Coronavirus: Many Claim We Can't Afford Medicare-for-all, But, It Appears We Are About To Discover How Costly Our For-Profit Healthcare Is
by Thom Hartmann
The coronavirus is now in the United States, and apparently the infection in California goes beyond just one person, because they can't figure out how that one person got it. Which means lots of people need to get tested, particularly if they have symptoms of a severe cold or flu which could indicate that they have the coronavirus. Here's the problem. The average deductible for Obamacare insurance programs is $4000, which means if a person has these symptoms and takes a half a day off work to go get tested, they could end up with a bill of several thousand dollars as well as the lost time from work.
And Health and Human Services secretary Alex Azar, the guy who made his fortune doubling the price of insulin when he was in the drug business, just said that he couldn't guarantee that a coronavirus vaccine would be affordable to the average person. In the name of so-called "free markets" we have created a country where paid sick time is rare and pretty much everybody has to pay thousands of dollars in co-pays and deductibles if they make a trip to the doctor or the hospital because they're concerned about being exposed to the coronavirus. Of all the developed countries in the world, we are the least prepared for this outbreak because of Republican policies.
And on top of that, Trump just put a guy in charge of the coronavirus crisis who's big public health policy program when he was governor of Indiana was to force women to have funerals for miscarriages or be arrested. Putting failed right wing talk show host Mike Pence in charge of public health is like putting Hannibal Lecter in charge of a restaurant. We need a political revolution in this country and we need it now.
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OCU
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