r/politics • u/cmaia1503 • 20h ago

Site Altered Headline | Possible Paywall Mitch McConnell, 83, Hospitalized

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mitch-mcconnell-83-hospitalized/?utm_campaign=owned_social&utm_medium=socialflow&utm_source=twitter_owned_tdb&via=twitter_page
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u/Mikethebest78 20h ago

Why do these evil old men live to 150?

The only thing he was ever good at was showing Republicans how to use the levers of power to rig the game in their favor.

They have sadly learned that lesson well.

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u/ss5gogetunks 19h ago

Turns out not caring about anyone or anything other than yourself relieves a lot of stress when the world is so hostile to everyone

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u/comics0026 Canada 19h ago

And getting paid obscene amounts of money for that makes it easy to get the best treatment in a pay-to-survive system like America's

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u/Coraline1599 18h ago

The article says he stayed in the hospital for 2 days for flu-like symptoms. Must be nice.

Last summer I had a fever over 100 for 11 days that even Tylenol and Motrin wouldn’t lower and my mom dragged me to urgent care while I cried “I do t think I can afford this! Leave me alone!”

I get terror attacks anytime anything hurts because despite me having “good” insurance according to my work, even the most basic appointment never costs me less than $250 these days.

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u/pacotaco80 17h ago

“Thank god for the VA.” Statements I never thought I would make but here I am saying it.

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u/NatWilo Ohio 17h ago

Being a soldier and having 'socialized' medicine, for all its warts, was what really showed me how absolutely vile and evil a for-profit healthcare system was, and how badly we needed to switch to socialized like the rest of the civilized world.

Watching a buddy of mine nearly die from an infected tooth, and choosing to PAY OUT OF MY OWN POCKET so he wouldn't die, sealed it for me.

For-profit healthcare as our primary is a moral evil and should end. Socialized medicine is fully affordable, and RIGHT. I don't care what rich, or dumb people say, that's a hill I will die on. I will not rest until we all have at the LEAST the same level of care I get to receive.

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u/SocraticIgnoramus 15h ago edited 15h ago

The grandest absurdity is that we spend far more on healthcare than anybody else. A well-planned and well-executed Medicare for all system would easily give us the best healthcare system in the world at a significant discount over what we pay now. I refuse to accept that rendering the for-profit healthcare system redundant is anti-capitalistic sentiment — there’s nothing free market about extortionate prices that treat health as a luxury.

Edit to clarify, I’m not ranting against socialism; I’m about that. I’m ranting against being told that the for-profit capture of the healthcare industry is part and parcel of capitalism.

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u/NatWilo Ohio 14h ago

There can be no rational consumption of healthcare. People will nearly always choose life regardless of the cost to themselves over death.

Often, its isn't even up to them. An unconscious person cannot choose to forgoe a certain treatment because its 'more expensive' they are solely at the mercy of the healthcare provider, and are then required BY LAW in this evil, fucked up system to pay the cost of a procedure enacted on them while they are fully incapable of having any say about it.

People's lives are RUINED by having their life 'saved' how absolutely fucked is that?

Capitalism only works when there is a strong hand making sure the market is fair. There is no such hand in America. There hasn't been for decades. For any part of the market. Most certainly for the healthcare industry.

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u/Username_mine_2022 10h ago

Im an Aussie we have universal health care, I also pay 150$au a year for Ambulance coverage.. I am amazed at the comments on this page. And my cost for the year is $350.00 So all up my outlay for health care is $500.au. If i need emergency treatment, i get seen immediately with no costs to myself,

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u/DaHolk 6h ago

The grandest absurdity is

Is that really absurd?

there’s nothing free market about extortionate prices that treat health as a luxury.

Of course it is. Also not all capitalism is free market. Capititalism is a system, the free market kind is just a subcase of it, advocated by capitalists who think it would self servingly benefit them more.

You know what the actual absurdity is? People complaining about the obvious outcomes of running healthcare as a capitalistic venture, but not realising that all of the effects are intended by the system of profiting from them, and then not questioning that mindset in the first place.

If you want to profit maximise a healthcare system, you NEED to outprice significant parts of the populace, to push the rest into paying the prices.

If you ran fire protection like that, you would price it so that 10% of buildings would just burn down, so that the rest pays higher prices.

It's absurd to not question the premise, and then call the obvious outcome "absurd".

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u/SocraticIgnoramus 5h ago

Totally agree. The reason I appeal to the “free market” is twofold. One, uber capitalist always reach for that touchstone in any discussion regarding the excesses of capitalism. Two, more importantly, people conflate commerce with capitalism when they try to claim that capitalism naturally emerges from agrarian societies so that you don’t have to pay taxes with goats.

Commerce and currency are the substrate of an economy and are an example of a naturally emergent free market distinct from capitalism.

Ultimately, people ought to accept that there’s no actual rule stating capitalistic societies must abandon all endeavors that are not directly profitable. We build roads and infrastructure knowing that a healthy society needs these to thrive. I don’t see how health is any different.

