Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Wednesday Stuff


(And by the way, the pic has to do with this.)

Farron Cousins lets us know here that beyond-useless Trump-lickspittle Andy Biggs wants to shut down government until Trump is sworn in...and by the way, Planned Parenthood is funded by Medicaid reimbursements and grants from the Department of Health and Human Services, so when this clueless asshat says he doesn’t want to fund PP, he’s basically talking about shutting down that program and that agency also, which of course is also part of the wingnut “hit list”...



...and it looks like someone has been charged in the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson; I know I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but that quote about Thompson having empathy and trying to improve access to care or whatever is unbelievable BS when you look at the percentage of claims UHC denied under Thompson’s watch...also, I certainly don’t have any insight into the shooter’s motivation (beyond what we’re finding out), but this business about writing “delay” and “deny” on the bullet casings is something that I think was intended to trip up law enforcement, though I have a feeling it won’t work – if someone was screwed over by UHC denying their claim for health care, I don’t think they’d go to the trouble to write words on the bullets; they would just commit a random act of horrific violence...I think health care should be based on need also along with David Doel; clip points out how life expectancy in this country falls below that of other industrialized nations...clip also does a good job of pointing out the popularity of Medicare and Social Security along with Medicaid, as well as the ACA...



...and following up on Doel’s clip a bit, Sean Morrow of More Perfect Union discusses the $1 trillion private health insurance scam in this country, against the backdrop of seeking care for his mom...yet another example of how utterly useless Medicare Advantage (Medicare Part C) is, and a great big raspberry goes out to Aetna also...I knew that Medicare Parts A&B are actually better value (in terms of dollars going to actual care instead of administrative costs) than Part C, and yes, I also knew about that ridiculous recording from The Sainted Ronnie R way back when, but I’d forgotten to be honest that he made it legal for Medicare to contract with private insurance companies, which led to Medicare Advantage in 1996 (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and Ayman Mohyeldin and Rachel Maddow discuss the documentary “Separated” by Errol Morris, based on the book by Jacob Soboroff (have to catch up with the doc, to be honest)...more on Lee Gelernt is here (and if 4,000-4,500 kids were separated under Trump I, just imagine how many more times that will happen under Trump II unfortunately)...



...and here are more seasonal selections.







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