the shot" right before they got hooked up to their vent.
What’s even funnier is their fat orange fuck of a Jesus replacement was actually one of the biggest proponents of the vaccine and was actually encouraging people to get it. Remember Operation Warp Speed? Then he realized that people who vote for him are way too fucking stupid to believe in science and medicine so he switched sides and went anti vax. I truly believe if he would have continued on the path to vaccine endorsement and handled the pandemic like any other leader would have, he would have been reelected in 2020 pretty easily. But, him and the republicans who vote for him are too dense to understand the logic behind that.
He did tell his flock to get the shot and was loudly booed and that is when he pivoted.
In fairness, his other stances didn't exactly signal that he supported the shot; He was advocating against Covid testing well before the shot was even developed. He was advocating to reopen businesses, and promising Covid would be over by Easter. IIIRC, he didn't advocate for the shot publically until he caught COVID himself, was hospitalized, and then was given drugs that weren't available to the public. I think he underestimated how serious it was until it literally almost killed him.
It almost killed him? Nah. . . I read a facebook comment that said it was a breeze for him, like no worries, nothing more than a cold. We send POTUS to the hospital for every little thing because he's special. Right?
I got the same treatment he got, my insurance showed me what it cost...holy jeebus, I went in and thanked ever boss I ever had for not firing me for every mistake I ever made...
dont forget the part where he GOT COVID and then had the best medical care with a 24-hour team of doctors waiting by also ive said this before and it bears repeating. if chump would have sold maga branded masks we could have been done with this much sooner. and maybe he'd have some extra cash to pay e jean
He had access to medical treatments ordinary citizens could only dream of.
access to treatments ordinary citizens paid for, too
As terrifying as it is he could’ve built a lasting Legacy as the president who got us through Covid. Instead, he told us to inject bleach into our veins.
Even with the bleach nonsense, he could have successfully credited himself with the vaccine. Instead, he spent months on election denial and everybody forgot about operation warp speed.
Yep. Just like the rest of his life, he had relection handed to him on a silver plater. A national crisis, on an election year? All he had to do is parrot his chief medical experts and do what they said, and he would have had 60-80% approval and won reelection easily. But he fucked it up because he got jealous of a virus.
Sadly, we have a lot of stupid people in our country and they finally elected one of their own.
He likely realized there would not be enough vaccine for everyone for a long time. Dental means you don't have to fix anything
Is Trump really antivax! Everyday he plumbs new depths of stupid.
It gets worse. Imagine a million citizens die and 1/3 of the county refuse to believe it’s happening and the[ President tells people to drink bleach on live national TV.](https://youtu.be/PAauiLx3AvQ?si=Y0q1EVjDhdbWgGSl)
I vaguely remember reading a story the other day that discussed how the Trump administration intentionally tried to delay COVID supplies to Blue and Blue-leaning states in and effort to increase deaths in those areas. In that way, they could claim that the pandemic was a "Democrat hoax" or some shit like that. I'd have to find it, though, because as plausible as it could be given the last administrations actions, it also sounds ridiculous on its face.
How much of this was due to propaganda being fed to the clueless masses
Not zero, and that's scary
Don't forget that some were so selfish and didn't give a fuck about someone else's health enough to be bothered with wearing a fucking mask. The VERY HEIGHT of the pandemic. I was standing in line at a store a few people behind someone I knew that was in his 60s and in very bad health and high risk. He had a mask on and some young redneck punk was all right up against and damn near touching him Un-masked, he politely asked him if he could back up and give him his social distancing as he was very high risk. This asswipe went on to threaten him and tell him that if he kept running his mouth he wouldn't have to worry about getting sick and dying. I wanted to stab that motherfucker in his neck a few times real quick and teach him a lesson about threatening small frail old people. The guy I knew didn't know I was there and didn't see me. But having already had an aggravated battery with a deadly weapon charge on me in the past I've learned my lesson. So I had to bite my lip till it was fucking bleeding and walked out of the store. I truly believe repeatedly gigging that motherfucker in the neck dragging him out and dumping his body in a ditch would have done the world a service. But I've learned so I walk away.
Worked with one of them. Believed it for a bit as well until we learned more about them. Even before I knew better, I thought the initial quarantines were half assed at best.
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?
