"Some rich countries have all public insurance, some use private coverage, but they have a few things in common: They insure pretty much everybody, their systems cost less money, and whether you have health care has nothing to do with whether you’re employed...In the United States, however, 57 percent of Americans under 65 get insurance through their jobs, and attempts to reform that system have all failed."
"Secret Shoppers" in Oklahoma pretended to be pregnant women. They called 34 hospitals in the state to ask about the hospitals' policies on pregnancy complications requiring abortions.
"I think one of the most frightening statements, which was at one of the hospitals, the person was trying to be reassuring and she said,
'Oh, well, you know, in the case of a medical emergency, we would try to use the woman's body as an incubator to just try to keep the pregnancy going as long as possible'"
In the US, we make women wait in the hospital parking lot until they are on the verge of death before turning their expiring bodies into incubators in the ER.
Gender-affirming care—for ADULTS—is now predictably under attack in #Texas. This is part of a Republican plan of genocide underway against #trans people. We need cis allies to be loud and angry on our behalf. Pay attention, this doesn't end here or with us:
#Syphilis Is Killing #Babies. The U.S. Government Is Failing to Stop the Disease From Spreading.
The only drug that treats syphilis during #pregnancy is in short supply.
Untreated, the #disease can pass to newborns, killing them or leaving them with disabilities. As cases rise sharply, the #government isn’t doing much to prevent shortages.
Heads up! If you live in Alabama and have frozen embryos stored at a fertilization clinic, you have a good case for claiming them as dependents for tax purposes now. Get those child tax credits!
Proceed directly to the Social Security Administration and have a social security number assigned to each embryo.
Apply for food stamps, Medicaid, and other social assistance based on your new, higher number of dependents.
“We have always been here. We just haven’t always felt safe coming out. But there’s no turning back the clock. We’re going to win our liberation today or tomorrow.”
“Taken individually, the seven pieces of legislation … will disrupt the lives of LGBTQ+ people of various ages and backgrounds. Put together, the bills are a systemic attack on the fundamental rights, dignities, and identities of #LGBTQ+ persons that opens the gates for discrimination by both public and private actors.”
Emails Reveal How a #Hospital Bowed to Political Pressure to Stop Treating #Trans Teens
The Medical University of South Carolina initially said it wouldn’t be affected by a law banning use of state funds for treatment “furthering the #gender transition” of #children under 16.
Months later, it cut off that care to all trans minors.
Health Plans Can’t Dodge Paying for Expensive New #Cancer Treatments, Says Michigan’s Top #Insurance Regulator
After ProPublica reported on a #health insurer that refused to cover the only medicine that could save a cancer patient’s life, #Michigan insurance regulators clarified that, by law, many plans must pay for any clinically proven treatments.
While making my breakfast I just heard an NPR "feel-good" story about how gathering with family for the Thanksgiving holiday will be freer from previous years' COVID constraints.
NPR interviewed a few folks about whether or not they would rapid-test prior to gathering, how the presence of high-risk family members would affect their plans, etc.
The overall consensus of the interviewees was a more positive outlook and a "return to normal."
NPR then mentioned that COVID cases will most likely peak next month, while failing to explicitly connect holiday gatherings to prior years' COVID surges.
NPR did not interview anyone with long COVID for the story, which could have added some valuable balance by reminding the audience of the long-term risks.
Feel-good stories such as this are designed to tell us what we want to hear but will leave a lot tragedy in their wake.
Please be careful out there, y'all. Gathering with family and friends is important, but don't give (or receive) the gift of long COVID this holiday season.
Locals in the historic Fort Worth neighborhood were interested in the proposed Juneteenth museum ... but what they really needed was a grocery store, a health clinic and a pharmacy. Architects and civic leaders worked together to make the new site a part of the community.
I think that it's absolutely horrifying that the average person can't purchase and stock antivenom, antibiotics, steroids, epinephrine, insulin, or IV saline fluids.
The very act of saying this is radical. gasp! But we can't be trusted with such things! The lay person would give out antibiotics with abandon, fail to properly place an IV, give epinephrine when it isn't indicated! People would die!
This is what we've been taught, and it's bullshit. It doesn't take twelve years of medical school to identify anaphylaxis, especially in someone you know. Most people are concerned enough about the side effects of antibiotics to reserve them for when they're really necessary (and the average household is NOT the cause of widespread antibiotic resistant organisms: industrial livestock and our own medical establishment are). It doesn't take more than a week to learn how to properly place an IV. It doesn't take a genius to administer antivenom if someone is bit by a snake.
But you know what this access would do? Save people. From death, from severe disability, from tens of thousands of dollars of medical bills that make them wish they'd just died in the first place.
These skills could be taught to 8th graders in school. It isn't complicated. First aid, wilderness medicine, and basic life support training needs to go beyond "call for help when you identify x, y, and z". Medical care, especially emergency medical care, should be a basic human right, and by this I mean we should have the right to administer it to ourselves and our community without barriers.
Reserve the hospital for true surgical emergencies. I don't want to take out my child's appendix, for example, without an OR and anesthetics. But there is an extremely wide range of mild to moderate ailments and even real emergencies that could be treated better and more immediately IN PLACE if the average person had access to the right equipment and the most basic accessible training that could easily be passed on to other community members.