#Medical supplies shortage

[darkmodepls]

Can we get some more Jason 'Angel' Fenton ?

Also do you have a ao3?

I mainly use my ao3 account to collect bookmarks and haven't posted anything in a while, sorry.

To make it up to you, here's some more backstory from Jason 'Angel' Fenton.

Due to Amity's tendency to drift around and how that motion is based on its citizens' subconscious, the city actually got relatively close to Gotham for a brief period of time.

It was long enough for Oswald Cobblepot to reconnect with his cousin and goddaughter, and for Waylon Jones to decide on moving closer to his half sister.

It was also just long enough for Angel to be recognized by LOA operatives and kidnapped.

***

Angel had no memory of who he was before waking up in a GIW lab, only briefly flashbacks to rain and wet earth and a statue of his namesake. His past remained a mystery throughout the Seige of Amity Park and the City Council's attempts to clean up the mess left behind. And while he would love to get some answers, the young mad had more important things to worry about.

Angel was a grad student halfway to a doctorate in English and a new husband with a toddler. Between all of that and his blackouts, he genuinely didn't have time to pursue his origins.

***

Angel's blackouts were an ongoing problem for him. Every so often, he would 'wake up' somewhere else with no memory of the past several hours. According to Jazz and their friends, he would still do things during these blackouts, but it would be clear that the lights were on, yet no one was home.

It was more annoying than anything.

This time however, he woke up on a plane surrounded by people speaking a foreign language.

A subtle glance out the window revealed they were over the ocean, so he decided playing dumb would be the best decision for now.

***

He would continue to play dumb for the next several weeks, feigning catatonia as he tried to find a form of communication that wasn't being closely monitored.

Most of the people, ninjas? In the base have elected to ignore Lady Talia's new pet including the apparent king of this weird cavernous base.

Talia herself seemed to grow gradually more concerned and frustrated with his lack of reaction. She constantly tried to get him to respond to her, calling him Jason and insisting that her son call him brother.

[fandom-hoarder]

National IV fluid shortage due to a medical manufacturing facility being affected by Hurricane Helene. My local hospitals currently say they are not yet affected by the shortage and are monitoring the situation.

[rowenabean]

Fun fact not all problems are the patriarchy

[sureuncertainty]

i am going to fight the nurse at my doctor's office oh my god

[resourcesmasterposts]

Verified Ways to Donate to Gaza Directly

(updated Sep 2024)

Donate to a Palestinian family directly:

GazaFunds.com - Spotlights 1 stagnant/struggling GFM each time you visit the page. Donate directly to a Palestinian family in urgent need of evacuation, medical treatment or basic necessities. Site run by Palestinians, all campaigns verified.

(*If you can't decide who/where to donate, simply go to GazaFunds.com. They take the decision out of your hands.)

Masterlist of 200+ verified Palestinian families' GFMs: Operation Olive Branch

eSIMs: (*urgent!)

Guide to buy + send eSIMs to Gaza

Crips for eSims for Gaza: Donate any amount to this team of volunteers who pool funds to buy + maintain eSIMs for Gaza regularly (see their financial accountability document).

Food:

Cruelty-Free Meals for North Gaza: 4 Palestinian friends on the ground in Gaza distributing vegan-friendly meals & water to displaced families in North Gaza. Proof of their work found on their GFM page. (gfm)

We Feed Gaza: Palestinian volunteers in the heart of Gaza distributing food & water to 344+ families. Details & proof in their gfm. Vetted & promoted by LetsTalkPalestine on IG. (gfm)

Other reliable campaigns by Palestinian volunteers on the ground in Gaza distributing food & necessities to displaced families: Care for Gaza, Direct Aid for Gaza

Water: (*urgent and crucial)

Gaza Municipality: The Municipality of Gaza needs funds to rebuild the water pipes in Gaza City to restore access to clean drinking water & waste management. Crucial in combating the spread of infectious diseases e.g. polio.