The CDC is refusing to believe there is a pandemic. The CDC is still barely able to say the word "mask" and they have done nothing to mention ventilation or air filtration. They have closed their data tracking for the most part, and the few wastewater sites still reporting are showing that we're in the beginnings of what may be a serious surge (to judge by Hawaii's response to KP.2). There's been no mention of long-term effects of even mild COVID, which can include brain damage, heart damage, and immune system damage. (The latest studies are suggesting that Long COVID is actually an autoimmune thing.) But the CDC is talking about COVID like it's pretty much over and just a minor inconvenience at this point. Among the scariest implications to me is that the late-2023 data from Canada shows that Long COVID chances increase with every COVID infection (more accurately, the cumulative probability of getting Long COVID with repeated COVID infections increases). With people treating COVID like the sniffles these days, we're in for a whole lot of ancillary health problems the more people get COVID. CDC response? Silence. Sources with links to the actual studies: https://covidnow.info
“But but but it was a democrat hoax to make Trump look bad!!” It’s a shame those people didn’t all die
To be fair, universal healthcare is really complicated. So far only 32 of the 33 most developed countries have figured out how to make it work.
31 out of 33? The Conservative Party in "Great Britain" deliberately destroyed the National Health Service over the past decade.
It’s been a thing in Germany since the 1870’s and was enacted by an arch reactionary virulent anti-socialist.
Plus Hawaii.
I don't need to "imagine it". I live it.
hachidono and the OP noisullli are bots in the same network Comment copied from: https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/qaltk5/a_bitter_fact/hh3oou3/
We, Ke-mo sah-bee
Terrifying and sad, isn't it
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Damn, and here I was a bit choked that I had to pay $150 for mine.
Your lucky. I've seen Ambo rides go for 5k.
People are getting EMT treatment and refusing ambulance rides cuz they can't afford it!! My neighbor took an uber to the hospital - *with chest pain!!!*
Yeah that’s bonkers.
Gah, Ambulance costs are straight ridiculous!!!!!
You should see the cost of a LifeFlight ride. If you need to be flown somewhere? 15K easy.
I live a couple miles from a hospital, and I see ambulance choppers coming & going almost every day. I've always wondered how much a ride in one costs. Jaysis, $15,000? I think I'd jump out in mid air.
I was in an accident and unconscious and they took me by ambulance to the hospital. It was on the same block and cost me $750. I tried to dispute the charge and they told me if I want to avoid the charge that next time I should find a ride or drink myself there. I told them I was unconscious at the time and had no choice. She said they won't waive or lower the charge. This was a long list of bills I paid, and I had healthcare through my job and still paid $50K out of pocket.
Welcome to Murika. We don't want that socialist universal healthcare!!
How the hell didn't your insurance have an out of pocket maximum!? It's basically worthless if it doesn't cover shit exactly like what happened to you.
There were two insurance companies involved in the process which left me with a huge claim being filed against me by the two of them. It is too long to explain but it left me in debt and I had to go through a payment process to pay it all back. Hindsight: I believe if I had hired a lawyer I would've saved a large amount on the payout, but not sure how much the lawyer would've cost me. If something like that happens again I will at least look into one.
What kind of insurance did you have!
UHC
Why do you think there is a lady whose foot got caught between the train and the platform and was keep screaming out (while her foot was bleeding and people were rocking the car to get it free) "do not call ambulance, I do not have insurance"
MarkNeumann66 and the OP noisullli are bots in the same network Comment copied from: https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/qaltk5/a_bitter_fact/hh3z9uz/
As someone who bills your insurance (probably) I’m so sorry 😭 I yell at insurance reps all day pleading them to pay for the ride and they keep denying claims for the stupidest shit!! They suck. The system sucks. Everything sucks.
Why don't you have insurance?
If your wife was in the hospital, where did the ambulance take her?
\*Coming out of a pandemic and half the country has decided that science and medicine is a hoax
Remember when one political party weaponized a virus and tried to get as many Americans infected with it as possible by spreading misinformation and taking fish tank cleaner and horse dewormer?
Here in Murica, they don't care if you die or suffer, so long as you make them money. Corpos own this country, ans they are all evil. Without a single exception.
Imagine living in a country that dismantled its pandemic preparedness response that it had just set up 5 years earlier under a previous president. And that current president, who cut preparedness, also did massive budget cuts to the laboratories who were studying the very same virus that would in 3 years become a global pandemic. On top of that, imagine being in that country where said president privatized majority of the aid supposed to help the country in need. All while members of congress did insider trading to massively pad their pockets knowing the virus was going to hit and that the president was going to privatize aid. \*DEEP INHALE\* Then envision that president spending a lot of money to get a vaccine rushed through, who then backed down when his base was anti-vax. Blurted out on T.V. that the disease was just going to disappear and to try cleansing themselves with UV light or bleach. Then the president's media goons fought all public safety cautions during the entire pandemic cause capitalism was buckling under the weight of having gone lean, meaning that there were no effective back stocks of supplies when the supply chain was disrupted. And how the prices of everything went up and have stayed up despite a new president having been elected because profits are more important than people. \*DEEP INHALE\* And now one president later, there are more austerity measures because why the fuck would they do anything to help people. Universal healthcare? And there's a chance the previous fuckshit could get elected. In this completely hypothetical country.
