#two tier healthcare

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Fraser Myers

We have become accustomed to the ‘two-tier policing’ of protests, where ‘pro-Palestine’ demos are exempted from Britain’s usually stringent hate-speech laws. Islamist and anti-Semitic protesters have been free to call for a violent ‘jihad’, to demand the genocidal destruction of Israel and to wave banners with swastikas, without any fear of being clamped down on by police. Now we might be seeing the emergence of ‘two-tier healthcare’, where opposition to Israel can get you bumped up to the front of an NHS waiting list.

Jess Phillips, Labour MP and Keir Starmer’s safeguarding minister, last night told an audience of north London theatregoers about a recent visit to A&E. After having difficulty breathing, she went to her local Birmingham hospital. She described the overcrowding she found there as akin to a ‘war zone’. Luckily for her, she was whisked to the front of the queue.

Apparently, a Palestinian doctor not only recognised Phillips as the local Labour MP, but also thanked her for opposition to Israel. ‘He was sort of like, “I like you. You voted for a ceasefire”. [Because of that] I got through quicker’, she admitted. Her political views, in other words, allowed her to receive preferential treatment.

I don’t know what’s more damning: that this took place or that Phillips gladly blabbed about it. Following her downplaying of Islamist thugs menacing journalists in her constituency, the Member for Birmingham Yardley already looks set to be a constant source of unwitting revelations for the media, and a constant PR headache for this already faltering Labour government.

Fraser Myers is deputy editor at spiked and host of the spiked podcast. Follow him on X: @FraserMyers.

[eaglesnick]

"I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived." - Stephen Hawking

When a politician accepts funds from private enterprise and big corporations it is only natural to suspect they want something from that politician  in return for their money. Last year The National (05/06/23) told us:

“Keir Starmer, John Redwood and Wes Streeting have all earnt or been donated six-figure sums from firms or individuals linked with private healthcare."

Streeting, the Shadow Health Secretary received £22,500 in “donations” from private healthcare firms. Concerning these "donations" VOX political  (30/04/23) asked:

“Why would he end NHS privatisation and stop that money from coming to him?”

Why indeed! Are these payments the reason Wes Streeting is so keen to farm out more of the NHS to private healthcare providers?

“I don’t want working class people in pain: so I’d use private hospitals to bolster the NHS” (Guardian: 08/12/22)

and more recently:

“NHS should 'seek to use' private healthcare capacity, Wes Streeting says."

This raises the question “Why shouldn’t the NHS make more use of private healthcare providers?" I think there are several very good reasons why not.

First, private healthcare providers exist to make a profit for their shareholders or owners. Billions of pounds already leave the NHS for the coffers of private enterprise. For the period 2021/22 the Kings Fund (20/09/23) reported that the NHS spent £19.7billion on “Non-NHS- health care.”  This is money that could have been spent to provide better services WITHIN the NHS.

Second, the private sector does not train its own doctors. It relies upon  NHS money to train doctors and then lures them away from the NHS to make profits for themselves. In short, the British taxpayer is subsidising private healthcare profits.

Third, the NHS treats everyone, no matter how serious or complex his or her health needs may be. The private sector cherry-picks which medical services it provides, deliberately choosing the easiest, and therefore the least expensive, medical conditions to treat. This maximises profits, leaving the cash-strapped NHS with the most expensive cases. This leaves the NHS open to claims that it is inefficient when patient costs between NHS and private healthcare providers are compared.

Fourth, the more we use private healthcare providers to deliver medical treatment the greater the risk that we will end up with a two-tier system of health care. No less a person than Professor Stephen Hawking warned of this in March 2018, just before his death. He warned that the government was taking the NHS:

“towards a US-style insurance system, run by…private companies", and insisted: We must prevent the establishment of a two-tire system."  (The Week: 10/03/22)

The Mirror newspaper (03/06/24) points out today that 94% of private healthcare contracts are set to expire by July 2029. The next government will inherit 7452 outsourcing contracts, 6983 of which are set to reach the end of their term between July 2024 and July 2029.

If Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting are not in hock to their private healthcare “donors", then they have the perfect opportunity to save the NHS from creeping privatisation by not renewing these contracts and not signing any new deals with the private sector.

 Only time will tell if Starmer and Streeting are any different to the Tories when it comes to saving our NHS.