Help provide tents:

The Sameer Project: Provides tents & transport for families in Rafah who urgently need to evacuate. Has a team on the ground in Gaza who successfully supplied tents to 1% of the displaced refugees in Rafah. Run by Palestinians. (paypal, venmo) (chuffed)

@helpgazachildren: Funds go directly to Hussam, a Palestinian in Rafah who hosts a refugee camp. Funds will cover the cost of tents & transport fuel. Managed by a Palestinian @fairuzfan. (gfm)

Medical Aid:

Gaza Wound Care: Palestinian doctors in central Gaza treating injured/sick children & mothers in neglected displacement camps far from hospitals. Severe shortage of medicines, equipment, & medical supplies. Raising funds to treat diseases in refugee camps. (gfm) (paypal) (gogetfunding)

international charities: Palestine Red Crescent Society, Palestine Children's Relief Fund, Medical Aid for Palestinians

How to help if you can't donate:

Share + amplify Palestinian fundraisers in your irl + online circles

Organize or help to run an online/irl event to raise funds for Palestine

Boycott

Get involved with a protest/strike/direct action in your area

Contact your reps

Educate yourself + others, irl + online

Daily clicks on Arab.org

(Longer masterpost of all ways you can help)

These links focus on Palestinian-run grassroots initiatives that will reach Gazans on the ground, so all of these except eSIMs, PCRF, MAP, OOB are by Palestinians. Donating to international organizations is currently not ideal, as aid is still being stopped at the border. Please focus on Palestinian-run initiatives on the ground in Gaza instead.

Remember, small donations always add up. Any amount counts, even $1!

If you are unable to donate yourself, you can even adopt a fundraiser campaign to regularly boost and make materials promoting it online, or print posters and flyers about Palestinian fundraisers to encourage others to donate.

Poster/graphic about gazafunds.com

Flyers about eSIMs

Flyers about GazaFamilyFunds

[paper-mario-wiki]

Good morning, my friend How are you today

I want to tell you that we are under a severe siege. There are no vegetables and no food Today the situation is very bad and I don't know what to do My mother suffers from high blood pressure Treatment is not available The world should know about us If food is available, the prices are irrationally crazy I will write these words to you and I want to spread my words. I swear I'm going crazy soon We are really suffering as if we are in the first days of the war 😔

As Israel continue to lose the war, they are firing off more and more desperate attempts to terrorize the people of Palestine in order to do as much destruction as possible before the parasitic colony state's existence is snuffed out. During these times, the civilians still stuck within the open air prison's borders are facing shortages of all necessary supplies, as price gouging and the constant sabotage of supplies has left everything hyper inflated.

Vegetables average $20-30 per kilogram.

Winter clothing averages $30-40 per piece.

If you have anything to spare, please consider donating to my friend Mohammed's campaign. he is taking care of his extended family, including his daughter Mona who has been in an out of medical treatment since the war began last year.

This Campaign Is VETTED.

[diana-aj]

Urgent Relief ... 🙏🇵🇸

"Save what's left of our souls . . . 👨‍👩‍👦

My name is Diana, a Palestinian from Gaza.

A mother of two beautiful children, Riad (6) and Ahmed (4). We live together with my mother, my brother and his wife.

Verified by ✅✅

@90-ghost ✅ here.

To donate, click here 🙏

It is difficult for me to ask for a little financial help from you But I will not let my innocent children go without a fight until my last breath

I was about to achieve my dream of becoming a teacher but the war destroyed all my dreams. Most schools in Gaza have been destroyed.💔💔

Unfortunately, our house was bombed and destroyed during the recent events,

which caused us severe psychological and physical damage due to the catastrophic situation we are currently living in. We were forcibly displaced due to the heavy bombing from the north of Gaza to the south, where we have no shelter except a tent that does not protect us from the cold of winter or the heat of summer.

We are now living in catastrophic conditions, in particular my child Riad who was born with a hole in his heart and also pulmonary valve stenosis. At the age of 6 months, he underwent open heart surgery.

Unfortunately, during his regular checkups after surgery, exactly 2 years ago, we noticed that problems had started to appear again.💔

My child Riad often falls ill due to his weak immune system and the severe shortage of food, supplies and medical supplies that we suffer from, in addition to the high prices that make it difficult to meet our basic needs.

We don’t even have access to clean drinking water. The loss of our home has exacerbated our suffering, and our daily lives have become a constant struggle for survival.

My family and I thank you all from the bottom of our hearts! ❤️❤️‍

I understand that we all go through tough times, so anything helps. Whether it's your love and support, donating, sharing my story, or sending love, prayers, positive vibes, and healing. Everything is appreciated and accepted..🙏

"Save what's left of our souls . . . 👨‍👩‍👦

To donate, click here 🙏

With all appreciation and thanks,

Diana❤️

My campaign has been verified by :

@90-ghost ✅ here.

