GOP Swine

[Phil1111 908]

There are about thirty million Americans with diabetes in America. "In 2012, the average cost of insulin per diabetes patient was $2,864 per year. By 2016, it had risen to $5,705. Today, one vial of insulin can cost $250, and some people need six vials per month.

In addition to that, there are other diabetes supplies, such as a glucose monitor, test strips, lancets, and a safe place to store used syringes or pens. It could easily cost someone without insurance $1,300 per month"

It cost "A 2018 study estimated that one vial of human insulin costs $2.28-$3.42 to produce, and one vial of analog insulin costs $3.69-$6.16 to produce. The study revealed that a year’s supply of human insulin could cost $48-$71 per patient, and analog insulin could cost $78-$133 per patient per year."

In Canada; "The average American insulin user spent $3490 on insulin in 2018 compared with $725 among Canadians. Over the study period, the average cost per unit of insulin in the United States increased by 10.3% compared with only 0.01% in Canada."

So now we come to competition, Washington corruption and why republicans are swine: "Republican senators on Sunday voted down a cap on the price of insulin in the private market, removing it from Democrats' sweeping climate and economic package.

Democrats had tried to preserve the provision to cap insulin costs at $35 for private insurers, but that vote failed 57-43, with seven Republicans voting with them to keep the insulin cost cap in the bill, three short of what was needed."

[jakee 1,254]

At the end of the day, what is the point of human misery unless someone else is profiting obscenely from it?

[gowlerk 1,903]

31 minutes ago, jakee said:

At the end of the day, what is the point of human misery unless someone else is profiting obscenely from it?

If you can’t afford your medication just FO and die. 

[CygnusX-1 42]

Or if you don't like living in the greatest nation in the world, maybe you should just go back to where you came from - or in this example Canada. Move to Canada, if you don't like it here. I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and listen to you degradate the US and it's perfect capitalist economy. You must be a commie in order to even question the status quo. 

[gowlerk 1,903]

4 hours ago, CygnusX-1 said:

Or if you don't like living in the greatest nation in the world, maybe you should just go back to where you came from - or in this example Canada. Move to Canada, if you don't like it here. I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and listen to you degradate the US and it's perfect capitalist economy. You must be a commie in order to even question the status quo. 

Or do what many diabetics already do if they live near the Canadian border. Buy their insulin in Canada and smuggle it in.

Edited August 8, 2022 by gowlerk

[SkyDekker 1,121]

24 minutes ago, CygnusX-1 said:

I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and listen to you degradate the US and it's perfect capitalist economy

yeah? What are you going to do about it?

Hate to tell you, but you don't have a perfect capitalist economy and you aren't the greatest nation. You are the white version of the Taliban.

[okalb 78]

48 minutes ago, CygnusX-1 said:

Or if you don't like living in the greatest nation in the world, maybe you should just go back to where you came from - or in this example Canada. Move to Canada, if you don't like it here. I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and listen to you degradate the US and it's perfect capitalist economy. You must be a commie in order to even question the status quo. 

With the exception of extensive foreign travel, I have lived in the US for 50 years of my 53 years on earth. The three years that I have not lived in the US started three years ago when I decided that it was time to GTFO. I packed up my family and moved to a "3rd world country". Both myself and my wife have some health issues and we could no longer take dealing with insurance and the horrible healthcare in the US. In the three years we have been out of the US we have has 3 major surgeries between us. The care that we received was night and day different from the horrible care that we ever received in the US. One surgery that I had was actually to fix something that lazy surgeons couldn't be bothered to do correctly when I had the first procedure done in the US. All of this cost nothing or next to nothing out of pocket because I live in a country with universal healthcare.  

If you truly believe the US is perfect, I can only assume that you have never lived anywhere else and having nothing to compare it to. The US is far from the greatest country on earth and it is getting lower and lower on the list every day.

Edited August 8, 2022 by okalb

[JoeWeber 2,294]

6 minutes ago, okalb said:

With the exception of extensive foreign travel, I have lived in the US for 50 years of my 53 years on earth. The three years that I have not lived in the US started three years ago when I decided that it was time to GTFO. I packed up my family and moved to a "3rd world country". Both myself and my wife have some health issues and we could no longer take dealing with insurance and the horrible healthcare in the US. In the three years we have been out of the US we have has 3 major surgeries between us. The care that we received was night and day different from the horrible care that we ever received in the US. One surgery that I had was actually to fix something that lazy surgeons couldn't be bothered to do correctly when I had the first procedure done in the US. All of this cost nothing or next to nothing out of pocket because I live in a country with universal healthcare.  

If you truly believe the US is perfect, I can only assume that you have never lived anywhere else and having nothing to compare it to. The US is far from the greatest country on earth and it is getting lower and lower on the list every day.

Where do you live now and what surgeries and healthcare is better in your current country. I've had better than first class healthcare outside the US and paid a pittance for it but, based on my experience, I wouldn't call all healthcare in the US substandard. In fact, since I've been on Medicare with Supplement F it's been great. My bitch is with the insurance system more than anything.