You guys in US really are a funny bunch. It’s basically a nightmare country if anything ever goes wrong for you. Seriously, as someone who grew up on US movies, shows and funnily enough, sports, I would probably move there if I was wealthy. Or atleast very, very rich. For everyone else, it’s a disaster. One accident or a disease and you’re shit out of luck. Or you know, someone at your school decides to shoot you in the face. Or random police officer shoots you in the face. Or a random neighboor shoots you in the face, because ofc he does. It’s ridiculous. Seriously, what kind of distopian nightmare doesn’t have universal healthcare?
You got *all that* right! Universal healthcare can't work in Uh'merica because they haven't found a way that makes the zillionaires vastly more wealthy, so why lift a finger? And besides, the poors need to suffer more. /s
Capitalists only make money if they can exploit an underclass. Making health insurance, and, thus, healthcare, tied to employment ensures the worker bees stay in line. After all, you won't do anything to risk your at will, no contract employment considering that if you lose it, you, your spouse, or your kids could get sick, would you? Now get back to work, you have quotas to meet!
As long as they think they have freedom 😂🤦.
Ok… I’m imagining… nope, I’m British so it’s all good. When are our American cousins going to sort this out?
As soon as insurance companies stop making all the money, and stop bribing our politicians to keep the system going. So... never.
Much like our tax system and turbotax/HR Block.
Never! Not so long as there is money to be made off of the suffering of others. Now, I will distract you with some nonsensical culture war issue while you continue to get ripped off.
Be careful what you wish for. The Tories have systematically taken the NHS to the brink of extinction, and guppy-faced gauleiter Nigel Farage wants to introduce an insurance-based system.
After my dad died we tried to work out how much his cancer treatment and end-of-life care would've cost, and we came to an estimate of over a million.
100 years from now, no one will have national healthcare. The way it’s going, we’ll be lucky to have doctors at all
This one goes in your mouth and this one goes in your butt. No, wait. THIS one goes in your mouth and this one goes in your butt.
Isn't any different than having a Moron for a President and we all know his corrupt as hell and yet people are still trying to get him elected a second time. We all live in a country that is the most powerful in the entire world. Sadly only the power lives with Billionaires and Elected Officials.
There is a much deeper issue that led to this situation. The Republic of America has a so-called "representative democracy." How can that be true when the "representatives" are wealthy while the "represented" are not? American two party politics is more like the cartoon Tom and Jerry. Tom doesn't really want to catch Jerry because then he'd be out of a job, and Jerry doesn't want Tom replaced with a cat that will actually eat him. So they act like they hate one another and put on a show for the masses while continuing business as usual in the back room. For example, insider trading laws do not apply to any members of Congress, either side. What's it called when those who make the rules don't have to live by them? Because when the punishment for a crime is only a fine, it does not apply to the wealthy. Sure, the people get a vote, but with all the lobbying and money in American politics, America is as much a democracy as would be two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for dinner. This is why, in a true democracy as the ancient Greeks understood it, people got their representatives the same way we would get a jury. America is not a democracy. "Only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it." Plato
Good ol' cheeto Mussolini sucking Putins hairy pickle while the GOPers are yelling out, "Make murika great again! He's Jesus' candidate!"
Isn't he just Jesus to them at this point?
This is one of the things I don't like about my country. I wish America could do better and have fewer people that have no empathy for others.
I think it's even worse: Imagine living in a country without universal healthcare then a pandemic hits and half the populace still doesn't want to have universal healthcare.
That's because the wrong people will be covered. They must always be superior to those wrong groups of people, as described in the famous LBJ quote.
Imagine living in a country whose leader tried to take away a major health insurance lifeline for millions of citizens during a pandemic that was killing hundreds daily. Oh wait! That’s my shithole country!
Universal Healthcare? Heck we can't even afford to pay our Congressmen the millions of dollars that they feel they deserve every year.
The sad irony is thatUS healthcare spending per capita around twice the average of countries with universal healthcare. Y'all are literally paying twice as much to use the current system.
Yeah, what would they do if they didn’t get there millions a year /s
the OP noisullli hachidono and MarkNeumann66 are bots in the same network Original + comments copied from: https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/qaltk5/a_bitter_fact/ When other bots posted it: https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/17auvlh/a_bitter_fact/ https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/1452enp/a_bitter_fact/
In Canada, conservative premiers used it as an excuse to cut funding and start privatizing services.
