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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
More than 45% of non-elderly adults with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) report financial hardship due to the associated medical bills, according to a Yale research team. Worse still, about one in five report being unable to pay those medical bills at all, said the researchers.
This study appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
According to the study, which was scaled up from the data sample provided by the 2013-2017 National Health Interview Survey, the non-elderly American adults with ASCVD experiencing medical bill-related financial hardship represents an estimated 3.9 million individuals.
"It is remarkably disheartening to see how many people suffer severe financial adverse effects of having atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease," said Harlan Krumholz, M.D., Yale cardiologist and director of the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE). "We have much work to do to ensure that people are spared the financial toxicity of disease that is imposed by our current healthcare system."
Of the group who indicated financial hardship, more than one in three reported that they have also experienced significant financial distress, cut back on purchasing basic necessities like food, and/or skimped on taking essential but costly medications in response to the burden of their medical bills.
Materials provided by Yale University.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RedGreen on Saturday February 16 2019, @04:38PM (28 children)
That is what you get when you live in a country that does not give a shit about its people. Fortunately when they fixed my heart in my country Canada, it was without costs to me. And I will say it again, I will love them wonderful people at the QEII hospital that saved my life until the day I die.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Saturday February 16 2019, @04:56PM (21 children)
I am heartened (no pun intended) to hear your heart was treated.
I too love when people do their jobs, and get paid.
The problem is the confluence of "we reserve the result to refuse service" (ok for a restaurant probably, *mostly* illegal for hospitals in the US, and rationed in other countries by physician guardians), and the "getting paid" bit.
The answer is quite simple - if you need treatment it should be provided.
But how to pay for it....
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @06:07PM (15 children)
But how to pay for it....
Tax the totally non-productive finance transactions of Wall Street. It's our money, we just have to recover it and put it to use. The U.S. can trivially afford universal health care, but we choose to believe the lies from the insurance industry and vote for their puppet politicians because, *Blood and Soil*
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @06:59PM (9 children)
How does giving money to the government help people without enough money? Why is there never a part 2 to these plans that actually helps people instead of giving more funding to corrupt politicians controlled by corporations and the super rich?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @07:48PM (8 children)
There is no "part 2". The voter get what he/she votes for. It is quite trivial to vote out the crooked politician. It takes nothing more than the desire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @07:59PM (7 children)
Is this a joke? Most people will just vote for a name they recognize...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @09:21PM (6 children)
That's not the politician's fault. The voter is the only one that is responsible for the choices they make. When corrupt politicians win reelection, it's because the voters want a piece of that corruption for themselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 16 2019, @09:28PM (5 children)
Ok well keep voting for giving more money to the government and blaming "the voter" when it is used for corrupt stuff then. I am sure your understanding of the world will lead to great success.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:44AM (4 children)
Oversight is the voters' responsibility. You, like so many of the others, simply engage in blame passing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:23AM (1 child)
I vote responsibly: never for a republicrat. Anyone running for either of those parties has sold out, even Ron Paul. Unlike you, I don't expect it makes much difference though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @03:18AM
I don't expect it makes much difference though.
Nope, it doesn't, until the other 95% stop reelecting republican/democrats. Still, it's nobody's fault but the voters, that 95% that plays along to get along. Look nowhere else. The government is a mere reflection of the voters' apathy (and antipathy) and corruption.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:17PM (1 child)
This might shock you, but bureaucrats actively resist oversight from voters. They use two main tactics: obfuscation and exhaustion.
Obfuscation means scores of pages of legalese and jargon that is never defined. It means ambiguous phrasing they interpret to their profit.
Exhaustion means hiding the most important bits in the most purposely tedious sections that it would take superhuman endurance to get through. It means scheduling key hearings at 10pm Christmas Eve, or changing the location at the last minute so the public shows up to the wrong place. It means keeping documents at a location that is three hour's drive away from the city, in an office that's only open 30 minutes a day, and accessible only if in possession of paperwork you have to fill out that day at another office that's three hours' drive in the other direction.
And all this is visited upon voters who are working three jobs to pay the taxes to fund the salaries of said bureaucrats.
So let's not glibly lay everything at the feet of voters who are "not performing oversight." The only oversight bureaucrats understand and respond to is a punch to the face and a boot up the ass. Anything shy of that, any pretense to following their rules, is a complete waste of time.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 18 2019, @03:04AM
All they have to do is vote out the incumbents. And if the voters can't fix it, then who the hell can? What kind of miracle are all of you expecting? In a monarchy the king is responsible. In a democracy or republic only the people can be held responsible. If you don't demand better, how the hell do you expect to get it? I think you people are all crazy. You're doing everything you possibly can to evade responsibility for the choices you make. It's much easier to just say there is no free will. Then we can move on
(Score: 1) by ChrisMaple on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:13AM (4 children)
Wow. Just wow. I have seldom seen a more blatant and dishonest rationale for thievery. "Money on Wall Street" is mostly investor ownership of shares of corporations; I own shares of a company's stock, that's my money that you are proposing to steal from me. --- "It's our money" No it's not, it's the money of individual investors.
To the extent that Wall Street firms have money of their own, it's from fees on trades, fees for advice and account management, profits from financial products they offer.
For what it's worth, your massive ignorance of Wall Street activity is shown by your not knowing that the Securities and Exchange Commission already charges a fee on stock sales.
No country can afford universal health care, (let alone trivially) because there is no limit to the amount of healthcare a person can receive. There is not enough human labor available, and nowhere near enough skilled labor, to provide universal health care.
