US Politics Mega-thread - Page 8718

On September 13 2017 03:29 semantics wrote:
A single payer won't solve anything until the US actually regulates its medical industry, you can have private insurance if you force them to operate as nonprofits, you have to cap prices on old medical technology, you can't charge me 20 grand for a CAT scan that shit been around since the 70's. Cost of medical supplies also need caps on their profit margins and removing a la carte pricing so you pay for the package of getting someone healthy not make more money if you mess up and require more things to be done.

On September 13 2017 03:29 semantics wrote:
A single payer won't solve anything until the US actually regulates its medical industry, you can have private insurance if you force them to operate as nonprofits, you have to cap prices on old medical technology, you can't charge me 20 grand for a CAT scan that shit been around since the 70's. Cost of medical supplies also need caps on their profit margins and removing a la carte pricing so you pay for the package of getting someone healthy not make more money if you mess up and require more things to be done.

On September 13 2017 03:59 ShoCkeyy wrote:
Isn't the issue with medical costs also the lack of people that work in the medical industry?

HOUSTON — Floodwaters in two Houston neighborhoods have been contaminated with bacteria and toxins that can make people sick, testing organized by The New York Times has found. Residents will need to take precautions to return safely to their homes, public health experts said.

It is not clear how far the toxic waters have spread. But Fire Chief Samuel Peña of Houston said over the weekend that there had been breaches at numerous waste treatment plants. The Environmental Protection Agency said on Monday that 40 of 1,219 such plants in the area were not working.

The results of The Times’s testing were troubling. Water flowing down Briarhills Parkway in the Houston Energy Corridor contained Escherichia coli, a measure of fecal contamination, at a level more than four times that considered safe.

In the Clayton Homes public housing development downtown, along the Buffalo Bayou, scientists found what they considered astonishingly high levels of E. coli in standing water in one family’s living room — levels 135 times those considered safe — as well as elevated levels of lead, arsenic and other heavy metals in sediment from the floodwaters in the kitchen.

“There’s pretty clearly sewage contamination, and it’s more concentrated inside the home than outside the home,” said Lauren Stadler, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University who participated in The Times’s research.

“It suggests to me that conditions inside the home are more ideal for bacteria to grow and concentrate. It’s warmer and the water has stagnated for days and days. I know some kids were playing in the floodwater outside those places. That’s concerning to me.”

The Associated Press and CNN last week reported high levels of E. coli contamination, but did not specify where the samples were taken.

The E.P.A. and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have expressed concern about toxic floodwaters, but have not made public the results of sampling they may have done.

Residents and medical professionals said they are seeing infections that likely resulted from exposure to the dirty floodwaters.

Dr. Beau Briese, an emergency room physician at Houston Methodist Hospital, said he had seen a doubling in the number of cases of cellulitis — reddened skin infections — since the storm. He said it was a more modest increase than he had expected, and that the infections had been successfully treated with antibiotics.

Dr. David Persse, the chief medical officer of Houston, said residents caring for children, the elderly and those with immune disorders should try to keep them out of homes until they have been cleaned.

“Everybody has to consider the floodwater contaminated,” Dr. Persse said. He also warned residents to avoid letting cuts and scrapes come into contact with the floodwaters, which can cause infection.

Brad Greer, 49, developed two scabby infections on each of his legs where rain boots had irritated his skin. He took antibiotics, but on Saturday, he said, he started feeling lightheaded and weak as he and his brother-in-law tried to move possessions from Mr. Greer’s flooded home.

He went to the emergency room at Houston Methodist, where he was put on an intravenous drip and given another antibiotic prescription. Mr. Greer said swimming pools around his neighborhood are rank.

“All the pools are just giant toilets you’re unable to flush,” he said.

The lab analysis was paid for by The Times. The sampling was conducted by a team from Baylor Medical College and Rice University, working with the Houston health department’s Bureau of Pollution Control and Prevention.

The group, accompanied by Times reporters, took water and sediment samples last week by boat, truck and on foot. The samples were analyzed by A & B Labs, a state-certified service that often works with federal agencies.

On September 13 2017 04:04 GreenHorizons wrote:


I do have the cynical view that many of them are simply doing this because they know it can't pass this congress. There were also stories about how Dem establishment consultants and donors were pressuring Bernie to not have his supporters make support for medicare for all a condition of their support.

That said, didn't some crazy radical suggest that Democrats should have done this 6 months ago (or 12+ really). Didn't some rational democrats tell them how dumb it was?

On September 13 2017 05:11 ticklishmusic wrote:
i find this single payer push to be a contrast yet also an odd parallel of the republicans pushing obamacare repeal as the opposition party pushing opposition-y things. what will be interesting is if and when the dog catches the car and the dems get the power to possibly pass their thing and then the actual details need to be hashed out.

i think the dems are generally better than the reps with regards to actually hashing out the numbers, but this one seems iffy.

On September 13 2017 05:15 Plansix wrote:

They can’t slam it through like they did the ACA. That is doomed to be another nightmare. If they don’t get Republican buy in at some level, it will be another 8 years of the GOP trying to run against healthcare. I question if it will be as successful a second time, but anything is possible.

On September 13 2017 05:17 ticklishmusic wrote:


yeah, as part of the parallel i think it's impossible to slam through single payer, even if on-paper the dems have control over congress and the white house. the math and everything on the ACA worked. it doesn't work for repeal, nor single payer. they're good marketing, but terrible policy.

just get the goddamn public option via medicare/ medicaid expansion or otherwise leveraging them as the largest purchasers of healthcare like the earlier drafts of the ACA had. that is probably doable now.

On September 13 2017 05:27 ticklishmusic wrote:
my edit - same thoughts exactly.

ideally it'd be like a group purchasing system where states, insurers or even large employers could pick and choose what they want to be buying through a medicare marketplace.

On September 13 2017 05:42 Mohdoo wrote:


Doesn't this choice just end up weakening the system the same way opting out of insurance does?

On September 13 2017 05:43 Nevuk wrote:

Yes. I think putting in opt out for republican states is a terrible idea. They've clearly shown they're willing to opt-out no matter the benefits purely out of partisan spite. It may be required by the supreme court, though.

On September 13 2017 05:50 ticklishmusic wrote:
unfortunately, there doesn't seem like a way that not having an opt-in would work. i think a number of the more pragmatic republican states (like GA) or even purplish ones would have to face the numbers after a few years.

On September 13 2017 05:54 Nevuk wrote:

The GOP governor of KY (a state that expanded medicaid under a democratic one previously) is currently exploring ways to undo or limit the expansion even when doing it is highly unpopular in the state. I'm not quite sure what is going on, as it's a really odd situation.