13% of Americans know someone who died from inability to pay medical costs

[PSOL]

https://news.gallup.com/poll/268094/millions-lost-someone-couldn-afford-treatment.aspx

Utterly horrible. I do encourage everyone to look at this data to see the ills brought forth by not having affordable health care.

[MasterJedi]

Remember, to conservatives you have the right to own a gun but not the right to life (unless you haven't been born yet).

[afleitch]

I knew 0 people. Until I married into an American family.

[GP270watch]

I knew 0 people. Until I married into an American family.

 It's one of the most shameful things about this country.

 

[JA]

https://news.gallup.com/poll/268094/millions-lost-someone-couldn-afford-treatment.aspx

Utterly horrible. I do encourage everyone to look at this data to see the ills brought forth by not having affordable universal health care.

FTFY

[Person Man]

Remember, to conservatives you have the right to own a gun but not the right to life (unless you haven't been born yet).

Don’t conservatives just kill ya?

[T'Chenka]

This statistic sounds like something you'd read about a third world country, albeit with a slightly smaller percentage.

[pbrower2a]

Profit is more sacred than life in a plutocracy...

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Health insurance companies milk you for every dollar you have and then some. Can't find that extra bit? Well, to quote Dennis Prager...

Sorry! You don't live on!

[Koharu]

My mom died because she had lost insurance when she was laid off and wasn't able to get it again because she had preexisting conditions. Even though she felt like absolute crap, she didn't go to the doctor until it was too late. They still wouldn't do anything because she had unpaid medical bills from a previous situation. She was waiting for a 401k payout to pay off the past bills so she could go to an appointment to try to pinpoint the issue. She died on either Saturday night or Sunday morning. The check arrived Monday. While the test wouldn't have made a difference at that point, if she hadn't been denied insurance, she would have gone to the doctor almost a year earlier and would have been able to do something about it.
The real kicker is that she died in November 2013. Obamacare took affect in January 2014, and she was lined up to get insurance then because insurers could no longer deny her coverage based on her preexisting conditions.

I could say a lot more on this topic but apparently the grief and pain of thousands of people isn't enough to change the mind of those staunchly opposed to universal health care.

[GP270watch]

 Man that's so awful. That's why a private health insurance system is so corrupt. A person can work their whole life, lose their job or become too sick to work and lose their insurance. All the money and work they put into the system counts for nothing. This happens to many people. Besides the fact that people who have insurance often go bankrupt with medical debt. The private health insurance system is a sham a total sham. Thank you for sharing your story and sorry for your loss, people need to realize what's going on.

[Omega21]

If something like this happened to someone close to me, my next step would be to move as fast as possible and renounce citizenship as fast as possible.

Coming from a relatively poor, corrupt country I know no one who was not offered at least the cheap generic treatments, which are economically feasible for the country to pay for.

[Xing]

My mom died because she had lost insurance when she was laid off and wasn't able to get it again because she had preexisting conditions. Even though she felt like absolute crap, she didn't go to the doctor until it was too late. They still wouldn't do anything because she had unpaid medical bills from a previous situation. She was waiting for a 401k payout to pay off the past bills so she could go to an appointment to try to pinpoint the issue. She died on either Saturday night or Sunday morning. The check arrived Monday. While the test wouldn't have made a difference at that point, if she hadn't been denied insurance, she would have gone to the doctor almost a year earlier and would have been able to do something about it.
The real kicker is that she died in November 2013. Obamacare took affect in January 2014, and she was lined up to get insurance then because insurers could no longer deny her coverage based on her preexisting conditions.

I could say a lot more on this topic but apparently the grief and pain of thousands of people isn't enough to change the mind of those staunchly opposed to universal health care.

I'm so sorry to hear that. It really is sickening how many people don't see health coverage as a moral issue, and would rather protect lower taxes for the wealthy and insurance companies instead of actually caring for and preserving the lives of citizens. I wouldn't be surprised if the number is actually much higher than 13%, but many aren't even aware that someone they know has died due to being unable to afford a treatment that they needed. I will go so far as to say that opposing one's right to treatment that they medically need is immoral.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Trump and his deplorable base would be fine with Scandinavian style universal healthcare for whites. Once they find out black and brown people would be covered, it is no go. Mike Huckabee was a early Trump prototype when he ran in 2008. Huckabee was a big welfare for whites, don't touch 'our' benefits  type of candidate. Huckabee was fine with slashing 'their' benefits however.

[TDAS04]

Lots of good posts in this thread.  If there is a real “moral issue” or actual  “right-to-life issue,” universal health care is it.

[Suburbia]

Health care in America is a joke.

Yes, I am willing to pay more in taxes for a universal healthcare.