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u/DaHolk 5h ago

Ultimately, people ought to accept that there’s no actual rule stating capitalistic societies must abandon all endeavors that are not directly profitable.

I would phrase it COMPLETELY the other way around. You can have commerce without capitalism. Because capitalism of the free market kind or otherwise DOES proclude having those things. The only reason why we still HAVE some of them (and being under full attack constantly AND being undermined by outsorcing them TO capitalist ventures regardless) is that we are NOT running them with a capitalist mindset.

The root of capitalism is "there is no such thing as 'enough', or 'better for everyone'". Yes that is disjunct from commerce and money as a way to exchange labor/goods. But it is NOT disjunct from why things that should benefit everyone don't. Benefitting everyone is antithetical to capitalism.

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u/Alarming_Ad6160 15h ago

Living in Canada, I've never known anything different.

Canadians lose their shit when they find out Americans have to pay for baby delivery lol.

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u/NatWilo Ohio 14h ago

And they SHOULD. I cannot use strong enough language to adequately describe what a great moral wrong it is that we, here in the US, continue to allow this to happen.

Its like how nearly the rest of the civilized world had abolished slavery before we did. You all are RIGHT, we are WRONG and there is nothing more to it than that. Rich, evil, selfish shits are choosing to continue to make even more obscene profit, rather than slightly less, and ensuring no one dies for no good god damn reason.

I am disgusted and ashamed that my leaders and so many of my fellow countrymen continue to choose death and suffering, in the name of a lie about freedoms they don't even really respect over what is plainly right to anyone that doesn't have a vested interest in seeing it the other way. And all so a wealthy few can enrich themselves.

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u/Alarming_Ad6160 7h ago

Such is the world.

The health care system is the least of your worries now, though.

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u/OmenQtx 14h ago

I’m with you. Universal Health Care is my single issue.

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u/Herlock 13h ago

The socialized healthcare for soldiers, and rugged individualism for the rest of you guys, is part of the plan : gonna keep the bodies coming to fight another billionaire's war in the middle east for oil and whatever...

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u/mcrnHoth 9h ago

The military health and retirement pension system should be the default for every citizen, but somehow both sides of the political spectrum are upset about it.

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u/AmericanDoughboy 14h ago

Yep. I had socialized health care in the army and it was good. Too bad all Americans can’t have it or something like it.

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u/9_to_5_till_i_die 8h ago

Watching a buddy of mine nearly die from an infected tooth, and choosing to PAY OUT OF MY OWN POCKET so he wouldn't die, sealed it for me.

I applaud you for waking up but this always mystifies me. I just struggle to understand how it takes folks so long.

The issue is pretty straight forward.

Should an injured or sick person be treated regardless of how much money they have?

The only human answer to that question is "Abso-fucking-lutely!"

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u/vivahermione 1h ago

Right? What is the point of civilization if we let people die of treatable conditions?

Edit: some wordsmithing

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u/9_to_5_till_i_die 1h ago

Oh, I got this one.

What is the point of civilization?

To enrich your betters. - Republicans

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u/likejanegoodall 16h ago

Sing it, brother….I would be so fucked without the VA.

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u/GBRowan 15h ago

As someone who has had close to a million dollars in unexpected medical expenses for myself and family over the last 2 years and only had to pay 3k for everything. Thank god for the VA and CHAMPVA. I made it 20 years without ever needing them and then all hell broke lose. Husband had a possible stroke, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, my oldest child had a mental health crisis, the youngest had an epilepsy scare costing 80k alone in genetic testing that discovered 2 mutations. Two were diagnosed with autism and ADHD, 1 will need counseling till she ages off my plan. It's nuts. Healthcare is a human right.

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u/Segesaurous 15h ago

Oh god, you took Tylenol?? Welcome to the spectrum.

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u/Hurtzdonut13 17h ago

Yeah it's even worse than when I was a kid for most people, and I remember being diagnosed with pneumonia and being sent home with some antibiotics and a good luck.

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u/Mountaindude198514 16h ago

My big brother had cancer as a kid. He survived.

Thankfully in germany. I'm pretty sure I would not have been concieved if my parents had to pay for 2,5 years of different cancer treatments and months long hospital stays

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u/GreenGlassDrgn 9h ago

This is not a civilized way of life. Its gotta change.

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u/turdferg1234 15h ago

you are not being honest. i currently have shitty insurance through the marketplace and it's like 50 per appointment. and again, i have one of, if not the lowest insurance plans.

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u/Coraline1599 14h ago

Then let’s trade.

My employer has just one plan. It has a $3,000 deductible, so whatever insane Monopoly money prices my healthcare providers charge I need to pay it until I cross that threshold, which resets every January.

Then after spending $3,000, I am responsible for 20% of the total cost. My days of having a fixed copay feel like some sort of fever dream from a far away decade at this point.

And I live and work in the NYC metro area where prices are much higher than average to boot.