[billvon 2,380]

1 hour ago, CygnusX-1 said:

Or if you don't like living in the greatest nation in the world, maybe you should just go back to where you came from - or in this example Canada. Move to Canada, if you don't like it here. I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and listen to you degradate the US and it's perfect capitalist economy. You must be a commie in order to even question the status quo. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be brief. The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests - we did.  But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!"

[okalb 78]

32 minutes ago, JoeWeber said:

Where do you live now and what surgeries and healthcare is better in your current country. I've had better than first class healthcare outside the US and paid a pittance for it but, based on my experience, I wouldn't call all healthcare in the US substandard. In fact, since I've been on Medicare with Supplement F it's been great. My bitch is with the insurance system more than anything.

I live in Colombia now. I have an auto immune condition and have been required to have frequent doctor visits for as long as I can remember. The level of care here is unbelievable. Firstly, every doctor that I have dealt with down here has given me their personal whatsapp number and you can send txts directly to the doctor and actually get a response. That is standard practice here. The actual facilities are unbelievable. The cleanliness and efficiency is amazing. There is some usual bureaucratic crap, but no more or less than I ever had to deal with in the US.

My recent big surgery was to fix something from a procedure that I had done in the US 5 years ago. I had a colon resection in Tampa and while they did a phenomenal job on fixing my colon issues, they didn't bother to waste the extra time closing me up properly. They had sliced me open from chest to lower abdomen to perform the surgery, when closing me up, they literally put the flaps together and used over 50 staples to close and that was it. They never reattached the individual layers properly. I ended up with a 12cm split between the right and left side of my abs. Between that split I ended up with a huge hernia. The surgeons down here were livid when they saw the way that I was closed up. They essentially had to open me up and rebuild my entire abdomen. The only reason it was necessary was because the US surgeons didn't take the extra few minutes to close me up properly. 

Edited to add: I am also self employed and my cost for Blue Cross in FL was just over $3500/month when we left the states. I am still working, so I have to pay into the national healthcare system here. My monthly contribution is around $200.

Edited August 8, 2022 by okalb

[JoeWeber 2,294]

18 minutes ago, okalb said:

I live in Colombia now. I have an auto immune condition and have been required to have frequent doctor visits for as long as I can remember. The level of care here is unbelievable. Firstly, every doctor that I have dealt with down here has given me their personal whatsapp number and you can send txts directly to the doctor and actually get a response. That is standard practice here. The actual facilities are unbelievable. The cleanliness and efficiency is amazing. There is some usual bureaucratic crap, but no more or less than I ever had to deal with in the US.

My recent big surgery was to fix something from a procedure that I had done in the US 5 years ago. I had a colon resection in Tampa and while they did a phenomenal job on fixing my colon issues, they didn't bother to waste the extra time closing me up properly. They had sliced me open from chest to lower abdomen to perform the surgery, when closing me up, they literally put the flaps together and used over 50 staples to close and that was it. They never reattached the individual layers properly. I ended up with a 12cm split between the right and left side of my abs. Between that split I ended up with a huge hernia. The surgeons down here were livid when they saw the way that I was closed up. They essentially had to open me up and rebuild my entire abdomen. The only reason it was necessary was because the US surgeons didn't take the extra few minutes to close me up properly. 

Edited to add: I am also self employed and my cost for Blue Cross in FL was just over $3500/month when we left the states. I am still working, so I have to pay into the national healthcare system here. My monthly contribution is around $200.

I've spent some time in the DWI's lately, mostly Curacao and Bonaire. They're under the Dutch system. Often, for anything moderately serious the Dutch pay for transport to Colombia. I have heard nothing but rave reviews for the Colombian system.

Years ago I was tripped by a gallon of German Beer coming out of a bar at a Bangkok night market, landed face first on broken concrete, and split my forehead open scalp to eyebrow. The taxi called in our arrival to the Hospital and the Doctor and a Nurse with a wheel chair were waiting out front. It's way after midnight and a highly skilled surgeon with extensive plastic surgery training was on duty and standing by. $250 for all tests, medications, imaging and extra dressings to go. Three weeks later the Nurse at the Hotel who removed the stitches, and who also had plastic surgery training, (over 5 days because you don't rush these things) finished the job-no cost. I was counting on sporting a 3 inch, red, angry scar but the result is near invisible. So yes, things can be great elsewhere.

Edited August 8, 2022 by JoeWeber

[riggerrob 558]

Baking okalb:

I grew up in Canada and did most of my travelling with the Canadian Armed Forces. Medical care was great when I was young, especially for my sickly younger brother.

During my 30s and 40s, I worked in the USA and thank my lucky stars that I never got injured.

After age 50, I moved back to Canada and am glad that I did because as I age, my medical expenses grow. The public purse paid for most of my medical care in the aftermath of a plan crash. I have already had a couple of surgeries paid from the public purse and am scheduled for another surgery next week.

Growing old is not for the faint of heart.

[okalb 78]

23 minutes ago, riggerrob said:

Baking okalb:

I grew up in Canada and did most of my travelling with the Canadian Armed Forces. Medical care was great when I was young, especially for my sickly younger brother.