@gazavetters my number verified on the list is ( #233 )✅️ here.

@bilal-salah0 ✅ here.

@a-shade-of-blue ✅here.

@khanger ✅here.

@fairuzfan ✅ here.

@the-bastard-king ✅ here

@mar64ds ✅ here.

[violetsandshrikes]

“Adré, Chad, October 19, 2023—Since fighting erupted in Sudan in April, about 430,000 refugees have fled to Chad, and more are expected to arrive in the coming months. Health conditions are precarious for the approximately 200,000 refugees now staying in camps in Adré, eastern Chad, due to a lack of water, food, shelter, and sanitation facilities.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are providing medical care in Adré and responding to critical water needs, but ongoing water scarcity may have disastrous consequences if other organizations do not similarly respond.

"In the refugee camps at Adré, some 200,000 people are receiving just five to six liters of water daily, well below the recommended emergency standard of 20 liters per day," said Christophe Chauliac, MSF project coordinator in Adré. "MSF serves as the primary water provider in the camps, distributing around 600,000 liters daily and covering more than 80 percent of the available water supply for refugees. Despite these efforts, this amount is insufficient, especially in scorching weather. An insufficient water supply hinders basic needs such as washing and cooking, forcing people to turn to unsafe sources and increasing the risk of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera."

[hanihomed]

Hello🚨🚨, my name is Hani Hamid and I am from Gaza. I am writing to you with a heavy heart🥺💔. I now live in the northern part of Gaza🇵🇸🍉. I was shot in the knee and it caused a catastrophic condition for my leg. I am unable to walk at all. I need urgent and urgent treatment. I have three🧒👶👩‍🦰 children, Abdullah, 12 years old, Salma, 10 years old, and Saleh, 7 years old, and my wife Nour,🤰 33 years old. Unfortunately, our house was bombed and destroyed during the initial events, which caused severe psychological and physical damage to me and my family due to the catastrophic situation we are currently living in. My family and I are suffering from a severe shortage of food,🍞🥛 supplies and medical supplies, in addition to the high prices that make it difficult to meet our basic needs. We cannot even obtain clean drinking water. The loss of our homeland has exacerbated our suffering, and our daily lives have become a constant struggle for survival. The Urgent Need to Leave Gaza🇵🇸🍉 Given the current deteriorating situation, it is imperative for me and my family to leave Gaza as soon as possible once the Rafah border crossing with Egypt opens. I hope it will open soon, and we need to raise the necessary funds quickly to ensure our safe passage. The Cost of exiting Gaza through the Rafah crossing is appromixmately 5,000 $Person.Family consistis of 5 members. The total amount needed for safe passage is calculated as follows:-5people x$5,000=$25,000-And the cost of the operation for my feet needs $10,000 ln addition to the travel costs'We need funds to secure temporary housing and basic necessities once we leave Gaza. Therfore, we aim to raise a total of *$70,000* to cover these immediate and urgent needs.

[intersexfairy]

btw as we watch the death toll rise, please keep in mind that Israel cut off power to the Gaza Strip. their hospitals are running on generators. it will take more time to get an accurate death toll for Palestinians because of this.

also, as of 2:20 pm EST, there are 232 confirmed Palestinian deaths, and 200 confirmed Israeli deaths. there are also 1,697 injured Palestinians, and many are in critical condition.

and remember: the power was cut off. the hospitals are running on generators. people need ICU care and there are medical supply shortages. this is killing people.

[mesetacadre]

this might be a silly question, but. ive recently learned more about the devastating effects of sanctions on countries like cuba, dprk, or venezuela, and how much unnecessary suffering they cause among the population, especially when it comes to food or medicine shortages. but then bds also calls for sanctions against israel, and im wondering, is there any meaningful difference between that and the sanctions already imposed by the US on other countries? i feel a bit hypocritical when i argue against sanctions while at the same time supporting bds, i feel like they are very different situations with different outcomes but i lack the understanding to really grasp how they are different, if that makes any sense