[queen-mabs-revenge]

got here early and still waiting 40 min i'm going to start biting

[mariacallous]

Oulu is five hours north from Helsinki by train and a good deal colder and darker each winter than the Finnish capital. From November to March its 220,000 residents are lucky to see daylight for a couple of hours a day and temperatures can reach the minus 30s. However, this is not the reason I sense a darkening of the Finnish dream that brought me here six years ago.

In 2018, moving to Finland seemed like a no-brainer. One year earlier I had met my Finnish partner while working away in Oulu. My adopted home of Italy, where I had lived for 10 years, had recently elected a coalition government with the far-right Matteo Salvini as interior minister, while my native UK had voted for Brexit. Given Finland’s status as a beacon of progressive values, I boarded a plane, leaving my lecturing job and friends behind.

Things have gone well. My partner and I both have stable teaching contracts, me at a university where my mostly Finnish colleagues are on the whole friendlier than the taciturn cliche that persists of Finns (and which stands in puzzling contradiction to their status as the world’s happiest people).

Notwithstanding this, I feel a sense of unease as Finland’s prime minister Petteri Orpo’s rightwing coalition government has set about slashing welfare and capping public sector pay. Even on two teachers’ salaries my partner and I have felt the sting of inflation as goods have increased by 20% in three years. With beer now costing €8 or more in a city centre pub, going out becomes an ever rarer expense.

Those worse off than us face food scarcity. A survey conducted by the National Institute for Health and Welfare found 25% of students struggling to afford food, while reductions in housing benefit mean tenants are being forced to move or absorb the shortfall in rent payments. There are concerns that many unemployed young people could become homeless.

Healthcare is faring little better. Finland’s two-tier system means that while civil servants and local government employees (including teachers) paradoxically enjoy private health cover, many other people face long waiting lists. Not having dental cover on my university’s plan, I called for a public dental appointment in April. I was put on callback and received a text message stating I’d be contacted when the waiting list reopened. Six months later, I am still waiting. A few years ago I could expect to wait two months at most.

The current government, formed by Orpo’s National Coalition party (NCP) last year in coalition with the far-right Finns party, the Swedish People’s party of Finland and the Christian Democrats, has been described as “the most rightwing” Finland has ever seen – a position it appears to relish.

Deputy prime minister and finance minister Riikka Purra – the Finns’ party leader – has been linked to racist and sometimes violent comments made online back in 2008. The party’s xenophobia is clearly influencing policymaking and affecting migrants. As a foreigner, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to feeling a certain chill as anti-immigrant rhetoric ramps up.

A survey by the organisation Specialists in Finland last year found that most highly qualified workers would consider leaving Finland if the government’s planned tightening of visa requirements went ahead (that proposal, which extended residence time required for Finnish citizenship from four to as many as eight years has now become law). Luckily, I am a permanent resident under the Brexit agreement.

With the coalition intent on ending Finland’s long history of welfarism in just one term, there is a risk (and hope among progressives) that it may go too far, inviting a backlash. We arguably saw signs of this in the European election in the summer, when Li Andersson won the highest number of votes for an EU election candidate in Finland. Andersson, who was education minister in Sanna Marin’s former centre-left coalition government (which lost to the NCP in April 2023), ran on a progressive red-green ticket of increased wealth equality and measures to tackle the climate crisis. She has also been critical of emergency laws blocking asylum seekers from crossing Finland’s eastern border, arguing that it contravenes human rights obligations.

Andersson’s party, the Left Alliance, chose a new leader this month, the charismatic feminist author Minja Koskela, who was elected to Helsinki’s council in 2021 after a period as secretary of the Feminist party, and as a member of parliament in 2023. Koskela argues: “People are widely frustrated with the government’s discriminatory policy and cuts to culture, social and health services, education and people’s livelihood. It is possible to turn this frustration into action.” (Full disclosure: I’m a member of the party and have helped coordinate its local approach to immigrants.)

It remains to be seen if she can build on Andersson’s EU success. Although the popular media-savvy figure appears to relish the challenge of turning the party into an election winner, Koskela faces a huge challenge. The party struggles to poll at more than 10% nationally, aside from a brief high of 11% in July. A place in government is nonetheless possible. But Marin’s Social Democratic party (SDP) of Finland (now led by Antti Lindtman), has topped the national opinion polls 12 out of 14 times since April 2023.

