Further Discussion About Covid-19 and the Covid-19 Crisis 2020

@RABEL222,

Speak for yourself. I have UHC Dual Complete which covers things Medicare and Medicaid doesn't cover.

So is the American media still focusing on the Covid-19 crisis? Has any progress been made towards finding a cure and/or vaccine for Covid-19? Is there still a crisis going on? Any word on when certain businesses and public facilities across the U.S. will open back up to the public?

I have not watched TV in months. I don't know too much about what's going on now.

Seems like the panic brought about by the crisis, at least in my hometown, has died down. People in my hometown are still required to wear face coverings when they go out on public and enter certain places of business.

1 Reply

@JGoldman10,

What if you get cancer and require chemotherapy and radiotherapy? Treatment alone can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Are you covered for that?

3 Replies

@JGoldman10,

Invest in a radio! They are available at many pharmacies and other stores. Some are have an electric cord. Some are battery operated.
Many also have a clock. Some have an alarm. You can listen to the news throughout the day and receive constant up to the minute information. Not just about Covid-19, but other things too. Even the weather.

Plus, you can check the news on your phone. That is what I do each day. There are free news apps you can download. If your phone is an
Android, visit the Google play store online. https://play.google.com/store
Enter News in the search box.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Yes he is. But then he is a special case. I get all my treatments regardless of what cost (they've spent a million easily on my cancer) because I am another type of special case - I'm a veteran.

The powers-that-be work our specialness against a national health care system. To my eternal shame I was against it at one time in the eighties because I was outraged that a crack baby could get hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical treatment and I couldn't get a dental appointment on minimum wage. The problem wasn't the black crack baby, the problem was overpriced medical care and and a hugely under-covered US population. Also RW politicians used this misdirection to promote racial disharmony. This is part of how we got here over 50 years.

1 Reply

@bobsal u1553115,

We’re all special cases over here. When my late wife was receiving chemo one of the nurses told her each injection would cost something like £20,000 wereit not for the NHS.

The real scandal is that per capita America spends more on subsidised health care, Medicaid etc. yet you still don't have UHC.

I remember being on holiday in Mexico and the huge queues of American holidaymakers outside the chemist trying to get their prescriptions filled. We didn’t have to go through any of that.

2 Replies

@izzythepush,

That has nothing to do with what I asked.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

We’re all special cases over here. When my late wife was receiving chemo one of the nurses told her each injection would cost something like £20,000 wereit not for the NHS.

The real scandal is that per capita America spends more on subsidised health care, Medicaid etc. yet you still don't have UHC.

I remember being on holiday in Mexico and the huge queues of American holidaymakers outside the chemist trying to get their prescriptions filled. We didn’t have to go through any of that.

Chemo is something uninsured people can't afford because it is reserved for those with insurance. They set the prices high because that's how they get money from insurance companies. If the insurance companies didn't have the money, they could only charge such high prices to rich people who could afford them and if they wanted to sell the rest of their supply, they'd have to lower the price to what people can afford to pay without insurance subsidizing them.

1 Reply

@Sturgis,

That has nothing to do with what I asked. I already have an old HiFi system, thank you, but I don't know if it still works or not.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

If a person has Medicaid and Medicare it all gets covered.
Medicare usually does 80%, along with an annual deductible of (currently) a bit more than $1,000.00. Prescription meds are extra and require either lots of cash, Meidcare Part D (for prescription coverage and with it's own monthly premium and payment according to a scale for the meds. -generic is cheaper, not all meds come in generic. My med. to prevent blood clots has no generic. Runs at some eighty bucks. It'd be about 300. without coverage. (Monthly premium is about $50. at present and that is before paying the (currently)6 monthly meds. They run just over$100. for me, AARP/UNC takes on about $500.

When someone has Medicaid (as JGoldman does) meds are free....although they must go through an approval process. A doctor must submit some form.

The The true story of Medicare and Medicaid is taxes go towards it. So, essentially, everyone is paying whenever a at taxable item is bought.

The JGoldman UHC Dual comes in a variety of forms, as do all our supplemental. Some have no premium or deductible but have plenty of restrictions. Others can and do have some costs, which vary from one plan to another. Other things vary according to which State the recipient lives in.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Chemo is covered in most cases. Either through private insurance, or Medicare (partial) or for low income, Medicaid.
Medicare and Medicaid will cover all forms of healthcare, private insurance often denies the member coverage for a whole host of reasons. Anything from lack of referrals to a non-approved treatment.