During my 30s and 40s, I worked in the USA and thank my lucky stars that I never got injured.

After age 50, I moved back to Canada and am glad that I did because as I age, my medical expenses grow. The public purse paid for most of my medical care in the aftermath of a plan crash. I have already had a couple of surgeries paid from the public purse and am scheduled for another surgery next week.

Growing old is not for the faint of heart.

We have no intentions of leaving Colombia and will probably spend the remainder of our lives with this as our home base. That being said, if we did ever leave for any reason, we have already made the decision that we will never again live in a country that doesn't have universal healthcare.

 

[lippy 765]

3 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

I've spent some time in the DWI's lately, mostly Curacao and Bonaire. They're under the Dutch system. Often, for anything moderately serious the Dutch pay for transport to Colombia. I have heard nothing but rave reviews for the Colombian system.

I once spent a week in a hospital in Bonaire with a double pneumonia.  I was working in Venezuela and needed to leave every 90 days for a fresh stamp on the visa.  For a while my company would fly me to DWI for a weekend to exit the country, before they just started whoring me out to other districts in the region (which also gave me an opportunity to have a good interaction with the Colombian medical system).  While the hospital in Bonaire left a lot to be desired and would have been stupidly expensive if not for my company's international insurance plan, I'm damn glad I didn't get that sick in Venezuela!

[JoeWeber 2,294]

19 minutes ago, lippy said:

I once spent a week in a hospital in Bonaire with a double pneumonia.  I was working in Venezuela and needed to leave every 90 days for a fresh stamp on the visa.  For a while my company would fly me to DWI for a weekend to exit the country, before they just started whoring me out to other districts in the region (which also gave me an opportunity to have a good interaction with the Colombian medical system).  While the hospital in Bonaire left a lot to be desired and would have been stupidly expensive if not for my company's international insurance plan, I'm damn glad I didn't get that sick in Venezuela!

 I have a small business interest in Venezuela. As you know there are two Venezuelas: the one with empty shelves and the one that is opulent and limitless. I reckon there is some private health care there that would be up to standard.

[Phil1111 908]

5 hours ago, SkyDekker said:

yeah? What are you going to do about it?

Hate to tell you, but you don't have a perfect capitalist economy and you aren't the greatest nation. You are the white version of the Taliban.

I think he's being facetious.

[SkyDekker 1,121]

24 minutes ago, Phil1111 said:

I think he's being facetious.

If he was, I missed that entirely.

[lippy 765]

2 hours ago, JoeWeber said:

 I have a small business interest in Venezuela. As you know there are two Venezuelas: the one with empty shelves and the one that is opulent and limitless. I reckon there is some private health care there that would be up to standard.

With USD, anything is possible

[Phil1111 908]

Canada is currently having real issues with staffing medical services. Burnout from covid has resulted in huge losses of physicians and nurses. So some hospitals have shut down er rooms and delayed services. IMO part of the blame lies with stupid people who didn't take covid seriously. Politicians and careless people.

1 minute ago, lippy said:

With USD, anything is possible

Since the euro is at par its equally possible. With Canadian dollars about 75% possible.

[gowlerk 1,903]

2 hours ago, Phil1111 said:

I think he's being facetious.

That was my take.

[gowlerk 1,903]

1 hour ago, lippy said:

With USD, anything is possible

Tina Turner, Private Dancer. Deutschmarks work too. Or at least they used to before Euros.

Edited August 9, 2022 by gowlerk

[lippy 765]

1 hour ago, gowlerk said:

Tina Turner, Private Dancer. Deutschmarks work too. Or at least they used to before Euros.

To your and Phil's point, I wasn't trying to disparage any other currencies or say that USD are inherently better.  I was painfully reminded of the strength of the CAD recently when was looking at tickets home to visit my mother in NS.

I believe the point you were trying to make is that the USD isn't the be-all, end-all currency and that there are other currencies with equivalent values.  I agree that that's how it should be, and is for most of the world, but I'd bet that for 90+% of Venezuelan store owners, a Canadian $20 note would be worth less to them than a $5 USD.  It's fucked up, but it ranks pretty low on the list of things that are fucked up in that country.  

[gowlerk 1,903]

3 minutes ago, lippy said:

 It's fucked up, but it ranks pretty low on the list of things that are fucked up in that country.

Whenever I hear about the wonderful healthcare available in 3rd world countries for any western currencies I just can't help thinking of what must be available to the local masses. Canadians traveling anywhere in the world don't ever bring CAD with them. They bring USD and of course these days cards wherever we can earn bonus points and discounts. But you know that!  

[CygnusX-1 42]

17 hours ago, SkyDekker said:

If he was, I missed that entirely.

I was and as usual Bill Von picked up on it and stated it eloquently with a movie quote.

[riggerrob 558]

Dear gowlerk,

Wealthy Canadians often take "medical vacations" when wait times at Canadian hospitals get too long.

Some of those "medical vacations" are to hospitals in the Carribean where a handful of Canadian surgeons have operating room privileges. Like the False Creek Surgical Clinic, these are some of the best and brightest and most ambitious Canadian surgeons who are impatient with waiting two years for time in an operating room.