Thank you for stating the obvious so clearly. I agree that we won’t have Medicare for All, or anything else for the common people through the democratic process that has been bought over the past several decades. That is why my first article in my substack is about how we organized a “shit hole” nursing home. Healthcare will have to be revolutionized in the U.S. by its practioners supported by the recipients of care.
I always look for the underlying cause of a problem. The following book recommendation is truly a deep dive in that direction. “The Goodness Paradox” by Richard Wrangham. If you don’t have time to read the book, the review by Ronald J. Planer gives a good overview. The idea that interested me most was that humans living in bands or small groups self-domesticated. We don’t seem to have way forward in the modern world to continue along that evolutionary path, in my opinion. Maybe the alph males will eliminate each other.
I”m going to write more on my experience as a patient because I am hoping some practitioners will see themselves from my perspective as a long-suffering patient who was a mother, wife, nurse, and human being. You wouldn’t understand how many doctors and nurses shut off their feelings and begin to see the patient as the enemy, especially those they didn’t heal and keep returning. Moral injury either causes the practitioner to withdraw emotionally, remain vulnerable and acquire chronic mental and physical diseases, or leave. Another path would be to join with others to change the system.
It’s been said that the U.S. is now like Germany in the 1920s and 30s. I see the similarity in that the Germans were being drained of their resources due to war reparations, while we are being drained of our assets through what the economist, Michael Hudson, calls the F.I.R.E. economy, (finance, insurance, and real estate.)
Private equity has drained the assets of the industry that remained in the U.S. and now are draining the assets of hospital systems. Hudson’s book, “Killing the Host” explains. The confused population that struggles to survive and retain civilized family life doesn’t know where to turn, just like the Germans who also chose the wrong direction.
Thanks again and I hope you don’t mind if I copy your essay for a reference. I hope you and your family continue to stay well.
Thanks very much for your thoughtful comments. I’ll make a point of following up on the readings you recommend. I also appreciate your passion for this subject. If you find my piece of use, yes, please feel free to copy or reference it. Given the year-to-year increase in subscriptions to Medicare Advantage, in spite of many warning signs, suggests to me that (1) there is also a problem with consumers being informed about Medicare options in particular, and (2) that the continuous screed against public-sector services probably influences the ultimately counter-productive choices that many make with regard to healthcare coverage (e.g., choosing Medicare Advantage over Original Medicare + Medigap).
If you own a house and can’t afford a gap policy, Medicare Advantage is the most practical option if you want to leave something to your children. Of course, denials could shorten your life.
There is more to my story concerning how cost cutting on staff and working around regulations can result in deaths, and how the doctors and hospitals cover for each other. After all, they possess and create the medical records.
I am imagining somebody who has participated in chicanery will read what about what happened to me, grow a conscience and change their ways. Wendall Potter did changed and is doing what he can to change the system.
Thank you for stating the obvious so clearly. I agree that we won’t have Medicare for All, or anything else for the common people through the democratic process that has been bought over the past several decades. That is why my first article in my substack is about how we organized a “shit hole” nursing home. Healthcare will have to be revolutionized in the U.S. by its practioners supported by the recipients of care.
I always look for the underlying cause of a problem. The following book recommendation is truly a deep dive in that direction. “The Goodness Paradox” by Richard Wrangham. If you don’t have time to read the book, the review by Ronald J. Planer gives a good overview. The idea that interested me most was that humans living in bands or small groups self-domesticated. We don’t seem to have way forward in the modern world to continue along that evolutionary path, in my opinion. Maybe the alph males will eliminate each other.
I”m going to write more on my experience as a patient because I am hoping some practitioners will see themselves from my perspective as a long-suffering patient who was a mother, wife, nurse, and human being. You wouldn’t understand how many doctors and nurses shut off their feelings and begin to see the patient as the enemy, especially those they didn’t heal and keep returning. Moral injury either causes the practitioner to withdraw emotionally, remain vulnerable and acquire chronic mental and physical diseases, or leave. Another path would be to join with others to change the system.
It’s been said that the U.S. is now like Germany in the 1920s and 30s. I see the similarity in that the Germans were being drained of their resources due to war reparations, while we are being drained of our assets through what the economist, Michael Hudson, calls the F.I.R.E. economy, (finance, insurance, and real estate.)
Private equity has drained the assets of the industry that remained in the U.S. and now are draining the assets of hospital systems. Hudson’s book, “Killing the Host” explains. The confused population that struggles to survive and retain civilized family life doesn’t know where to turn, just like the Germans who also chose the wrong direction.
Thanks again and I hope you don’t mind if I copy your essay for a reference. I hope you and your family continue to stay well.
Thanks very much for your thoughtful comments. I’ll make a point of following up on the readings you recommend. I also appreciate your passion for this subject. If you find my piece of use, yes, please feel free to copy or reference it. Given the year-to-year increase in subscriptions to Medicare Advantage, in spite of many warning signs, suggests to me that (1) there is also a problem with consumers being informed about Medicare options in particular, and (2) that the continuous screed against public-sector services probably influences the ultimately counter-productive choices that many make with regard to healthcare coverage (e.g., choosing Medicare Advantage over Original Medicare + Medigap).
If you own a house and can’t afford a gap policy, Medicare Advantage is the most practical option if you want to leave something to your children. Of course, denials could shorten your life.
There is more to my story concerning how cost cutting on staff and working around regulations can result in deaths, and how the doctors and hospitals cover for each other. After all, they possess and create the medical records.
I am imagining somebody who has participated in chicanery will read what about what happened to me, grow a conscience and change their ways. Wendall Potter did changed and is doing what he can to change the system.
Yours is an important story to tell.