Tag: healthcare

The Trump DICTATORSHIP – Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness, LXVII – Making American Health Care WORSE

~ tomdolen

*** “All the other countries..have made a different moral decision. All the other countries like us..guaranteed medical care to everyone who gets sick..have concluded that everybody has a right to health care – and they provide it. One result is that most rich countries have better national health statistics…Yet all the other rich countries spend far less on health care than the United States does…most developed countries manage health care without resorting to “socialized medicine.” [ T.R. Reid: “The Healing of America” ]

1] “Barely eight months into his second term, president Donald Trump has disrupted, depleted, and desecrated our nation’s already fragile health care system, putting millions of lives in jeopardy. A new Public Citizen report, “The Rise of Trump’s Dangerous Health Cabal,” highlights the threats posed by Trump’s health care appointees – not just to the agencies they’re supposed to run, but also to patients, providers, and the programs they rely on.” [“Trump and Allies Threaten to Worsen Health Care, Putting Lives at Risk”; Public Citizen News; Sept/Oct, 2025]

*** “It was no accident that American health care became a profit center for Wall Street…..To encourage Wall Street to step in, The Reagan administration embarked on an ambitious plan to sell investors and venture capitalists on investing in health care.” [Donald Barlett & James Steele: “Critical Condition”]

2] “Robert F. Kennedy, jr.’s efforts to undermine vaccines in America are not just scientifically absurd. they’re also financially ruinous…vaccines save money….Health insurance companies know this; that’s why they make flu shots free….Employers know this, too: it’s why many of them pay for flu-shot days…..The HPV vaccine is extraordinarily cost-effective….the DPT vaccine..prevents three horrifying diseases….If Kennedy succeeds in pushing even one vaccine off the market, the financial repercussions will be severe.” [ Donald McNeil, jr.: “Not vaccinating comes at an exorbitant cost”; Washington Post Weekly; 9/28/25 ]

*** “How Hospital Monopolies Drive Up the Cost of Care”; Shannon Brownlee; Washington Monthly; November/December, 2022 – a review of “Big Med: Megaproviders and the High Cost of Health Care in America; David Dranove, Lawton Burns.

3] “The Trump administration is preparing a plan that will make it harder for older Americans to qualify for Social Security disability payments, part of an overhaul of the federal safety net for poor, older, and disabled people could result in hundreds of thousands of people losing benefits..”….
“People familiar with the proposed changes said they are a priority of Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget and a key author of Project 2025, which has shaped Trump’s policies. [NOTE: remember Trump LIED during the 2024 election about having anything to do with “Project 2025.]

*** “The true “elephant in the room,” to use Dale’s metaphor, is the fact that our health care system has been ‘privatized” by an insurance industry more intent on lining its pockets than on ensuring that the American people get the public service and care that they pay for.” [ Dr. Ralph Bovard: “Rationing is not the only alternative”; Minneapolis Star Tribune; 2/8/2011 ]

4] “In July, the Trump administration cut off Medicaid payments to reproductive health care clinics that offer abortions…The move was seen as directed at Planned Parenthood…a long-time target of Republicans. But two smaller providers, Maine Family Planning and Health Imperatives, a network of seven clinics in southeastern Massachusetts, were also swept up in the measure.”

“The fallout will soon be felt by thousands of patients across the country, particularly where there are few options.” [ Jenna Russell, Anna Griffin: “Freeze on Medicaid payments forcing rural health care cuts”; New York Times; 10/5/25]

*** “Inadequate attention to and investment in services that address the broader determinants of health is the unnamed culprit why the United States spends so much on health care but continues to lag behind in health outcomes.”…..
‘…the United States is not spending as much as other industrial countries on fortifying crucial social services that help make people healthy…10 percent of its GDP on social services while France, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark..and Italy all spend about 20 percent…providing reliable housing, ensuring nutrious food sufficiency, and safeguarding against harmful exposures…” [Elizabeth Bradley, Lauren Taylor: “The American Health Care Paradox”]

5]. “Millions of low-income seniors are missing out on crucial help paying for Medicare – and the recently enacted federal budget law blocks an effort to help them get it….the law does suspend until 2034 a requirement that states adopt a Biden-era plan to increase enrollment in state-run Medicaid programs that help seniors who qualify get a hand paying for out-of-pocket Medicare costs.” [Mark miller: “Poor Retirees Lose Key Medicare Help”; New York Times; 10/5/25]

*** “The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend.” [ Benjamin Disraeli ]

6]. “Last week, President Donald Trump emphatically discouraged women from taking Tylenol during pregnancy, based on unproven claims that acetaminophen is linked to autism…..The truth is that chosing relief or intervention when its medically appropriate is not weakness.”…..”They want to dictate your pregnancy……and add to the sense that it is appropriate for women to suffer for the sake of their babies.” [Catherine Pearson: “Pregnant Women Face An Onslaught Of Advice”; New York Times; 9/28/25]

***. “The most delusional fantasies can be made to masquerade as sanity if you’ve got the political power to reinforce them.” [ penny Skillman ]