Meanwhile, the Finns party is polling at 16%, down from the 20.1% vote they gained in the election. These figures point to one thing: another possible SDP-led coalition government in the next parliament by the summer of 2027. This would probably include the Left Alliance and the Green League, among others. And such a coalition would aim to undo a lot of the damage done by the right.

But until then, there will be more damage to come. So while there is clearly hope for an end in sight to the country’s political darkness three years hence, this will bring little solace now to poor people, migrants, and the squeezed middle class as the long Finnish winter closes in.

[keshetchai]

The thing is, if the big criticisms of Zionism that offend people, are like mentions of racial and economic inequality, failed democracy, or generic comparisons to apartheid, we all know the solution would be to stop doing the things people are criticizing.

"it's not apartheid! we just have a giant wall to prevent suicide bombers, and the numbers of suicide bombings went down as a result! We're also culturally sensitive, the bomb detecting dogs at the checkpoints are hidden from view!" [Please note I have met, in person, the architect of the wall along the west bank and I am essentially paraphrasing him here.]

okay so, hear me out!: what if you prevented suicide bombers by ensuring stable employment, healthcare access, good public education, allowed for freedom of movement, didn't build huge walls across farmlands, stopped evicting people from their homes, what if you didn't created tiered systems of civic access and policing, and also let their local governments manage/steward necessary public resources instead of like, cutting water or electricity or something? What if you met the needs they are agitating for, the needs which, when denied, make people easier to radicalize?

What if you made violence seem totally undesirable because their lives were good and prosperous and stable? Their children untraumatized?

...no? You can't systemically better the lives of the people on this land? "Well if we're nice, they take advantage and attack," ok so you will be stuck in a cycle of violence forever. Have you never had a sibling? It's no longer about who "started it," it's about who will end it. "They unfairly criticize when we protect ourselves!" If Israel only ever destroyed incoming missiles or rockets/protected themselves against aggressive attacks, I think the global stage would have a lot less to criticize, actually! But we all know that Israel does more than just defend itself and its people.

Escalations, retaliations, and vengeance never brings anyone back from the dead and never fixes the wounds caused. Too many people see someone else committing a moral wrong as an excuse for them to do the same because being a good person in response to atrocity/bad people feels unfair and difficult, and because it doesn't satisfy their anger and fear.

Unfortunately if a bad person hurts your community because of their feelings of disenfranchisement/anger/sense of justice, and in response you decide to be a bad person to their community out of a sense of justice for your people, now we just have two bad people doing bad things and a lot of dead civilians.

[sinofwriting]

So, I need some help. 

About ten hours ago (I’m a little loopy so apologies if this makes little to no sense) I had to go to a dental emergency place due to a toothache that has gotten worse over the past few days. 

Luckily they were able to fix it and I’m still in pain but that’s mainly from all the shit they did with my mouth/tooth. However because I live in America, of course my insurance won’t cover it. 

The bill was over $700, I managed to pay a chunk of it with my savings (which went bye bye) but I still owe $425 dollars.

So, this is me asking for help. Any little bit truly helps as I am still unable to work due to other health issues. 

I have commission's on Ko-fi open, which are 3 dollars for 3,000 word fic. I have a patreon with two different tiers ($1 and $3 dollars respectively). And I also just have a general goal on Ko-fi for help. 

I will also in the next few days be hopping back into trying to do some proofreading for people (fingers crossed that it works this time) as soon as I feel better. 

I really hate that I have to make this post (america’s healthcare system can suck a dick) but I am desperate. Thank you for reading this, just reading it is helping me out, and hopefully my next post will be a fic.

(Also, commissions are open for a bunch of f1 drivers, poly ships, and just ships. The commission it self has pictures listing who I am able to write for)

[gothhabiba]

Those closer to the norm or to power in this country are more likely to see marriage as a principle of freedom and equality. Those who are more acceptable to the mainstream because of race, gender, and economic status are more likely to want the right to marry. It is the final acceptance, the ultimate affirmation of identity.

On the other hand, more marginal members of the lesbian and gay community (women, people of color, working class and poor) are less likely to see marriage as having relevance to our struggles for survival. [...] For women, particularly women of color who tend to occupy the low-paying jobs that do not provide healthcare benefits at all, it will not matter one bit if they are able to marry their woman partners. The opportunity to marry will neither get them the health benefits nor transform them from outsider to insider. [...] In other words, gay marriage will not topple the system that allows only the privileged few to obtain decent health care. Nor will it close the privilege gap between those who are married and those who are not.