Sanctions are the systematic blockade of all or certain sectors of trade under military or economic threat by the sanctioner (mostly just the USA in recent history) to any potential agents who might try to ignore the sanction. These sanctions typically include things like medical supplies, food if the country is dependent on imports (like most countries who get sanctioned), electricity, fuel, both light and heavy industry, agricultural products and machines, the global financial system, and other such key sectors. These sanctions, overwhelmingly, only serve to impoverish the country, create undue suffering and political strife. This political strife/instability is usually the main goal of sanctions, to destabilize the target government. However, this political instability more often than not does not result in a magical restoration of "democracy" or "human rights", it usually leads the country down a path of further isolationism and political violence that only worsens its general situation. It also makes it much easier for factions like ISIS to gain popularity and support, since people are desperate. Sanctions are inhumane measures which only makes a country suffer for no good reason. The sanctioners know this, they don't care, and I'd wager that suffering is often the actual point of these sanctions. What has the 60 year old blockade achieved in Cuba? It has only caused pointless poverty, and the stated goal of the sanctions, which is to ultimately remove the communist government, has failed, is failing, and Cuba is managing to make due with what they have.

BDS call for sanctions mostly in regards to military equipment and related products/services, for NATO to stop aiding the genocide, or the banning of Israel from international events such as the olympics. No Israeli will ever go hungry because they no longer get European-made ordinance or because they don't get to participate in Eurovision. This is what BDS says in their Sanctions and governments campaign (which is behind two menus, this is also not the main focus of BDS, by far):

The BDS movement calls for sanctions against Israel, similar to the sanctions that were imposed against apartheid South Africa. These sanctions could include a military embargo, an end to economic links and the cutting of diplomatic ties. In the meantime, the BDS movement is calling for states to take steps to meet their legal obligations not to be complicit in the commission of particular Israeli crimes and not to provide recognition, aid or assistance that help Israel maintain its regime of settler colonialism, apartheid.. This includes, for example, the obligation for states to immediately end to all trade that sustains illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the suspension of free trade agreements and other bilateral agreements with Israel.

Notice the greater emphasis on military and diplomatic ties, and how economic/trade sanctions are only called for when it «sustains illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory». Sure, this will (if it is ever adopted by Israel's significant trade partners) cause some suffering for the poor illegal settlers who had just moved into their shiny new apartment blocks built atop acres of land that sustained the surrounding Palestinian villages. The mere existence of these settlements cause more suffering than any sanction could ever cause.

Calling for these sanctions against Israel, which again, don't even come from comparable agents, are both less harmful towards the total population of Israel, and occur in a completely different context. I'm not going to pretend I care about the wellbeing of settlers whose houses didn't even exist 10 years ago. If these sanctions ever do occur in a significant enough scale (dubious), and those settlers don't want to find themselves in a food desert because Carrefour closed all their stores in the west bank, they shouldn't have moved into land stolen from a people facing genocide in the first place. We're also wagering hypothetical and non-global suffering against the now more than 100,000 dead Palestinians in Gaza in the past year, not even counting those who died ever since the first Nakba.

Like BDS points out, these types of grassroots and targeted boycotts/sanctions worked in South Africa, and the white South Africans didn't even suffer that much. Wager these short-lived and targeted sanctions against these other half-century long sanctions sustained by the US' strongarm policy that have prevented basically anything from getting into Cuba or the DPRK.

While those two things are both called sanctions, they have radically different objectives, methods, range, timescale, and character. I can't reiterate this enough, the North Korean collective farmer and the Israeli settler in the west bank have nothing in common when it comes to their position. Only one of them is complicit in genocide through their own actions, only one of them has any degree of blame, and only one of their governments is actually doing anything that warrants any kind of international action. And again, the BDS strategy focuses much more on military sanctions. Let's also be practical for a second, and acknowledge that the US is never going to withdraw their support for Israel, and especially will never sanction Israel. Israel is simply never going to face the same kind of sanctions that Venezuela or Cuba are facing, nor with the same severity, nor with the same restrictions on products essential for life.

[son-of-gaza]

Urgent Appeal to Support My Family in Gaza: Critical Need as Winter Approaches

Donation link (GFM)

Dear Friends, Supporters, and Kind-hearted People,

As the cold winter months approach, I am reaching out with an urgent appeal to help my family in Gaza. The challenges they face are immense, with limited access to basic necessities like food, water, medical supplies, and warmth. Their situation has only grown more difficult as the cold approaches, putting them at even greater risk.

Why Your Support Matters

Life in Gaza is challenging at the best of times, but winter brings an entirely new level of hardship. With frequent power outages and a shortage of fuel, heating becomes nearly impossible, leaving families exposed to the harsh cold. Many homes, including my family’s, lack insulation and proper heating, putting children, the elderly, and the sick at serious risk.