Let's have an example. Let's say for my physical health I claim that I need massages 24 hours a day, plus the use of a prostitute, and a nurse to monitor my health. How does society pay for the 6 people that requires, plus a room in a care center? Where are the 36 people to provide for the healthcare of those 6 people? Where are the 216 people to care for those 36? This is a nice exponential explosion that exhausts humanity.
Universal health care is universal theft and slavery. Long term, everybody loses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:36AM
Key word is "sales", there is no tax on the buyer. Yet another government market manipulation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @08:59AM (1 child)
Quite an advertisement you put out there! But you're full of it. Wall Street trades are simple money laundering, buying and selling of stolen property, our money supply. It's like a rain forest canopy. Money flows amongst the thieves overhead while very little trickles to the ground for the rest of us to fight over. Private central banks have always been the principal cause of all economic "disasters". It's always a simple case of robbery, nothing more. Nope, that's our money. Time for us to take it back... And time for Wall Street thieves to begin to earn theirs! Or be locked up for grand larceny and racketeering, conspiracy, fraud, extortion, murder, you name it, they did it!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @09:25AM
Hoarding money is stealing, inflation is giving to the poor.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday February 17 2019, @03:26PM
A country cannot afford the massive redundancy and complication of multiple benefits departments and mutually incompatible systems of paperwork and covered conditions. It totally fubars the labor markets when skilled workers fear to move, or cannot move, because health issues they or their families have risk medical coverage.
Accordingly, it has long been documented that Americans pay far more for their healthcare, with far poorer outcomes.
National healthcare that is the same wherever you go, throughout your life, makes much more economic sense. Then we don't lose the massive investments we make as a society in education and training in workers who fall ill. We don't lose massive amounts of time and money in redundant insurance networks and administration that goes with that. We win huge efficiencies in time and effort to get people back on their feet again and engaged in productive activity.
America's healthcare nightmare hurts everyone but health insurance company executives.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 17 2019, @06:43AM
Yes, how will we pay for a system which would actually be cheaper than the system as have now? Maybe the same way we pay for all the illegal, unconstitutional, offensive wars we're engaged in. Maybe we could even roll back the tax cuts on the mega rich.
I just like how people ask 'How do we pay for it?' when it comes to things that help ordinary people, but most of them don't ask the same question when it comes to war, the military, mass surveillance, the drug war, and so on. I wonder why that is?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday February 17 2019, @11:26PM (3 children)
Ask Britain. They've been paying for the NHS since 1946 (despite the Tories best attempts to bugger it up).
You could also ask Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, Austria... (This list could be quite long).
There is no mystery to any of this. It's a solved problem.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Monday February 18 2019, @07:02PM (2 children)
The NHS runs on rationing - don't think the public hasn't notice (postcode lottery they call it).
The NHS only survives because the *whole* system is subsidized by the education system (cheaper to train) , with some cherry picking by the private providers (same Dr's , private clinic for "elective bonus").
The NHS cannot pursue risky strategies to save lives, therefore implements "least worst" medical care available.
When setup in 1946, the demographics were vastly different. The number of *treatments* were exponentially smaller.
www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/files/2018-07/facts-and-figs-website.pdf
Seriously, the "OMG they did their job!!" reaction to medical treatment is *how* they got their "mouths stuffed with gold" ( a comment by the politicians when they setup the NHS).
Any industry that can compel payment for natural occurring discomfort, pain or mortal threat - has you at a disadvantage....
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Monday February 18 2019, @11:18PM (1 child)
The problems with the NHS in the UK are almost entirely because the Tories have spent the better part of two generations undermining public institutions by underfunding them.
And yet when asked, guess what people in the UK are most proud of? [statista.com]
The "mouths stuffed with gold" comment is from Aneurin Bevan the Health Minister who was negotiating with the doctors to set the NHS up. Doctors hated the idea and fought him. It was made as part of the negotiations.
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:25AM
Notice that business comes in at the bottom at 4%. Wonder what the results to a similar poll in the States would be.
(Score: 3, Funny) by RandomFactor on Saturday February 16 2019, @05:09PM (1 child)
So you are saying that in RedGreen's [soylentnews.org] case they cut the Green wire, not the Red wire [youtube.com]?
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:31AM
Hey, at least he can fix anything with duct tape.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ilPapa on Saturday February 16 2019, @06:59PM (3 children)
Even Rand Paul goes to Canada for health care. It's some of the best in the world, and you don't see common prescription drugs going for $50,000 up there.
The US really needs to just use the Canadian system as a starting point and make a few tweaks here and there and be done with it. Put the big insurance companies out of business once and for all. Let them all go find productive jobs for a change, instead of just being parasites.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 16 2019, @07:37PM (2 children)
Copy the Canadian system? Yeah, that will go over like a Lead Balloon in Congress.
It's bad enough that a bloody revolution would seem to be warranted. Death to the Corporations! That should play well to the plebes, now, how do we it past the corporate lobbyists?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Monday February 18 2019, @09:49PM (1 child)
It's all about marketing. Make a plan that uses the Canadian medicare as a starting point, then call it "PatriotCare" or something. Name the bill the "Patriot Health Care for Families and Children Act" or some shit and dare people to vote against it.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:34AM
Call it States rights. The Provinces run the healthcare in Canada with the feds bribing to keep everything fairly even. Sorta how highways are done down there. No Constitutional changes needed either.