7]. “At the behest of Trump, Congressional Republicans passed a massive tax cut for billionaires, paid for in part by huge cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and other crucial programs. These cuts threaten to cut off access to health care for millions of Americans. The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to privatize Medicare by hiking rates for Medicare Advantage plans.” [“Trump and Allies Threaten to Worsen Health Care, Putting lives at Risk”; Public Citizen News; Sept/Oct, 2025]

***. “The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice.” [ Justice Robert Jackson ]

8] “Trump could gain leverage from shutdown….Layoffs, cuts would play into Project 2025 goals” [ Jacob Bogage; Washington Post; 9/28/25]: “..The White House is preparing for a shutdown that would reflect the purest vision of President Donald Trump’s vision for the federal government, guided by White House budget director Russell Vought, an architect of the controversial Project 2025 playbook for Trump’s second term…The result, both during and after a shutdown, could be a federal government dramatically reoriented to defense, immigration and law enforcement – and not much else.” [NOTE; remember what was said above – underinvesting in social services to keep people healthy – if the Trump DICTATORSHIP cuts health funding – how does this “…promote the general Welfare..” ? {U.S. Constitution]

*** “Zeal is fit only for Wisw Men, but is found mostly in Fools.” [ Thomas Fuller ]

For Perspective: “We the People of the United States, in Order to from a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility…promote the general Welfare..do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” “..promote the general Welfare..” YOU tell me, where in all the Craziness, Stupidity, Corruption, Cruelty of its “health care’ policies does the Trump DICTATORSHIP “..promote the general Welfare..” of YOU and other Americans??????? YOU tell me, after nearly 9 months of Stupidity, Cruelty, Corruption, Craziness – what, if anything, has the Trump DICTATORSHIP done to. “..promote the general Welfare..” ?????????

The CORRUPTION and HIGH COST of American ‘health care” that was begun under the Reagan administration has now created a crisis in American “health care” that. DOES. NOT exist in other “developed’ nations. Check on health care in Scandinavian countries – “the happiest people on earth.” What do they do that America does not? Read T.R. Reid’s. “The Healing of America;” Pulitzer Prize winners Barlett & Steele’s. “Critical condition;” Bradley & Taylor’s. “The American Health Care Paradox.” The answers to America’s health care crisis are. KNOWN. – because of. CORRUPTION. – we don’t do them………..

Trumpism – American “health insurance” – a murder

~ tomdolen

A health “insurance” CEO is murdered – BECAUSE he was a health “insurance” CEO. How do we understand this, place it in context, perhaps use this tragedy as a “teachable moment”?
Among reactions to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is: “When you shoot one man in the street it’s murder,” one person posted on the social media site X. “When you kill thousands of people in hospitals by taking away their ability to get treatment you’re an entrepreneur.”
Long ago, the following was said: “Whoever has shown no mercy, he shall have judgment without mercy.” [James 2:13]
From America’s 1950s-60s conscience: “Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” [Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]

The tragic murder of Brian Thompson, by all accounts a good and decent human being, CAN be a “teachable moment” for America – IF. – we want it to be; IF we re-examine American “health care”; IF we seek a fact-based solution; IF we are willing to learn from other “rich” nations. Is this who we are???

Warnings about the often cruel, often inadequate American “health care” system have been available for at least 20 years. Some of these are:
1] “..[a]..viable and proven option: a single-payer or regulated multipayer health care system..exists in every nation in the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development except for the United States and Mexico. The average OECD nation spends 6% to 10% of GDP on health care; we spend 17%. Their per-person spending averages $3000 to $5000 a year, compared to $8000 in the United States.
“We could save huge sums – more than enough to insure the uninsured – by cutting the administrative waste and executive profit in our system, and by collective bargaining to lower the price at which drugs, devices, and medical services are sold in this country.
“The true “elephant in the room”..is the fact ..our health care system has been “privatized” by an insurance industry more intent on lining its pockets than on ensuring..the American people get the service and care..they pay for. HMOs reap a hugely profitable business by denying and limiting care [a more severe form of rationing than exists in any other OECD nation].” [Dr. Ralph Bovard; Physicians for a National Health Plan member; 2/8/11; Mpls. Star-Tribune]
***!!!***!!!*** – Time Out! – re-read this – now ask yourself: what are the chances the MuskRamaswamy “Government
Waste Committee will save America billions/trillions by cutting “ADMINISTRATIVE WASTE AND
EXECUTIVE PROFIT” in OUR “health insurance” ???????????????

