#Healthcare Reform

[chronicsymptomsyndrome]

Clinical studies be like

1 billion random boys were tested. results show that 0% of girls are autistic* 👍

1 billion autistic males were tested. results show that 0% of autistics are female* 👍

1 billion minors were tested. results show ADHD stops at age 18, often to be replaced by plain laziness* 👍

*certified😎 totally credible source✨ we are pros🤓 with coats🥼

[reasonsforhope]

"In short: Nine million Canadian women of reproductive age will have the full cost of their contraception covered as part of a major health care reform, the government says.

The reform includes the most widely used contraceptive methods, such as IUDs, contraceptive pills, hormonal implants and the day after pill.

What's next? The government must still win the approval of Canada's provinces, which administer health care."

"Canada will cover the full cost of contraception for women, the government says as it highlights the first part of a major health care reform.

The government will pay for the most widely used contraceptive methods, such as IUDs, contraceptive pills, hormonal implants or the day after pill, for the nine million Canadian women of reproductive age, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Sunday at a press conference in a pharmacy in Toronto.

"Women should be free to choose the contraceptives they need without cost getting in the way. So, we're making contraceptives free," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on X, formerly Twitter.

The announcement fleshes out the first part of a bill unveiled in February that, once completed, would mark the biggest expansion of Canada's publicly funded health care system in decades.

This new regime will also cover the cost of diabetes medication for some 3.7 million Canadians.

The cost of the new system and timing of the launch have not been announced...

The government must now win the approval of Canada's provinces, which actually administer health care, for this new system. Alberta and Quebec have already said they would opt out.

The pharmacare plan — as it is called locally — follows protracted negotiations between Mr Trudeau's Liberal minority government and a small leftist faction in parliament.

The New Democratic Party agreed to prop up the Liberals until the fall of 2025, on the condition that the government immediately launch the drug program."

-via ABC News Australia, March 31, 2024

[ontheoutside-lookingin]

Clinical misdiagnosis is more common than self misdiagnosis. Just for the record, in case anyone is still skeptical of self diagnosis :) it’s not up for debate btw

[godisarepublican]

Check this out! This is serious! Just by naming RFK Jr for Health and Human Services, "Healthcare" stocks tanked! The error (era) of corporate greed masking as healthcare is over!

[thepeopleinpower]

Capitalism and colonialism took community away from us and I want it back. I’ve heard about it from my grandparents and in books and articles online. All throughout history and still today in some parts of the world. People looking out for each other. Regularly. Relentlessly. Neighbors watching each others children, having enough food to share and actually sharing it, being invested in each others lives because everyone has different strengths.

Today community has been strategically painted as a weakness and something to be skeptical of because it is a threat to the very foundations of capitalism. And that’s a real fucking shame because in reality, growing up with community and still having that through adulthood would probably make most people generally happier and less perpetually tired and stressed. It is renewable resilient versatile adaptable self-sustaining and kind of the Ultimate Resource.

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[lastweeksshirttonight]

Sonce last night basically had two large segments, I was wondering what would get posted on the YT channel.

The main topic is prison health care, and like most of John's stories on prison, the facts here and the way prisoners are treated is absolutely infuriating.

[fungi-funguy]

Caring For The Elderly

Reading an article by Vox about the crisis regarding care for older adults, and while I knew a lot of this, there's information I think more people should know.

(Article: "Baby boomers are aging. Their kids aren’t ready.")

A lot of Millennials, Gen X, and Gen Z are having to care for their parents. Our country isn't set up in the same way that it was when the Baby Boomers were born, and it's affecting their care as well as the entire family structure.

"By 2030, the US will for the first time have more residents over 65 than children. Someone turning 65 today has a 70 percent chance of needing long-term care at some point, and 20 percent will need it for more than five years."

"Medicare doesn’t cover most long-term care, and seniors only become eligible for care through Medicaid when they have almost no assets left. [...] the median annual cost of a full-time home health aide was nearly $60,000 in 2021, while a semi-private room in a nursing home ran $94,000 per year or more."

"To remedy the financial, mental, and physical health crisis facing boomers and their children, experts say improved paid leave is crucial. Caregivers can take unpaid time off under the Family Medical Leave Act, but without a salary, many can’t afford to."

The article also talks about the substantial gaps in Medicaid coverage, especially in regards to long-term care.

There are a lot of stories shared from the perspective of caregivers who are completely at a loss due to how little help the world offers. Mental and emotional strains due to working full-time jobs, combined with caring for one or more elderly parent, is increasing the stress levels in the younger populations. It's leading to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and heart disease.

If you're caring for an older family member, please remember that there is support out there in your community. If you aren't, please fight for better care for the elderly in these situations.

If you know someone who is a caregiver, please offer them whatever support you can.

And also, please remember to treat the elderly as the people they are. They're humans too, and they aren't some sort of monolith of pure evil rhetoric or something. They're people. And the forgetting of that information is half of why we have this crisis today.