But ask the healthcare insurance industry executives in Carmel, Ind, etc if they want to end this type of system.

Ask the suburban white woman who doesn't really care for politics about that.

Ask Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy if they approve of that.

[Mister Mets]

Are the numbers trustworthy?

A problem with these types of polls is that people will be inclined to give an answer that fits their policy preferences.

People may also exaggerate the significance of whether it would have made a difference.

[Omega21]

Are the numbers trustworthy?

A problem with these types of polls is that people will be inclined to give an answer that fits their policy preferences.

People may also exaggerate the significance of whether it would have made a difference.

Well, considering the answer of 99.9% Germans would be "What kind of question is this, are you crazy? Do you take us for barbarians who do not value life?" while the answer for some Americans is >0, yes, I do believe it.
(The numbers don't have to be spot-on, it's not the point.)


But don't worry, the free market will solve all your woes*
*Unless the drugs are being made by duopolies or companies conspiring to raise prices hi hi hi

Private price of Insulin per country (no subsidies, insurance, etc.)



Why? Because the Governments of other countries are not as owned by big Pharma, and generally allowing the price gouging of sick people for their last single cent is not really a thing outside the US.

https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/41/6/1125

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Cancer and expensive dialysis and chemo therapy is very expensive and people have to get special treatment for the diseases. If one have to have those therapies, then one might die, barring that, strokes and heart attacks are curable

[Mister Mets]

Are the numbers trustworthy?

A problem with these types of polls is that people will be inclined to give an answer that fits their policy preferences.

People may also exaggerate the significance of whether it would have made a difference.

Well, considering the answer of 99.9% Germans would be "What kind of question is this, are you crazy? Do you take us for barbarians who do not value life?" while the answer for some Americans is >0, yes, I do believe it.
(The numbers don't have to be spot-on, it's not the point.)


But don't worry, the free market will solve all your woes*
*Unless the drugs are being made by duopolies or companies conspiring to raise prices hi hi hi

Private price of Insulin per country (no subsidies, insurance, etc.)



Why? Because the Governments of other countries are not as owned by big Pharma, and generally allowing the price gouging of sick people for their last single cent is not really a thing outside the US.

https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/41/6/1125

A specific issue with insulin is that access is often limited to a much more expensive incrementally improved version, and there are regulations that make it difficult for someone to produce generic insults to the market.

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/3/18293950/why-is-insulin-so-expensive

[Fuzzy Bear]

My mom died because she had lost insurance when she was laid off and wasn't able to get it again because she had preexisting conditions. Even though she felt like absolute crap, she didn't go to the doctor until it was too late. They still wouldn't do anything because she had unpaid medical bills from a previous situation. She was waiting for a 401k payout to pay off the past bills so she could go to an appointment to try to pinpoint the issue. She died on either Saturday night or Sunday morning. The check arrived Monday. While the test wouldn't have made a difference at that point, if she hadn't been denied insurance, she would have gone to the doctor almost a year earlier and would have been able to do something about it.
The real kicker is that she died in November 2013. Obamacare took affect in January 2014, and she was lined up to get insurance then because insurers could no longer deny her coverage based on her preexisting conditions.

I could say a lot more on this topic but apparently the grief and pain of thousands of people isn't enough to change the mind of those staunchly opposed to universal health care.

This is the issue I have the greatest disagreements with the GOP.  That we have not found a way to provide affordable healthcare for every citizen is baffling.  What's even more frustrating is that the GOP, long before even Romneycare, advocated a plan similar to Obamacare as early as the 1970s, and offered such a program as an alternative to Clinton's 1994 healthcare proposal. 

Now unborn human beings are dying in abortion.  I won't overlook that.  But, yes, people are dying for lack of affordable healthcare coverage.  My mother-in-law just stopped taking her diabetes meds and died of gangrene of the gall bladder for lack of money.  She never asked my wife and I for money (the meds would have been a big chunk at that time, but we were better off back then), and I suppose that my millionaire brother-in-law opted out of helping, or was never asked  (out of foolish pride). 

I had hoped that Trump would actually come up with some kind of solution to all of this, but he's allied himself with the Freedom Caucus these days.  I understand why he did so, and I suspect that the Democrats would never have approved a healthcare by Trump, lest he get credit for it.  Sadly, Trump has abandoned his previous posture on healthcare, and his allies today are people who, honestly, don't care about the welfare of the uninsured.

This issue is what complicates voting for me.  I have to balance these concerns here versus the moral unacceptability of abortion and the posture on so many social issues that I simply cannot abide.  It is the angst of this conflict that causes me to be a swing voter.

[Santander]

This must be the American exceptionalism Republicans keep telling me about.