2] “Critical Condition…How Health Care in America Became Big Business – And Bad Medicine”: U.S. health care is rigged; profit & “market forces’ decide everything; U.S. health care “is a lottery;” the “myth” of U.S. ‘top’ health care & access; #1 cost driver: market-based health care; 1250% increase in U.S. drug prices, 1980-2002; U.S. drug prices 30-60% higher than the world; WallStreet corrupts U.S. medicine; post-1980 U.S. health care industry is a 1950s Soviet bureaucrat’s dream!!!; CPT: how insurers cheat doctors; move U.S. medical industry to India; the solution: single-payer. [Pulitzer Prize winners Donald Barlett & James Steele; 2006]

3] “How Hospital Monopolies Drive Up the Cost of Care…Health care mergers were supposed to bring lower prices and higher quality. They’ve done the opposite. Time to try regulation.’ [Book review of “Big Medicine..Megaproviders and The High Cost of Health Care in America” – David Dranove & Lawton Burns. – by Shannon Brownlee; November/December, 2022; Washington Monthly ]: hospitals & the AMA “lobbied hard” against government coverage of health care because it would lead to price controls. “The cost of health care is bankrupting families and depressing wages for average workers.” [!! time out! – what does “lobbied hard” against mean to YOU – do YOU smell ‘campaign contributions’ and other threats here?????]

4] “The Healing of America”. [T.R. Reid; 2009]: 20,000 Americans “in the prime of life” die each year; “hundreds of thousands” go bankrupt; “All other developed countries on earth have made a different moral decision..guarantee medical care to anyone who gets sick.”; “..even with these new strictures, the U.S. private insurers will still be the least efficient health care payers any where.” [!!! time out!!! – “..a different moral decision..”; “U.S. private health insurers
will still be the LEAST EFFICIENT health care payers ANY WHERE!!!!!!]

5] “America’s Bitter Pill…Money, Politics, Backroom Deals, and The Fight To Fix Our Broken Healthcare System” [Steven Brill; 2015; – also, “Time’s” 3/4/13 “Special Report: “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us’}; gravy train for hospital administrators, Drug CEOs, Imaging Salesmen; only industry where tech advances INCREASE costs!; 9 of 10 largest Pharma companies paid millions/billions in criminal/civil penalties; largest U.S. industry; #1 in lobbyists; 60% of 2014 personal bankruptcies from medical bills; “socialism/ communism” for ANY govt restraints; {p.71} industry “won’t allow..cost control”; [p.97] Big Pharma’s demands !!!; U.S. insurer’s profits 20-25%, other nation’s 5%, Medicare 1%

6]. “The American Health Care Paradox”. [Elisabeth Bradley, Lauren Taylor; 2013]: inadequate social services leads to big health costs; the U.S. is NOT spending what other ‘rich’ nations do on social services to achieve good health; more ‘poor’ nations provide more equitable, high quality health care3 & much cheaper than the U.S.’ in Scandinavia health a means to an end, not THE end; “Overwhelming body of health literature”; socioeconomic circumstances more powerful than medical care in fostering public health [corroborated by U.S. research]; irrationality: in U.S. health framed as an INDIVIDUAL problem – all other factors get off scot-free!!! [!!!***!!!! – so, the Musk-Ramaswamy “government waste committee” – will consider this evidence when they cut $2 trillion from govt expenses, right???@tomdolen
7] “An American Sickness…HowHealthcare Became BigBusiness And How You Can Take It Back” [Elisabeth Rosenthal; 2017}: Economic Rules of the Dysfunctional Medical Market:
1]. More treatment is always better. Default to the most expensive option.
2] A lifetime of treatment is preferred to a cure.
3] Amenities & Marketing matter more than good care.
4]. As technologies age, prices can rise rather than fall.
5]. There is no free choice. Patients are stuck. And they’re stuck buying American.
6]. More competitors vying for business doesn’t mean better prices; it can drive prices up, not down.
7] Economies of scale don’t translate to lower prices. With their market power, big providers can simply demand more.
8]. There’s no such thing as a fixed price for procedure or test. And uninsured pay the highest prices of all.
9] There are no standards for billing. There’s money to be made in billing for anything & everything.
10] Prices will rise to whatever the market will bear.”

*** Unfortunately, the health insurance industry’s, so far [12/8/24] reaction is NOT one of reform: “Killing sends shock wave through insurance world…Companies rethinking security for top execs”. [Mike Hughlett, Patrick Kennedy; 12/7/24; MN Star Tribune].
Maybe it’s too early – BUT – there’s not one word – about changing their business model, or, even asking questions about why: not one word about why Americans are upset over health care denials.

AND – Americans ARE upset over “health insurance.” A former Republican Minnesota state legislator led protests outside UNH headquarters, in which 11 people were arrested – after exhausting her financial resources paying for cancer care and fighting with UnitedHealthcare over its denials and coverage limitations – FOR CANCER !!!
AND, on a Reddit forum, a popular parody rejection letter: for 12/4/24 emergency services because “you failed to obtain prior authorization before seeking care for the gunshot wound to your chest.” !!!!!!
AND – the 75,000 “haha” emoji sent to United Health Group’s Facebook site
And – apparently, from recent news stories – some people making the assassin into a “hero” in the “class war.”

This tragic death CAN become a beginning for positive change – BUT – ONLY – if YOU demand it. YOU can force pubic discussion to discuss the OBSCENE practices of the health insurance industry – and DEMAND changes in their business model – one like all other rich countries. – that puts the health of Americans over insurance industry profits.

IF the Trump administration is SERIOUS about cutting the cost of living in America for the lower 90% – then, it MUST start with reducing costs for health care. NO excuses.