Marriage creates a two-tier system that allows the state to regulate relationships. It has become a facile mechanism for employers to dole out benefits, for businesses to provide special deals and incentives, and for the law to make distinctions in distributing meager public funds. [...] OnIy when we deinstitutionalize marriage and bridge the economic and privilege gap between the married and the unmarried will each of us have a true choice. Otherwise, our choice not to marry will continue to lack Iegal protection and societal respect. [...]

We must keep our eyes on the goals of providing true alternatives to marriage and of radically reordering society's view of family.

Paula L. Ettelbrick, "Since When is Marriage a Path to Liberation?" (Outlook Magazine, 1989)

[butch-reidentified]

i do like that person that was like "x is often self diagnosed/misdiagnosed so it's fine for doctors to instantly dismiss or belittle you!" Its like. No actually, a doctors duty of care is that they need to take it seriously & rule it out anyway? If there was a spate of prank calls to 911 about fires would the operator be forgiven for laughing in the face of someone who's house is actually burning down?? No tha fuck not! But ofc this doesnt even apply to you since it was before pots was commonly known etc etc. i just thought it was funny that even if the premise anon set was true to begin with it would still certainly not be ok lmao.

prev anon

exactlyy

if anon does work in medicine I hope someone reports them. the mentality of instantly dismissing people (read: women [esp since POTS and EDS primarily affect women btw]) is sick

in fact, people with EDS call themselves Zebras because of the whole "when you hear hoofbeats think horses not zebras" but we are what happens when it is actually zebras. doubling the irony of anon's insane "contribution"

I have never known a medical professional who doesn't take POTS seriously *at all* either, and it was very clear that anon doesn't actually know fuckall about POTS (or MCAS or related conditions for that matter, despite alluding to them). like I said to anon, POTS cannot be faked like that. especially long-term. my heart rate went from mid-70s sitting to 170s standing. good luck faking that fr. especially /every single time you ever stand up/ (like any fitness watch can show you is happening)

I had a bunch of tests done to get my diagnosis, and then had to see multiple cardiologists post-dx in order to even begin to get an attempt at treatment. the first treatment the final cardiologist tried made me BEDBOUND for FIFTEEN MONTHS. in college!!! I was using a cane through half of college. POTS is not a joke and doesn't fuck around.

my life changed once I found ivabradine (corlanor), but that took quite a while. and even then it took me YEARS to get a real prescription (during which time I relied on free samples from a saintly doctor) because only the brand name Corlanor was available in the USA until literally a couple of months ago, and most insurances wouldn't cover it for POTS because it's for heart failure so it's an off label use. and brand name Corlanor is EXTREMELY expensive. and I qualified for Amgen's financial assistance program and got rejected anyway, btw. I have to take such a high dose that I need two prescriptions of it a month, which costs ~$1300. I had to switch jobs to get on an insurance plan that was willing to cover it for POTS (after a huge fight). when I had to leave that job, I had to start buying the market version of that (gold tier PPO) insurance for $1000/month because that was still cheaper than the medication.

you can't even comprehend how much money I've spent over the past decade to be remotely functional POTS-wise, and again, I consider myself VERY lucky. I have something that works. even though I frequently have gaps in my access to it, even though I have to constantly fight with doctors, insurance, and pharmacies to maintain it. despite the insane expenses. I am very very lucky POTS-wise. I have seen what unlucky looks like.

vEDS & the 24/7 chronic pain is a whole other beast, as are the associated extensive and debilitating issues like GI problems and migraines.

I don't talk about this stuff a lot on here, because I don't see any point to it. it's just gonna depress people. but that anon was appallingly ignorant and spreading misinformation. anyone who has insight into the real lives of people with POTS, EDS, MCAS, gastroparesis, etc., would understand how horrific these are to deal with, not just on their own, but in terms of things like living life (working a job, social life, etc) and dealing with the US healthcare system as well. not to mention that vEDS likely cuts my lifespan in half.