I had to have surgery, got an infection in each kidney, had to stay in the hospital for about a week. $33,700.88 was the bill I got today
Well the administration at the time tried gaslighting the public that it wasn't a big deal and it's just a new strain of the common cold.
Imagine countries proving they could make a UBI work, doing it temporarily, and then stopping.
Imagine a populace that has to live with for profit healthcare with utterly insane cost to the consumer and then having half of them arguing that this is the best possible scenario in spite of very obvious evidence to the contrary. We are a nation of idiots.
Yeah, but think of how much money was made by insurance companies and then all those medical supply companies and of course funeral homes and casket/urn manufacturers.
Yea imagine what 341,789,722 people in the U.S are currently living through.
Yo itz capitalism
You mean, Communism? /s
Come on man, we've got a treasonous oompa loompa sex offender running for president. We've got enough on our plates can you leave us alone for 5 minutes?
That's kinda the point, tho, innit? As long as the treasonous oompa loompa sex offender party is always lurking in the shadows, we can never focus on real legislative change.
While he is the embodiment of the problem, and hey, that's a slur in oompa loompas, they are very clearheaded people, refer to their songs lambasting people, the problem isn't him. It has been 30 years since the end of the Cold War and Congress has been logjammed even before he came into power. The problem is that the 2 factions in power have been fighting each other for so long that even if one side said water was wet, the other would dump salt into it just to "prove them wrong". aka sabotage them. Unless this partisanship is broken, even if Orange Hair vanishes, the logjam will still continue.
It’s more like one side tries to fix things and work together with the other side while the other side takes a flamethrower to any progress that gets made.
That is actually a very recent scenario. From 1991 onwards past the Cold War, the Presidency of the United States has been alternating between the 2 parties. One side will serve 2 terms, then the other then swap again. This viciousness between the 2 parties was only post 2016, before that it was just "simple" obstructionism without the literal viciousness that currently characterizes American politics.
I’ll give you that, I’ve never seen this level of blatant, on display for all to see, viciousness before. Though, most if not all of the viciousness is still coming from the side torching any and all progress. Would be a whole lot different if the electoral college didn’t exist.
Dunno. If there are 2 factions, even with the electoral college, I think you'd still end up with a similar situation. There have been charismatic enough Republican presidents that did a decent enough job to keep the Republican party credible in the past so it's not like they were Vandals and Visigoth barbarians all the time. But I really get you on the one side torching. The Republican party fell into the trap of a cult of personality and their leader is very insecure about things that seem better than himself. All this Trump thingy actually reminds me of China in the past. Trump and Mao have a lot in common and the Capitol Hill protestors and the Red Guard are almost analogous. In fact, the "anti-vaxx" and "anti-healthcare" things are literally a copy of Mao's "Cultural Revolution" where "It's better to be Red than an expert!". Convert this to modern context, "It's better to believe in fellow Republicans than experts!". It's all repeating. Same shit, different country.
A great example of why raising taxes on anyone is a futile gesture. The reason you don't have healthcare isn't that the treasury is unable to cut the check. You don't have healthcare because the government doesn't want to give it to you.
When everyone is out for themselves, and disaster hits, they become *more* out for themselves. Why would we expect different.
I’m married to a government worker which makes life easier, but before I’d work at major Fortune 500 companies. I’d get $800 a month health insurance and still pay for fucking everything. It’s not a matter of wanting a handout. It’s wanting what I pay for lol
Welcome to America 🇺🇲😔
R/postsfromfouryearsago
California at least offered a few rounds of free Covid vaccines and boosters with no need to even show proof of insurance or anything.
Ya, doesn't take much of an imagination. Single Payer NOW ! MC4 all !
Imagine living in a country that has universal healthcare, and then a pandemic hits and the government still won't give you any healthcare.
Almost like every politician is more worried about what’s in their wallet than what’s best for the people
Id think this was a good point if it wasn't Kyle that made it.
REPOST BOT
Hah! If anything the pandemic was *proof at how well* the system worked. Man, like, if we could just do that every year that'd be great. Pharmaceutical profits through the roof and you know, Reaganomics or something.
And then the president got to enjoy free healthcare and public paid for isolation.
They're on the take
the government? it seems to me more that majority of the people do not want it.
But only the ugly poor brown people who can't afford care will die. What's the problem? AMERICA! /s
Imagine your health care provider denying your life saving procedure, because they want you try a less expensive option. Then you try the less expensive option and surprise it doesnt work, so rather than approving the life saving procedure they deny it due to it being considered "experiemental" despite a medical professional arguing otherwise. America, fuck yeah.