Your support can make an immediate and direct difference. Donations will be used for:

• Warm clothing and blankets to protect against the cold.

• Basic food supplies to sustain them through the harsh winter.

• Medical essentials to care for the sick, especially with scarce resources.

• Heating materials and fuel, when available, to make their living space safer and more comfortable.

How You Can Help

Any amount, big or small, will make a significant difference in helping my family endure the winter with dignity and hope. Here are a few ways you can contribute:

1. Direct donations: 🙏

2. Spreading the word: Share this appeal with your networks to help us reach more people.

3. Raising awareness: By increasing awareness about the ongoing crisis in Gaza, we can help generate long-term support for families like mine

A Message of Gratitude

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your time and consideration. Your kindness and compassion are a beacon of hope in these difficult times. Together, we can make a real difference in the lives of those who need it most.

With heartfelt thanks,

Momin Alostaz

kahin

@timetravellingkitty @meaganfoster @briarhips @mahoushojoe @mazzikah

@rhubarbspring . @schoolhater @pcktknife @transmutationisms @sawasawako

@figur @irhabiya @commissions4aid-international @wellwaterhysteria

@deepspaceboytoy @post-brahminism @junglejim4322 @kibumkim @neechees

@mangocheesecakes @kyra45-helping-others @marnota

@7bittersweet @tortiefrancis

@toiletpotato @fromjannah @omegaversereloaded @vague-humanoid @heritageposts

@aristotels @komsomolka @neptunerings @riding= with-the-wild-hunt @ot3

@amygdalae @ankle-beez @communistchilchuck @dykesbat @watermotif

@stuckinapril @violentrevolution @mavigator @lacecap @socalgal

@chilewithcarnage @ghelgheli @sayrug

@northgazaupdates2 @revindicatedbyhistory_

@appsa @anneemay @dailyjermasparkle

@rainbowsnowflake110-blog @saint-oleander

@jackironsides @f4rfields

[doberbutts]

Hello all, informative trans guy post here. IF you are taking testosterone as part of your HRT or transition process, you've probably heard several times that testosterone is a controlled substance, very difficult to source, and that you are limited on the amount of which you can have at one time. You may even be wondering the truth of these claims.

Well... the answer is... that it's mostly true. But I can tell you how to make things a bit easier on yourself, if you're having a hard time.

This "guide" is 100% USAmerican based. Sorry, but I live here, and don't know how this works outside of my own country.

1: Testosterone is a controlled substance.

Well... it is. Testosterone is a controlled substance in the United States, being a Schedule III drug along with drugs like ketamine. This means that in some states, it can be very difficult to source at all and even harder to source in significant or consistent quantities. This is largely due to people taking anabolic steroids, and very little of testosterone's controlled status historically had anything to do with transgender people using it as part of their medical transition, though that is beginning to change as trans men become more visible. There are now some laws restricting the usage of testosterone for the purpose of transitioning, especially in cases of minors and young adults transitioning through their teens.

This is a little different from estrogen, which is prescription-only in its injectable form but does not have controlled status on a federal level. Testosterone, by comparison, is controlled in all of its forms and possessing it without a prescription is very illegal. While it is possible to source and make testosterone without a prescription, much like estrogen, the legal consequences for doing so are much more severe. For this reason, this is not a guide to doing so without using a prescription.

2: Testosterone is difficult to source.

Provided you have a doctor willing to give you a prescription, and either insurance or financial means of covering the cost of said prescription, testosterone is only difficult to source if you are living in a state that heavily restricts the ability to source Schedule III drugs (or has introduced laws restricting the ability to dispense HRT to transgender patients) or if there is some sort of shortage happening.

Testosterone is available at every national pharmacy chain in various forms, and can also be ordered online by pharmacies that may legally serve your state provided they operate within the state's laws. Remember, cis men take testosterone in various forms for their own hormonal function at times, so this is far from a niche transgender-only drug.

Your state may have restrictions on exactly how much testosterone you may pick up from the pharmacy at any given time, how frequently you're allowed to get it, and occasionally how much you're allowed to have in general. This may also change depending if you are picking your testosterone up from a physical brick-and-mortar pharmacy, or if you are ordering online for home delivery.

Some pharmacies will try to tell you they legally can't dispense more- this may conflict with what your doctor tells you, so if your doctor is willing to give you the maximum your state allows you to have and your pharmacy says a different maximum, you need to get your doctor to advocate for you.