it's legitimately SO infuriating and disheartening to have watched in real time as POTS & EDS went from "nobody even knows what these are so good fucking luck getting medical help" to "increasing awareness and POTS getting changed from rare to common on google" to "this is just something for tiktok fakers" in 0.5 seconds flat

tldr -- that anon should actually die. or try living a single day in my body. one of these is easier than the other.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 1/23/2024

listen i got my last job through one of youse on here so weirder things have happened: i got fired bc the nonprofit wasn’t doing so hot. let me know if you have a weird data/database or market/tech research job. i promise my worksona is so so so nice and pleasant to work with. remote only, looking more in the $75k range but can be a bit flexible if it’s a cool enough job, i am in the central time zone of the USA and will not need sponsorship anywhere but DO need the cadillac of healthcare and dental plans. portfolio, publication list, and linkedin with my government name available on request!

listening

both of these are from my sister! this is another FULL ALBUM rec (good lord). The Offline’s album La couleur de la mer is a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist, inspired by his long walks in the fog on the French Atlantic coast. a little spacey, a little soul, very sixties/seventies neonoir. i am quite fond of the very first track, Thème de la couleur de la mer.

she’s also sent me a bunch of tiktoks with Perfect (Exceeder) by Mason and Princess Superstar. hell of a goddamn music video for this thing. mid-aughts clubbing music at its finest. stopped me from dissolving into a puddle of emotions on the way to and from the vet today bc it’s too goddamn bouncy to be sad around

reading

im reading a trilogy i want to discuss as a whole whenever the third one comes through as a library hold, and a book by a friend. i do not typically talk about books or fics by friends here bc none of them have ever asked for critique, and i dont want to play favorites or inadvertently miss someone’s work. so here’s a story about porn on Wikimedia, which is the kind of database drama and technical arguments that fascinate me.

given the number of articles from 404 Media i shout about here and elsewhere i really should sign up for their $5/mo subscription tier when i have a steady income again

watching

somehow missed Star Wars Visions 2, their second anthology of weird little shorts. i was not super impressed by the overall storytelling this time around, but it was fun to see them reach out to more global studios and see a wider range of styles. there’s some goddamn incredible stop motion in here.

i particularly enjoyed Journey to the Dark Head, which not only has some interesting fringe Force believers and beliefs but has one of the sickest anime bullshit lightsaber fights in this season. this one is by Studio Mir, most known for the Legend of Korra.

also really liked The Spy Dancer by Studio La Cachette, partly bc it’s incredibly beautiful and i like when Star Wars leans into art nouveau, and partly bc it felt the most like a complete short story. emotional arc and everything! strong beginning middle and end! this IS a really low bar, but a lot of the shorts this season did not have a coherent little story to tell or a strong emotional arc, or fumbled their arc partway through, and were just kind of vibes and animation showcases? nothing necessarily wrong with that, also how i felt about most of the last collection. my expectations are underground for any Star Wars media.

playing

as is tradition i dithered about this section the most. this is more of a What’s Next? planning ramble.

the laptop gets shipped back to my old job today so i will no longer have a working modern computer. i have to dig the switch out and see what’s up. maybe start a whole new run in breath of the wild or whatever the last pokemon game was. i think i also have the sword boyfriend game everyone was up in arms about two years ago? and i think i am somehow part of a switch family plan that lets me have some older games?

this section may look very different in the next ??? amount of time until i get a company laptop again. or finally replace the motherboard on my personal desktop but that sat in my car for several weeks during the heat wave this summer while i did not have an apartment and i am really REALLY afraid to open that box.

oh the free epic game this week is a platformer, a genre i have historically not cared about. godspeed to those of you who do

making

soup bc aldi had alphabet pasta and that jolted me out of myself for long enough i was briefly convinced making alphabet pasta soup would fix me. so i found this recipe while in aldi. despite this not being a very good soup or a very good recipe, i feel a little triumphant bc i now know enough to brown the tomato paste before putting it in the soup. unfortunately i overcooked the pasta. there’s kind of a lot of texture happening here, and i wish i had chopped things finer, but i will probably steal my best friend’s blender tomorrow and blitz some of it down.

it’s edible. im going to eat it all. it will not be going in the rotation

[sigridstumb]

Just Trying to Unlock the Quest

-- see, no, it's not that I don't want to start that treatment,it's that I haven't unlocked the questline yet!

When I started, I was really glad that my character RNG'd an actual DIAGNOSIS, right? Like, I feel really, *really* bad for the folks playing characters without even a diagnosis! That whole starting area just sucks. I got to skip the I'm Not Crazy, I'm Sick quest. Thank fucking goodness.

