Fentoine Lum
Verified User
Utterly bipartisan neoliberal economics "drove" blah blah blah .... Notice how bipartisan it is to avoid that conversation.
Trump drives GM out of the United States.
- Thread starter Jarod
- Start date
Utterly bipartisan neoliberal economics "drove" blah blah blah .... Notice how bipartisan it is to avoid that conversation.
MAGA MAN
Let's go Brandon!
"If you like your doctor you can keep him...."
Mr.Badguy
Super lefty
Slaves kept all their "pay" and didn't have unions either. Well, until the North became the "Union".
montgomery
Verified User
You know the reason why GM is shutting down plants in the US and Canada too, as well as I do. I don't think there's much point of trying to have that discussed on this forum.
Something maybe worth discussing is whether or not denial is a factor for the lack of discussion? It would make sense considering that Trump can't keep his phony game going much longer. He's a one term president that would be better suited to a 'half-term' because the house of cards can't continue to stand for the full 4 years. Maybe he will feign sickness or find himself a bullet?
Hard to say when we have to weigh in the 'psychopath' factor?
Fentoine Lum
Verified User
Yes, HeritageFoundationCare is more predatory capitalist health"care" in america.
Most expensive, most inefficient 'exceptionalism':
New York, N.Y., October 8, 2015 — The U.S. spent more per person on health care than 12 other high-income nations in 2013, while seeing the lowest life expectancy and some of the worst health outcomes among this group, according to a Commonwealth Fund report out today. The analysis shows that in the U.S., which spent an average of $9,086 per person annually, life expectancy was 78.8 years. Switzerland, the second-highest-spending country, spent $6,325 per person and had a life expectancy of 82.9 years. Mortality rates for cancer were among the lowest in the U.S., but rates of chronic conditions, obesity, and infant mortality were higher than those abroad.
“Time and again, we see evidence that the amount of money we spend on health care in this country is not gaining us comparable health benefits,” said Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D. “We have to look at the root causes of this disconnect and invest our health care dollars in ways that will allow us to live longer while enjoying better health and greater productivity.”
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/pub...spends-more-on-health-care-than-other-nations
U.S. Healthcare Ranked Dead Last Compared To 10 Other Countries
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmun...-compared-to-10-other-countries/#486bbd6f576f
Major Findings
• Quality: The indicators of quality were grouped into four categories: effective care, safe care, coordinated care, and patient-centered care. Compared with the other 10 countries, the U.S. fares best on provision and receipt of preventive and patient-centered care. While there has been some improvement in recent years, lower scores on safe and coordinated care pull the overall U.S. quality score down. Continued adoption of health information technology should enhance the ability of U.S. physicians to identify, monitor, and coordinate care for their patients, particularly those with chronic conditions.
• Access: Not surprisingly—given the absence of universal coverage—people in the U.S. go without needed health care because of cost more often than people do in the other countries. Americans were the most likely to say they had access problems related to cost. Patients in the U.S. have rapid access to specialized health care services; however, they are less likely to report rapid access to primary care than people in leading countries in the study. In other countries, like Canada, patients have little to no financial burden, but experience wait times for such specialized services. There is a frequent misperception that trade-offs between universal coverage and timely access to specialized services are inevitable; however, the Netherlands, U.K., and Germany provide universal coverage with low out-of-pocket costs while maintaining quick access to specialty services.
• Efficiency: On indicators of efficiency, the U.S. ranks last among the 11 countries, with the U.K. and Sweden ranking first and second, respectively. The U.S. has poor performance on measures of national health expenditures and administrative costs as well as on measures of administrative hassles, avoidable emergency room use, and duplicative medical testing. Sicker survey respondents in the U.K. and France are less likely to visit the emergency room for a condition that could have been treated by a regular doctor, had one been available.
• Equity: The U.S. ranks a clear last on measures of equity. Americans with below-average incomes were much more likely than their counterparts in other countries to report not visiting a physician when sick; not getting a recommended test, treatment, or follow-up care; or not filling a prescription or skipping doses when needed because of costs. On each of these indicators, one-third or more lower-income adults in the U.S. said they went without needed care because of costs in the past year.
• Healthy lives: The U.S. ranks last overall with poor scores on all three indicators of healthy lives—mortality amenable to medical care, infant mortality, and healthy life expectancy at age 60. The U.S. and U.K. had much higher death rates in 2007 from conditions amenable to medical care than some of the other countries, e.g., rates 25 percent to 50 percent higher than Australia and Sweden. Overall, France, Sweden, and Switzerland rank highest on healthy lives.
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror
No other advanced country even comes close to the United States in annual spending on health care, but plenty of those other countries see much better outcomes in their citizens' actual health overall.
A new Commonwealth Fund report released Thursday underscored that point — yet again — with an analysis that ranks 13 high-income nations on their overall health spending, use of medical services, prices and health outcomes.