Certain forms of testosterone are more prone to shortages and backorders than others. Gel appears to be commonly backordered, and manufacturer shortages are not uncommon. For this reason, my doctor prescribes me a three month supply at a time. For a long time, CVS would argue with me that they legally could only fill one month at a time. I mentioned this to my doctor, because this inevitably means that with the pharmacists at CVS screwing around with my meds that I am not consistent on my dosing month-to-month because when a shortage happens I simply have to go without until they finally get another shipment in.

Now, thankfully, she wrote me a prescription to navigate around that with the three month supply, but she also had someone from her office call and give them a dressing down on why they needed to actually comply with her orders for her patient. I happen to live in a state that the maximum is truly a three month supply, so CVS should not be arbitrarily shortening a doctor's prescription just because they don't think they should be dispensing that many.

Similarly, testosterone is unfortunately not cheap. I happen to take the gel version, which retails at about $400 USD per bottle, and each bottle lasts one month, so that's about $1600 USD worth of medication sitting on my bathroom sink in that photo with four bottles. Now, thankfully, I have insurance, and the insurance I have allows me to pick up all of my medications for free provided the insurance is actually willing to cover it. This means that I spent a grand total of $0 USD on these bottles. Insurance costs vary greatly, so it's wise to see exactly how much a larger supply will cost you prior to actually committing. My current insurance does not allow me to order medications online, but my previous insurance that I did actually have to pay for medications was often cheaper to order online ($40 for a three month supply) than pick up at the CVS ($20 for a one month supply). This is something to consider depending on your individual coverage.

3: You can only have so much testosterone at once.

As for why I have four bottles- due to my job change, I had an insurance change as well as introduced my state's version of Medicaid as a secondary insurance. My initial insurance did not cover these bottles but did cover individual gel packets dispensed as a sealed box of 30. My current insurance does not cover the individual packets but does cover the bottles. The packets are a slightly different dosage than the pump on the bottle, and when making that switch my doctor accidentally under-dosed me, which then created a significant excess when I went to pick up the next month's bottle. As a result, that initial bottle lasted roughly two months before we caught the under-dosing via my bloodwork, which means I opened the second bottle right as I was getting ready to pick up the third (and fourth and fifth).

This is not an illegal situation as there is a clear paper trail within my medical record and prescription history detailing this situation playing out, but it can be dangerous in certain states to have this much over the amount you're supposed to have. It can be illegal to stockpile a Schedule III drug, so I do not recommend intentionally creating this sort of situation for yourself.

That being said, this sort of worked in my favor. Schedule III drugs often need a prior authorization from your insurance before they are willing to cover these medications. Drugs that are not necessarily expected within your demographic, such as being marked as female but taking testosterone, also often require a prior auth. A prior auth can take up to a month to go through insurance, though usually is less than a week. I just passed my testosterone anniversary in late September, which also means my prior auth expired, as they're only good for one year. Instead of, you know, telling me my prior auth expired, CVS just sent me a text stating they were having a problem with my order and that they were in contact with my doctor about it. A week went by with no change so I called my doctor, who reported they never received anything from CVS but would look into the issue and see what the problem was. They called me back the next day to tell me about my expired prior auth and that they fixed it. I then got the text from CVS saying my prescription was ready to pick up about 5 minutes later. That does mean that if I did not have this excess, I would have once again simply not had testosterone for about a week.

4: Public vs Private Insurance

Whether or not your state's insurance will cover testosterone depends entirely on your state. Obama, when creating the Affordable Care Act or now known as "Obamacare", did make it so that states are supposed to be required to cover HRT for transgender adults and even minors in certain situations. Trump did away with several of these protections, which then emboldened certain states to whittle away at what was left. Other states, like my own, strengthened their protections in response, making it easier to access HRT.

This means that while my own state allows me to get free testosterone through the state's insurance (which is income-based eligibility, and I'm making a significant amount over minimum wage but still considered below my state's poverty line) - a friend of mine in another state cannot access HRT using his state's Medicaid, and is required to use private insurance. Additionally, I have insurance through my job, but it does not cover a large enough percentage for it to be feasible. This means that legally, I have to pay for my workplace insurance (barf, that's $200 out of every paycheck) but on the flip side because of my income eligibility I also can still have the state insurance as my co-insurance and that will clean up whatever leftover costs my private insurance leaves me with.