So, anyway, I began the main quest-line in the zone, Find Care Providers. I got the Rheumatologist right away! I did slack off a bit at that point, and didn't do the Interventional Pain Management quest until a lot later. And I really really WANTED to do the Medical Cannabis quest, but it was faction-locked for me for a while. (My starting faction had Gold-Tier Health Insurance, but was locked to an employer who monitored my healthcare and didn't allow some things. I mean, it was a tradeoff, and I knew that from the start, and I don't regret my choice - EVERY faction has its ads and its disads, right - but it did faction-lock some stuff.)

After I completed Rheumatologist, it was time to grind faction with him and my PCP (primary care provider.) I got ultrasounds, MRIs, and CTs. I had labs taken. After all of those, I got the Immunosuppressor buff! It gave me a +1 to Stamina and a +1 to Range.

My Rheum had also given me the prompt for the next area, Podiatry. I struggled with the first quest, Find a Podiatrist. In my character creation, the RNG gave me Fat, which I really like but I understand it's not for everyone. What I hadn't realized, though, is that in the game it's a fucking debuff!! The first two Podiatrists I tried to faction were very hostile to my Fat. I eventually found a Podiatrist who was neutral to Fat. After I completed the fetch quests - X-Ray, MRI - she sent me on the Orthotics quest. That was actually pretty decent. I did the mainline quest, but I liked the buff I got from the reward, so I did the extra level. And??? The item and the buff are AMAZING. I got AFOs, which in addition to a massive range buff (and +1 STA) gave me a +2 to armor!! I spent some Development points and taught myself to knit socks, so now I have over a dozen pairs of knit socks that fit under the AFO and protect my skin from chafing. It's fantastic.

At this point my faction had shifted enough that I could finally to the Medical Cannabis quest!

***

dangitall, y'all, now I want this to actually be a video game.

[queen-mabs-revenge]

yES ok so doc rang me back and apparently i can get referred into the public track for adult ADHD care which has the benefit of being

public

local

which ok like my current prescribing psych is like functionally fine but my god the extortionate rates esp bc i'm a whole country away and everything is via email and teleconferencing? but i was kind of forced to go private bc there literally were no public adult adhd options in the fucking country two years ago lmao

if going private means affordability and actually having a local system to tap into oh baby now we're cooking with gas

[autumnal-thunder]

@randomizedwhatever I can agree on Nixon, I'm back and forth on him between D and F.

But why Biden? Just about everything Biden does is wrong. But what major legislation has he helped pass? What has his administration taken credit for as accomplishments? It's mostly just minor Keynesian crap and social justice nonsense.

Teddy was the first modern progressive who set the groundwork for unlimited executive power.

Truman created Social Security and helped make the UN.

George W Bush passed the Patriot Act and created the Department of Homeland Security and started two wars

Woodrow Wilson created the Federal Reserve and established an income tax.

FDR had the New Deal

LBJ aimed the welfare state towards African Americans, keeping them in poverty so he could change the political landscape in his favor

Obama is an outlier but has the most big ticket screw ups. He ruined healthcare along with dozens of other corrupt things.

I don't see what Biden has done that makes him comparable in the long run. Maybe inflation? But Trump shares a lot of blame for what we're currently going through.

Biden rests at the bottom of D tier. He's too old and senile to cross the threshold.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The BC NDP are calling out two Vancouver Island Conservative Party of BC candidates for openly endorsing “American-style two-tier” healthcare.  Tim Thielmann, BC Conservative Candidate for Victoria-Beacon Hill said in a healthcare discussion in late September that if elected, the Tories would consider implementing a system which would see some British Columbians pay out of their own pockets for access to doctors and medical services.  “You know, talking about the Australian model and models in Europe where you have a hybrid system or a two-tier system, call it what you want,” said Thielmann.  “Where if people want to purchase private insurance, want to pay out of pocket, and you know where doctors want to run their own practices and charge either the publicly insurable rate or rates that are above that, they can do that, and they have the freedom to do so.”