The study data, which is from 2013, predates the full implementation of Obamacare, which took place in 2014. Obamacare is designed to increase health coverage for Americans and stem the rise in health-care costs.
The findings indicate that despite spending well in excess of the rate of any other of those countries in 2013, the United States achieved worse outcomes when it comes to rates of chronic conditions, obesity and infant mortality.
One rare bright spot for the U.S., however, is that its mortality rate for cancer is among the lowest out of the 13 countries, and that cancer rates fell faster between 1995 and 2007 than in other countries.
"Time and again, we see evidence that the amount of money we spend on health care in this country is not gaining us comparable health benefits," said Dr. David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund. "We have to look at the root causes of this disconnect and invest our health-care dollars in ways that will allow us to live longer while enjoying better health and greater productivity."
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/08/us-health-care-spending-is-high-results-arenot-so-good.html
Ranking 37th — Measuring the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0910064#t=article
Health Care Outcomes in States Influenced by Coverage, Disparities
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-st...-in-states-influenced-by-coverage-disparities
One explanation for the health disadvantage of the United States relative to other high-income countries might be deficiencies in health services. Although the United States is renowned for its leadership in biomedical research, its cutting-edge medical technology, and its hospitals and specialists, problems with ensuring Americans’ access to the system and providing quality care have been a long-standing concern of policy makers and the public (Berwick et al., 2008; Brook, 2011b; Fineberg, 2012). Higher mortality rates from diseases, and even from transportation-related injuries and homicides, may be traceable in part to failings in the health care system.
The United States stands out from many other countries in not offering universal health insurance coverage. In 2010, 50 million people (16 percent of the U.S. population) were uninsured (DeNavas-Walt et al., 2011). Access to health care services, particularly in rural and frontier communities or disadvantaged urban centers, is often limited. The United States has a relatively weak foundation for primary care and a shortage of family physicians (American Academy of Family Physicians, 2009; Grumbach et al., 2009; Macinko et al., 2007; Sandy et al., 2009). Many Americans rely on emergency departments for acute, chronic, and even preventive care (Institute of Medicine, 2007a; Schoen et al., 2009b, 2011). Cost sharing is common in the United States, and high out-of-pocket expenses make health care services, pharmaceuticals, and medical supplies increasingly unaffordable (Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance System, 2011; Karaca-Mandic et al., 2012). In 2011, one-third of American households reported problems paying medical bills (Cohen et al., 2012), a problem that seems to have worsened in recent years (Himmelstein et al., 2009). Health insurance premiums are consuming an increasing proportion of U.S. household income (Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance System, 2011).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK154484/
Once again, U.S. has most expensive, least effective health care system in survey
A report released Monday by a respected think tank ranks the United States dead last in the quality of its health-care system when compared with 10 other western, industrialized nations, the same spot it occupied in four previous studies by the same organization. Not only did the U.S. fail to move up between 2004 and 2014 -- as other nations did with concerted effort and significant reforms -- it also has maintained this dubious distinction while spending far more per capita ($8,508) on health care than Norway ($5,669), which has the second most expensive system.
"Although the U.S. spends more on health care than any other country and has the highest proportion of specialist physicians, survey findings indicate that from the patients’ perspective, and based on outcome indicators, the performance of American health care is severely lacking," the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based foundation that promotes improved health care, concluded in its extensive analysis. The charts in this post are from the report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...care-system-in-survey/?utm_term=.3bea55276072
US healthcare system ranks 50th out of 55 countries for efficiency
http://www.beckershospitalreview.co...-50th-out-of-55-countries-for-efficiency.html
The U.S. healthcare system notched another dubious honor in a new comparison of its quality to the systems of 10 other developed countries: its rank was dead last.
The new study by the Commonwealth Fund ranks the U.S. against seven wealthy European countries and Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It's a follow-up of previous surveys published in 2010, 2007, 2006 and 2004, in all of which the U.S. also ranked last.
Although the U.S. ranked in the middle of the pack on measures of effectiveness, safety and coordination of care, it ranked dead last on access and cost, by a sufficient margin to rank dead last overall. The breakdowns are in the chart above.
Conservative pundits hastened to explain away these results after the report was published. See Aaron Carroll for a gloss on the "zombie arguments" put forth against the clear evidence that the U.S. system falls short.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-the-us-healthcare-system-20140617-column.html
U.S. Health Care Ranked Worst in the Developed World
http://time.com/2888403/u-s-health-care-ranked-worst-in-the-developed-world/
Fentoine Lum
Verified User
You may be greatly underestimating the american public's penchant for denial and illusion. As you've no doubt noticed during your tenure here, the instant any conversation winds its way too near the truth, the incoherence ramps up immediately. One finds the same in our corporate state media machine, and the masses simply repeat what they're fed, choosing fictitious "sides" of the ruling industrial class to swallow-n-follow. Slogans devoid of critical thought become mantras to live by. That's what patriotism is for, to offset, via societal peer pressure, critical thought amongst the unsubstantial people.