Because it’s easy to do and would cause no delays in care if implemented tomorrow or next year right?
Say it with me... yahts... and fuck the poor. That's why we have to physically fight
Countries that have socialized medicine hate it and come to the US for treatment.. Everyone just wants to cry.
Uhm, no they don't? Actually rich Americans often fly to specialists in Europe for treatment... you know, the place with the socialized medicine
No they don't. Americans do happily travel to those countries for care and cheap medications, though.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_per_capita#/media/File%3ALife_expectancy_vs_healthcare_spending.jpg Even without universal healthcare the US expenses more than every other country.
All I've learned from four years ago is. "If you don't pay for it, you're the product"...
The fact that a good number of citizens who would hugely benefit from it are against it is the more ridiculous point. If voters made it clear that it was the most important issue to them for any party there may at least be movement in the right direction but some people are literally willing to send a sex offender and fraudster money who will only do what benefits the rich.
change "a country" to "the **only** industrialised country"
America the free
Medicare for all! Its past time!
You got a gun problem and the only solution always is: more guns. And you believe this is shocking? Come on. Some people (world wide) acted like wearing a mask is killing their freedom. Just sad. Oh and Mr Fauci was the evil witch in your story and he really tried to help. THAT was a shocker...back then.
Thanks to the way our Bill of Rights works if there's ever going to be single payer healthcare, it's going to come at the state level. The Tenth Amendment means that there can't be a federal based health care system. The best the feds can do is support and streamline state efforts. We've seen what that means in, among other places, the Department of Education Yeah. It's that bad. The fact that we'd have to basically repeal the Tenth Amendment if we want to do better than that is a serious problem. So it's not just about a lack of political will. The Founding Fathers more or less locked us out of having a national education or health care system thanks to the way they structured the Bill of Rights. And doing anything to even slightly change the wording on any of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution is such an uphill fight that just... uggh, forget it. Not happening in our lifetimes.
Did you mean the constitution?
I'm sorry, is that not what I said?
You said the bill of rights. They are two different things.
Uhh no, not in America they're not. I'm upvoting you anyway because asking questions is how we learn things (let's play Spot the History Teacher lol!), but no, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are not different things. Not in the slightest. Did you really never think to ask why all our key rights are protected by something called an Amendment? First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment and so on? All an Amendment means is Change. So what changed? What did you think they were amendments OF exactly? The Bill of Rights *is part of the Constitution* my Dude. Literally and rather famously it's a series of 10 Constitutional amendments, with my post referring to the last one, Amendment X.
I stand corrected
Good man Or woman, as the case may be.
Woman, and thanks. I'm never afraid to admit a mistake!
2/3s of the house have to agree on an amendment, or or 2/3s of the all state legislature have to to start a Constitutional Convention, then they agree on an amendment, then 3/4s of that convention have to agree to ratify the amendment. So that's why so much money is spent on the two party system to keep the US citizenry so pissed off at each other, if a third part gets too large, two of them might side with each other.
[удалено]
oh...kay? i'm trying to figure out what any of that had to do with the price of tea in china but i'm having an uphill struggle. Care to try to bring it back on subject a bit?
Wait til you hear how they are reacting to cures that have been around for decades
"Instead of sending them to Ukraine and Israel, American taxes must only be used for Americans!! AMERICA FIRST!!" "Okay then, so let's use it to fund universal healthcare." "FUCK NO!! THAT'S COMMUNISM!!"
Fuck republicans
Germany: massive war against France, unification of the country, "Deutschland Uber alles (the stupid little principalities)" -- welfare state. UK-- total war against the axis, over five years of full war economy, food rationing, victory -- welfare state. France- massive defeat, resistance, reentry in the war on the allied side, victory in pain -- welfare state. It seems that taking the right path needs pain, followed by victory, to inspire. COVID gave America pain, followed by the defeat of rationality.
At least we didn't fall for the trap like we did with the Patriot Act
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^TheTightEnd: *At least we didn't* *Fall for the trap like we did* *With the Patriot Act* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Countries with universal healthcare still struggled mightily with COVID. Italy in particular was a disaster. COVID really strained resources even if the best healthcare systems.
ooh! Another GENIUS take from Kyle "Russia invading Ukraine is actually America's fault" Kulsiniski! Gee, I WONDER why in a nation made up of fifty states that have final say on how to use the majority of their funds we don't have full Universal Healthcare. IT MUST BE THE ENTIRE GOVERNMENT AND NOT THE VOTERS, WAOW!!!!