General Politics Discussion [ARCHIVED] • Page 320

The Neoliberal Turn in American Health Care | Jacobin

 

One can acknowledge there are good things as a result of the bill, but also say that it is deeply flawed and sets back the cause of actual universal healthcare. What we are seeing now with insurance companies and high premiums is likely to get worse precisely because markets and competition are central mechanisms within its framework. If we follow the politics of the possible, it renders us actually incapable of dealing with the very antagonism that is central to the instability of healthcare costs and access. I'm being generous in my assumption that that is what most liberals want to do. The fascination with market-based reform among both the establishment and "wonks" in reality seems to point in the opposite direction.

 

There's a Labour leadership debate on the BBC right now and I'm honestly stunned at how biased it is against Corbyn. Most of the questioning is negative against Corbyn. I'm yet to see any challenging questions aimed at Owen Smith. The host of the debate even helped Smith to answer a question lol.

 

Also, there was a woman in the audience (an Owen Smith Supporter) who said she felt uncomfortable at party meetings because Corbyn's supporters shout her down. 20 minutes later when Owen Smith's supporters were getting rowdy at one of Corbyn's answers, the camera cut to her and she was shouting something at Corbyn.

 

They just asked Corbyn if he prefers Trotskyism or Blairism

 

The Owen Smith supporters just laughed/scoffed at a Corbyn supporter who said he left the Labour Party when Blair was leader

 

Really? That's impressive. The lowest available to me (my previous tax return had 6 months of full-time employment totaling $17,000 before I went back to school) was $180.

I've more or less abandoned the hope of ever breaking even absent a catastrophic life event. If I seek medical service twice a month, I can expect to pay a minimum of 200% of the already-bloated costs.

 

We have reached a point were Paul Manafort, a man who has supported authoritarians and dictators overseas, is too composed and conventional for Donald Trump.

 

To be fair supporting dictators overseas is pretty conventional

 

See US providing weapons to Saudi Arabian atrocities in Yemen. Really, it is the most patriotic thing a Trump campaign could do.

 

@Jason Tate @Trotsky which health plan are you guys on, if i may ask?

 

Seeing that more Americans decidedly support TPP than oppose it really perplexes me, given that the mid-to-far left opposes it, Trump supporters presumably oppose it, and, because it is a contested Obama initiative, I would have guessed that all mainstream Republicans would oppose it. It can be easy to forget how insulated we become by the commentators we purposefully follow (Chomsky, Reich, Moyers, etc), but I'm genuinely surprised by this.

Poll: Support for TPP grows

Cigna, but I just canceled my coverage yesterday to instead go through my school. But, surprise, surprise, I'm having difficulty doing that.

 

I can't even realistically get medical insurance due to a few factors.

-Obama Care rates are almost 2k/month for me based on my income.
-I work for a contracting company (engineering) which offers a family plan, but almost 1k/week (pay period)
-Income too high to qualify for any state run programs.
-Current rent/bills:income too high to pay for medical even if I wanted to.

All this with a wife, 11, 8, 6 year olds with an 8 month old baby.

It really is bullshit.

 

Katrina Pierson is getting destroyed on CNN right now, and it's glorious.

 

Guys lets pool together some money and do a poll for a neglected state like Alaska or South Dakota. Jason you got like 30k in the Chorus budget? Imagine all the click traffic for a "CHORUS.FM POLL FINDS TRUMP UP JUST 2 IN MONTANA"

 

When I was younger, I managed a factory department-- paid pretty well for a college kid at about 16.00/hour. For 2 1/2 years (2010-2013), a guy under my supervision worked for the factory as a temporary employee through a placement agency and made 8.00/hour (with his additional production-based compensation of usually ~4.00 going to the agency) working 40 hours a week for about $290/week after taxes or $16k a year. With that he supported a family of six: his wife, their two kids, and two kids from a previous (deadbeat) father. One luxury he was never able to consider was health insurance. Before I quit, he was laid off because they wouldn't hire him full-time and the new placement agency wouldn't touch him with a meth precursor conviction from his college days. I've kept in touch with the guy, and he's still unemployed and can't find work, and it makes me sick thinking that entire family would go belly up if literally any of them had a major medical problem, especially after seeing the dude skip meals and work his ass off to get his family to literally half of the poverty rate.

Not sure if I've shared that anecdote here before, and I very well may have, but that's about as fucked up a situation as I have ever seen.

 

You mean she's exposing the Clinton News Network shills and out-logic-ing them, but they're spinning it as her being destroyed.

 

Arguing that CNN is the only one reporting this as a shake-up when it's literally the top headline on Fox News and Breitbart right now does not bode well for her position.

 

The fact the man known for yelling "YOU'RE FIRED!" couldn't fire someone like a man is delicious.

 

It looks like most people are ignorant of it, but that was intentional. Obama was never going to be explicit about what it entails and how it actively harms foreign and domestic workers. That's why they tried to push it through congress as fast as they could a while back.

 

That's pretty messed up, but that's the way it is right now.

I'm already in debt up to my eyeballs with my 8 month old who spent a lot of time in the NICU, but what am I going to do, refuse services because of no insurance? Yea fucking right.

It's just one of those situations where I can't change anything. Well, I mean, I CAN get coverage if we move to a place with cheaper rent, which is what we're trying to do.

 

The problem is that most of the critics from the left here don't acknowledge there are good things as a result of the bill at all. They just talk about what a disaster it is and levy generally incorrect or, at best, simplistic charges at the law itself. Every once in a while they talk about how terrible it's been for "everyone" even though there are 20 million people who would probably disagree that its been "terrible" for them.

Also, the only way it "sets back the cause of actual universal healthcare" is if you're making the argument that since political capital was spent on it's passing so recently, no one's going to want to try and go further. But I would say that is very doubtful. The upside of the law's controversy is it keeps health care policy on the front burner. But the Dems aren't going to make a move on expanding to a public option until the GOP returns to some sort of governing norm that isn't a scorched earth tactic. OR unless you get enough of the right people elected who are willing to lose their jobs for what they believe in...