Continue Reading

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[invisibleicewands]

This life story begins at the end, with Aneurin “Nye” Bevan in a hospital bed, befittingly for the visionary political colossus who created Britain’s National Health Service in 1948.As Bevan (Michael Sheen) is creeping towards death, flashbacks of memory bring a hallucinatory quality reminiscent of The Singing Detective: beds and ward curtains are woven into scenes of his childhood as a Welsh miner’s son and a stammering schoolboy bullied by his headteacher. We follow his rise from local council politics to the House of Commons and high office under Clement Attlee (Stephanie Jacob, slightly sinister in a bald wig). Doctors and nurses morph into a bevy of characters from his past, the cast juggling this multiplicity adeptly, and there is a surreal song and dance breakout number as, one presumes, Bevan’s morphine kicks in.In a production written by Tim Price and directed by Rufus Norris, there is some inspired stagecraft as the hospital curtains of Vicki Mortimer’s ingenious set swish to reveal debating chambers and libraries. But the narrative is too long-reaching and schematic, its extensively researched material not fully absorbed dramatically.Co-produced with Wales Millennium Centre and running at over two and a half hours, Nye is a too full, yet too simplified, survey of the personal and political elements in Bevan’s world, with some high-pitched moments accompanied by syrupy music.

Bevan is presented as a renegade, Jeremy Corbyn-like figure of his day: both a thorn in the side of Winston Churchill (impersonated well by Tony Jayawardena) and the Labour party. There are council meetings, parliamentary debates, his first meeting with his wife, Jennie Lee (Sharon Small), the war and its aftermath. So much is packed in that the momentous invention of the NHS is tackled, as if in summary, in the last half hour.

Only then do we hear how the nation’s doctors were heavily opposed to Bevan’s proposition. There are exchanges on a screen with an army of hostile medics who look like Minority Report holograms, but we whizz past this opposition, which has enough in-built conflict to be worthy of is own full-length drama.

Sheen (grey helmet hair, chequered pyjamas) is well cast for his natural charm. He brings a curious fey playfulness and vulnerability but does not plumb the depths of his commanding character – or perhaps the busy script simply does not allow it. However, Bevan’s limitations as a son to his dying father bring some emotional mileage as he is too busy caring for the nation’s wellbeing to be there for him.

Small is not given much room for manoeuvre either, and Lee is used for exposition purposes rather than dramatic ones. She talks of her open marriage, describing Bevan as a “rutting stag”, which sits at odds with the cutely pyjama-clad man on stage. There are brief reflections on navigations between her career as Westminster’s youngest MP – and one of only five women – and her marriage. Both she and Bevan hailed from working-class backgrounds and there is a moment when he talks about “impostor syndrome” in this hallowed space. She is unequivocal in her outsider status: “That’s why this place needs us.” Despite these feisty lines, she remains flat, which seems a crime – her character could have been far richer.

Nye is still a vital play because Bevan is a vital man of British history. It succeeds in showing us just how high the hurdles he faced were. When he describes prewar healthcare – one service for the rich, one for the poor – it rings of today’s two-tiered system. “I want to give you your dignity,” he says, as the NHS launches. It is a rousing moment yet contains a terrible, tragic irony, given what is coming to pass with his precious legacy.

[mcalhenwrites]

Cal's Goals List

I'm trying my best to work hard as I can, despite my disabilities, so I can make a steady living. I work part time around dogs, but I also write books, draw dragons and take sketch commissions, and even sell crocheted items at tables (but I'd love to stop monetizing this and only have it as a hobby - so I can crochet my dragon OCs when it isn't physically hurting to crochet). My goals? One: I need a car to get to work. I work two towns over - will be even further away if I get this second part time job at the same company - and have three people juggling to give me rides. Two: I do need to buy a new laptop, and I'm extraordinarily picky with writing laptops. The one I use now is over 7 years old and still going, but only barely, and she can't support Win 11 so she'll lose support by October of next year. Three: I'd love to help out with more bills that my roommate currently covers for both of us. Four: I want to make enough money to save up for a house. I'm very sad my dog lives with my parents. He is turning 10 in October, and he's a pyr mix. I miss him. I'm rubbing my face against toys before I mail them so he can smell me on them, and I talk to him on speaker phone, but... it's not the same. I miss my baby.

Now, I have a book out for sale, and it won't be the only one. I hope to release some short stories and other novels within the next few months. For now, there is Geckos, Automata!