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montgomery
Verified User
No, not at all. I'm fully aware of it.
What I'm predicting is the powers that be who are genuinely interested in America's future, have taken the reigns. Trump has caused so much irreparable damage already and they know it's irreparable on the short term. Racism is nearly at 60's levels again, but the acting out has the potential to be much worse once it starts.
This is above party politics. For instance, the right wasn't allowed to destroy Comey in the way they, Trump did. Don't think for a minute that the FBI powers that be have written that off to experience.
If we can coax some of these discussions to rise above the partisan political level of silly trading of insults back and forth, we could maybe start learning something about what's going on behind the scenes. I think there are at least two or three of the others who could have something to contribute.
I'm hoping at least?
Yeah.
And if the greedy bastards would only work for $4 an hour...it would benefit the companies and all the people they hire even more. Right?
I agree with you. The problem lies with the greedy bastards who put food, shelter, clothes, kids, education...and crap like that ahead of working for as little as possible.
We are on the same side on this, Arminius.
Fentoine Lum
Verified User
Concentrated wealth and power does whatever it is allowed to, and personally I see no available mechanism working within the confines of the current system. Furthermore I see nothing to advise me that the american public has reached the bottom of what it will sit and watch go down only to get up and go right back into work the next day and do as they are told. These things do not alter course from the top down.
Fentoine Lum
Verified User
Some of us recall why unions arose in the first place. Murderous corporate thugs/mercenaries and shooting wars come to mind.
montgomery
Verified User
America has no choice but to try to compete with China's wages. It's only a matter of how fast the adjustments will be made. And it's also the question of which political party will have to take the heat for doing it.
This is why Trump's tactic of blaming minorities became so successful. Most of his fools are now only fooling themselves and they have to know it. Hitler had a point with the Jews because the Jews were so much more financially clever than the rest of the German people. Trump has no point that can be sustained to be successful.
It's just 'not' the fault of the minorities! It's the global economy that is going to cause American workers to start working good paying jobs in industry into jobs that pay $15 an hour, $12 an hour, $19 an hour, etc., you should get the picture.
The party's over America.
(Don't bother thinking of sharing the wealth in order to put it off for ten years or so.)
Fentoine Lum
Verified User
Trump's tactic of blaming minorities is as old as america itself.
montgomery
Verified User
I disagree. Not near that old but definitely old.
Fentoine Lum
Verified User
Right after Bacon's Rebellion.
So you agree with Arminius and me that if the greedy bastards would only work for $4 an hour...it would benefit the companies and all the people they hire to a great extent. Right?
You agree with Arminius and me that the problem lies with the greedy bastards who put food, shelter, clothes, kids, education...and crap like that ahead of working for as little as possible.
You are on the same side on this as Arminius and moi?
Fentoine Lum
Verified User
We are reaching a point in predatory capitalism's evolution wherein it doesn't need humans any longer to "create" wealth for extraction, concentration and redistribution to the extent it once did. The aristocracy no longer sees the masses as a necessary evil, merely an evil they no longer have to allow to exist, which could turn on them at some point as the economic system and the environment proceed into further decay.
The "let them eat cake" mentality leads to what happened in France during the late 18th century and what happened in Russia during the early 20th century.
I hope this doesn't go there. I hope sanity prevails...and that American conservatism dies the death it so richly deserves. I also hope that a reasonable amalgam of capitalism (specifically the free enterprise component) and socialism occurs and that we all head to where our technological advancement requires.
MAGA MAN
Let's go Brandon!
MAGA MAN
Let's go Brandon!
Fentoine Lum
Verified User
Oh I know, so do they - the power structure.
So the public has been desensitized to mass shootings on a regular basis. They’ve/we've been desensitized to endless wars of occupation that economically cannibalize society at home. They’ve/we've been desensitized to the power of the state to murder unarmed citizens in the streets, and now in their homes and on the job, with impunity. They’ve/we've been desensitized to the incarceration and separation of nonviolent families into for profit holding pens and corporate for profit prisons with corporate convict labor leasing. They’ve/we've been desensitized to their government supporting three quarters of the world’s military dictatorships. They’ve/we've been desensitized to partnering in genocide with a nation who butchers and liquefies a critical journalist. They’ve/we've been desensitized to twenty two veterans per day committing suicide from “serving” in seven hot active shooting wars in Muslim majority countries with no plan other than to occupy.
So now we should be ready to take the next step and desensitize them to deploying the military out into society and constructing holding facilities on american soil while gassing women and children.
Dress rehearsals.