[wollstonecraft-y]

[chronicsymptomsyndrome]

Can we go ahead and normalize medicine? Taking pills in front of people? Taking pills in public and not getting weird looks? Using alternative medicines or anything other than pills and not being treated like a novelty? Fucking please because first of all literally everyone takes medicine of some kind at some point in life okay and second of all people need medicine to live it’s a thing it’s pretty common and people need to be in public for a lot of reasons actually so can we please

[theculturedmarxist]

I wonder how much of Democrats completely giving up on any kind of healthcare reform or expansion has to do with someone crunching the numbers on Long Covid and seeing that in a few years a massive portion of the population is going to be crippled by it so "oh we can't do that it's to expensive it'll divert too much resources from our precious precious military" or "oh we can't do that it's too expensive it'll divert too much profits from our precious precious private healthcare system."

[ninja-o-s]

Cool side effect of having a cold..

When you cough and have a lower back injury, you get to experience spasms of pain AND sore throat.

[chronicsymptomsyndrome]

Legitimately wondering, why does every healthcare professional straight up ignore the end of every diagnostic criteria where it says this

[truthwars]

Trump's Vision for Healthcare: Dr. Oz at CMS

In a move emblematic of his unorthodox leadership style, President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This decision underscores Trump’s confidence in selecting bold, high-profile individuals to drive transformative change in Washington. Dr. Oz, a renowned heart surgeon and health advocate, is best known for making medical…

[trendynewsnow]

Election Day Insights: Presidential and Congressional Races 2024

Election Day Insights As the nation turns its attention to the presidential election featuring Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, voters are also closely evaluating their choices for congressional representation. Presently, the Senate is under the slim control of the Democrats, while the Republicans maintain a slight majority in the House of Representatives. With all 435 seats in the House and 34…

[drgrlfriend]

I just got a bill for $150, and I was like, "That seems like a lot, let me look at what that's for." It was from an MRI I had a few weeks ago. An outpatient MRI, I walked in, got IV contrast, got the scan, and walked out an hour later. It cost $17,000. Insurance paid $16850, and I was responsible for the rest. The price tags on these things are *insane*, folks, because insurance pays a fraction. Do not pay full price, and if you are at all able, look into affordable insurance options, even if they have big copays or deductibles, so you have coverage for catastrophic issues.

ETA:  I will add, the moral of this story is not “avoid the hospital.”  That MRI may end up saving my life.  We all need healthcare, and delaying and avoiding it puts you at risk of even greater problems down the line.

I feel like I should make a post about this because it’s not something that’s very well-known, and that Americans in particular may need to know about given the uncertain state of our healthcare system at the moment. I’ve wanted to write this out for a while, It’s kind of a long post, so sorry about that!

If you have an emergency and have to go to the hospital, you’ll owe the hospital a lot of money. (I got into a car wreck and broke my ankle and my arm. My hospital bill was around $20,000)

You’ll also owe the ambulance provider, if you need one. (My ambulance bill was about $800)

You may get separate bills from the anesthesiologist or surgeon. (My anesthesiologist bill was $1,700)

You may need follow-up appointments. (My orthopedic surgeon billed me for the appointments and his surgery together and it was about $1,000)

You’ve also got to pay for medical equipment you need afterward, like crutches or a walking boot. (Mine cost about $75)

Altogether, I ended up with almost $24,000 in medical debt from one car accident. That’s a really scary number for someone like me who makes $10/hr at a 12 hour a week job.

I got my debt down to $1075 by making some phone calls and submitting some paperwork.

The first thing I did was contact the hospital. They don’t make it easy to find, but many hospitals (perhaps most hospitals?) have financial assistance programs for people who can’t afford medical bills. I don’t make a lot of money, and I have bills to pay, so they were able to help me. I called the billing department and asked if they had any assistance programs for low income people who can’t pay their bills. I had to call multiple times, and I got transferred in circles by people who didn’t know what I was talking about. Finally, I got an appointment with someone in “Eligibility Services” (I don’t know what other hospitals call it, if it’s something different). I had to bring my pay stubs and copies of all of my bills. When I got to the hospital for the appointment, nobody knew what I was talking about so I had to wander a little to find where I needed to go. I spoke with the guy in Eligibility Services, and I waited for a decision on how much of the bill they would forgive. A month later, I got a call telling me it was totally forgiven.

I did the same thing for my ambulance bill and my anesthesiologist, but the process was a LOT easier. I just had to mail some paperwork and it was totally forgiven.

I didn’t bother with the medical equipment suppliers, since the bills came from separate companies and I didn’t feel like going through the process twice for $75. I was assured at the hospital that they had similar programs for debt forgiveness, so I could have probably avoided paying that too.

The only thing I couldn’t get taken care of was the surgeon/follow-up appointment cost, but they were able to put me on a no-interest payment plan.

Medical debt is scary because it’s something that can come from stuff that’s already really scary. I didn’t need the burden of $24,000 in debt on top of trying to get around on a crutch with a broken arm (it’s not easy, believe me!).. but I can’t imagine what it would be like with a bigger debt or a more severe medical emergency. I see lots of people in even worse trouble than I was in, both financially and medically. Please know that there are options for you when that GoFundMe doesn’t do enough. Even if your income is higher than mine, it’s worth a shot even for partial debt forgiveness.