I have a Patreon and Ko-Fi as well. I have tiers for $1, $3, $5, and $10 to subscribe to on Patreon, plus some higher ones that I don't expect anyone to actually sub to, but admittedly I'm paywalling all my crochet at a high price to show I'm not really interested in monetizing it, but... I will, if it helps me get my dog back. Right now, Ko-Fi only shows a car goal, but I'll switch it to something else once I reach that goal. I'm saving from my part time job each paycheck for a car as well, so that $2500 is just to help, not the total. If you want to help out one time and give me physical gifts, you're free to hit up my wishlist as well. These allow me some comforts, though I ask if I have medical stuff or indie books on that list that are only sold through that site and nowhere else, you focus on those. That benefits other authors or helps with my healthcare. Thank you! :D You can also read some of my writing - original and fanfiction - on AO3! It's free, and you can use it to decide whether or not Geckos, Automata is up your alley. Thank you so much if you buy anything, boost anything, cheer me on, etc. I just need some wins in life. I'm going to keep chugging along, head up as much as I can keep it up. I think my writing and dragon art can be really intriguing for the right audience. I love what I do, and the more I write, the happier I am. But also: I love my dog and he deserves the best. Also, I think my roommate's kitties would love the space, and one of the cats would for sure be happy with more animals to play with. (The other is a bit skittish, but he'd warm up too, I'm pretty confident about that.)

[ukrfeminism]

NHS maternity services are getting worse with two-thirds of units in England now deemed unsafe as staff and hospitals find themselves under “huge pressure”, a damning report has warned. 

Some 65 per cent of maternity services are now regarded as inadequate or require improvement for safety, up from 54 per cent last year, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found. Of these, 15 per cent are inadequate.

When looking at overall ratings, one in 10 maternity units are now rated inadequate, while 39 per cent are under the rating requires improvement.

The worsening picture of maternity care in England follows major scandals in Shrewsbury and Nottingham uncovered by The Independent. 

The report says the “overarching picture” is “one of a service and staff under huge pressure”. Staff cover “is often fragile, with the rotas relying on every consultant being available”.

It added: “On top of this, consultants face additional pressure from, for example, having to cover registrar rotas and extra on-call shifts to meet the needs of their service.”

One patient told the CQC: “I couldn’t move and asked someone to help me feed my baby and was told ‘you can do it yourself’ … [The midwife] also told me that she was very busy and had other patients that took priority – when I still couldn’t move.”

The report further pointed to issues with governance and lack of oversight from NHS boards, as well as delays to care and lack of one-to-one attention during labour. The report also highlighted poor communication. 

The watchdog has said a similar picture has emerged for ambulance services, with 60 per cent deemed to be inadequate or requiring improvement on safety – double last year. 

Mental healthcare was also highlighted as an area of concern with 40 per cent rated inadequate or required improvement for safety. 

Inspectors pointed to a lack of beds, meaning people can be “cared for in inappropriate environments – often in emergency departments”.

“One acute trust told us that there had been 42 mental health patients waiting for over 36 hours in the emergency department in one month alone.” the report said. 

In its wide-ranging report, the CQC warned that healthcare risks becoming a two-tier system, with society divided into those who can pay for care and those who cannot.

It said: “Getting access to services remains a fundamental problem… Along the health and care journey, people are struggling to get the care they need when they need it.”

Factors such as long waits for hospital treatment, waits to see GPs and for referrals, combined with a lack of staff, “increase the risk of a two-tier system of healthcare, with people who can’t afford to pay having to wait longer for care and risking deteriorating health”.

During a press conference watchdog officials said: “More and more people are entering that long-wait category and it's becoming harder to prioritise and deprioritise people, when as I say we are, they are seeing a number of people who, who have effectively not been sustained on electric backlogs arriving into A&E with a serious condition.” 

Research by YouGov showed that eight in 10 of those who used private healthcare last year would previously have used the NHS, while another study found 56 per cent of people had tried to use the NHS before going private.

The CQC added: “People may also be forced to make difficult financial choices. We heard from someone who receives benefits who resorted to extracting their own tooth because they were unable to find an NHS dentist.

“They then had to pay £1,200 on a credit card for private treatment, doing without household essentials until the debt was paid.”

CQC chief executive Ian Trenholm said the ongoing strike action by NHS staff – who are unhappy with pay and conditions – has contributed to backlogs.

Sally Warren, director of policy at think tank The King’s Fund, said: “This comprehensive report reveals the sad reality that the quality of care that patients need and deserve is not being met in many parts of the NHS and social care.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “We are delivering on three major recovery plans to improve access to urgent and emergency, primary and elective care, and have made progress to significantly reduce the longest waits for routine treatment, despite pressures including industrial action.

“There are record numbers of staff working in the NHS and our historic Long Term Workforce Plan will retain and recruit hundreds of thousands more staff alongside harnessing technology to reform the way we work and save staff time.”