It also means my top surgery will be free, provided I can get it approved through my private insurance. My public insurance will pay the remaining balance of whatever my private insurance is willing to cover, but will not pay for things my private insurance isn't willing to cover at all.

This also means I have to attend exclusively doctors that will take my public insurance if I want to do things this way- however that's a fairly robust list in my state compared to others, so I didn't have to change doctors at all.

This situation is not always the case for every state's Medicaid- but it is worth looking into if you need options and your current insurance sucks or if you're not insured at all.

[sillysiluriforme]

That one post, about how everyone has an akuma mark- that wouldn't be the case, and if anything that makes it worse. An akuma (or two) a day for several years is 1,000 people, maybe 2,000. Paris has a population of 10 million. So not that many people. But consider the suffering. Being a non-akuma'd person knowing your life is forever changed, possibly in quarantine forever, all because a small handful of people couldn't keep calm. (we know it's not their fault, but blame must land somewhere and hawkmoth is distant and unseen...). To watch as your future, or your children's future crumbles, because no one in or out means limited opportunities. There'd be riots (and more akuma possibilities). But to be one of the targeted? To have the suspicion (because akumas do strike twice, thrice, or more...) and the blame (if you'd just stay calm, if you just said no...). To lose an entire day of your life, watching as everyone you loved looks fearfully or angrily towards you (what did you do? what did you say?), to lose your job (what if it happens again? or was it because of your job?). To watch everything get worse, because of course: Any disruption to Paris would be Catastrophic. The paris region produces a GDP of 1 TRILLION dollars. 1/3rd of France's GDP. A day's disruption could cost billions of dollars. Even if property gets repaired, time still moves forward- a day not worked is a day where things dont get done. Things like road maintenance, court dates, repairs to water pipes, electrical generation, surgeries, and so on. Critical workers would need to get a suicidal level apathy towards akumas, because if they stopped work everytime one appeared then lives would be lost to power shortages, lack of medical care, and water. All the traffic supplying goods every day- even if they don't get inspected going in or out, any changes to that would raise prices in a heartbeat. Refrigeration becomes unreliable, as powerlines could be cut whenever. Education goes rock bottom, as who can focus when something's happening every day? Desperation rises, as there's nowhere to go, goods are more expensive or unavailable, jobs are in short supply because so many places go out of business, or outright leave.

God, forget the holders, forget the akumas, forget the reality warping little-g gods, the sheer decay of Paris would be enough to make this AU nightmarish. If Paris remains under akuma quarantine for long enough, the effects would become exponential. As businesses leave, the money disappears. Goods become critical, as a city that big needs an entire nation to feed it (but without the money, who would bother selling to Paris?). Infrastructure becomes abandoned, as cost cutting and triage prioritizes only critical locations. The government moves elsewhere (how could they function otherwise?) taking jobs, money, and focus away from the city. Homelessness, joblessness, poverty become the norm, as with inconsistent power and deliveries, how can businesses operate? Hawkmoth is murdering the city of love, over his own doomed love.

Paris becomes a colossal burden on the french economy, a nightmarish battleground and a looming threat to the world. The country is left with a hellish choice: Let the city sink on it's own, or be dragged down with it?

[YOU FUCKING GET IT ANON. YOU EXACTLY GET IT.]

[centrally-unplanned]

Speaking of welfare for the wealthy! I was writing about this trend as it was growing - making medical school "tuition free" in order to boost the number of primary care doctors or the like is a completely incoherent policy. Everyone gets the free tuition! Specialists still make 2x the money! And even for the dubious goal of making people from "diverse backgrounds" apply to med school, it is still quite suspect - after all, doctors are incredibly rich in the US, so taking on some school debt to help you make 400k year was not much of barrier. Not a useless intervention like the first goal, debt is a real friction, but still highly inefficient. Happy to see this reality being spelled out explicitly.

As always, these interventions all run aground of the fact that doctoring is a cartel that caps the supply of doctors in order to boost wages. Under such a system, having one more rural primary care doc is one less cardiovascular specialist in NYC - and demand and prices are real, that job is more valuable and someone elsewhere in the system will be pulled into it. The only answer to the primary care "shortage" is to create vastly more doctors, and while there has been lukewarm progress over the past ~10 years in this regard as an individual school a place like NYU will typically prefer token efforts that allow it to keep it acceptance rate low and rankings high, etc.