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@JGoldman10,

Plug it in! Find out if it still operates. Then listen to the news and learn for yourself what is happening with regard to Covid-19 and other current events.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

I agree with everything you say. If we can spend the equivalent of what the next eight countries together spend on defense on our own defense, we can afford the same level of health care for everyone in this nation that gets spent on me.

The disparity is used to divert attention from healthcare to racist conceptions of welfare. Healthcare is welfare and the welfare of the average citizent needs to be considered before the welfare of wealthy corporation and wealthy beyond imagination taxpayers. Its not the poor on welfare keeping healthcare from the lower and middle classes - its the welfare for big corporations who suck it up and never ever give any back.

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@Sturgis,

Sturgis wrote:

Chemo is covered in most cases. Either through private insurance, or Medicare (partial) or for low income, Medicaid.
Medicare and Medicaid will cover all forms of healthcare, private insurance often denies the member coverage for a whole host of reasons. Anything from lack of referrals to a non-approved treatment.

There will always be people who are uninsured for one reason or another, hence the importance of bringing down pricing for those who self-pay.

If you want everyone in the world to have access to health care, the availability of treatments and drugs has to be abundant and when things are abundant, they cost very little so everyone can afford them.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

Quote:

when things are abundant, they cost very little so everyone can afford them.

Abundance is a function of two things: natural rarity and controling the faucet through monopoly.

Diamonds, for example are expensive not so much of rarity but of DeBeers controlling the supply. And the price of medicine in drugs and supply is as controlled.

Drugs are priced mostly through monopoly. Why do you think drugs that are expensive in the US are almost given away in the third world? Why are drugs cheaper in Mexico or Canada? Why is there no shortage of these expensive drugs in GB? Why is Martin Shkreli in prison? Why did generic drugs increase in price hundreds of times once he got possession of them???

A Doctor can get $1000 a patient and see one patient a day or get $100 a patient and see 10 patients a day. There's a lot of that in the mix, too. Maybe its time to look at the medical profession of which a lot of Doctors see purely as a way to get rich as opposed to a profession with some degree of service to the public.

1 Reply

@bobsal u1553115,

bobsal u1553115 wrote:

Quote:
when things are abundant, they cost very little so everyone can afford them.

Abundance is a function of two things: natural rarity and controling the faucet through monopoly.

Diamonds, for example are expensive not so much of rarity but of DeBeers controlling the supply. And the price of medicine in drugs and supply is as controlled.

Drugs are priced mostly through monopoly. Why do you think drugs that are expensive in the US are almost given away in the third world? Why are drugs cheaper in Mexico or Canada? Why is there no shortage of these expensive drugs in GB? Why is Martin Shkreli in prison? Why did generic drugs increase in price hundreds of times once he got possession of them???

A Doctor can get $1000 a patient and see one patient a day or get $100 a patient and see 10 patients a day. There's a lot of that in the mix, too. Maybe its time to look at the medical profession of which a lot of Doctors see purely as a way to get rich as opposed to a profession with some degree of service to the public.

Right, well you have to figure out if a given drug can be produced at levels that everyone who needs it can get it. If so, you can just set the price at levels they can all afford, without insurance.

When insurance subsidizes the cost for people who are insured, the cost rises to levels that are unaffordable without insurance.

1 Reply

@livinglava,

That's already done. But the model being used is the DeBeers model: skin 'em for all you can get.

The cheaper prices in the third world is part of the equation, too. Savings from larger scale production (economy of scale), tax write-offs, good press and PR which financially pays off in the US with private insurance and large wealthy class.

They already know how to make tons of it, they also know how to meter it and the most at the highest prices - in the US market, the one with the most disposable income unless you're uninsured and poor.

2 Replies

@Sturgis,

Prescriptions are free for everyone over 60 in the UK. They’re also free for everyone under 16 and those under 18 in full time education. They’re free for those on benefits too.

If you have to pay prescriptions it’s £9.15 per item.

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@JGoldman10,

I answered your question. Social security is something throughout the developed World, and it’s generally a lot better outside of America.

1 Reply

@bobsal u1553115,

The thing is you’re a Christian, the person you’re arguing with may call themselves Christian but they worship Mammon.

1 Reply

Further Discussion About Covid-19 and the Covid-19 Crisis 2020

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