Death panel.
Time to let Luigi out for a couple of days I think.
well…
it did actually fix some things about the last company, last time…
The insurance company in question “partners with” United Healthcare, so… maybe not so much.
no, they just didn’t get the memo.
Luigi 2 Luigi Harder
This is why we need the Mario Party
This would be enough to “radicalize me”, but I don’t think it’s all that radical to be against a system that treats people this way.
That’s the point, we’re not living a neutral situation, we’re under attack by bad people doing disgusting jobs
It’s us against the Epstein class, really.
It isn’t. It’s inhumane the way these companies are behaving. They’re a threat to society and this is humans’ instinctual response to eliminating threats.
We are giving thousands of dollars of our money to a company to insure that our life and health will be taken care of, it should NOT be up to these companies what methods of remedies that a person needs to be kept alive and healthy are “deemed necessary”
Furthermore; these companies CEO should NEVER be paid more than a
averagemedian citizen… full stop. There’s no reason an insurance company employee owns a yacht.average citizen
Median citizen. The average is raised significantly by a few rich folks.
Great point and an even better ultimatum.
Any rememberries when the talking point was government death panels determining life value was why we couldn’t have universal medicare? Tony Stank remembers.
I’ll never understand how people were OK with putting middlemen with an interest in denying care between them and lifesaving treatment.
because apparently, the alternative is communism, and it will have death panels that will decide if you get to live in order to save costs…
Insurance companies are deathpanels though…
I believe that was their point…
Well maybe they are private enterprise death panels, but they trust them more than theoretical government death panels because the private sector is more efficient than government at cutting costs, such as, um, actually paying for needed care and oh shit they did not think that through.
edit: I meant to reply that to the comment above, but oh well. It’s here now.
that was my point.
they prefer real material death panels, than the alternative, because it might have theoretical death panels. that no country with public healthcare has.
The danger of commenting first thing after waking up!
same, haven’t got my coffee yet, how do you take yours?
Sugar and two creams usually. Sometimes black. Black and sugar today
here you go.
☕
Insurance is worse than communism in this case.
Tax paid universal healthcare and healthcare insurance both work on the idea of socializing the cost.
The difference is that insurance companies also need to make a profit too feed the owners. Since they don’t actually produce anything that can make a profit, the only place they can grab the “profit” is by denying cover.
American healthcare insurance is exactly the same picture that is shown when people try to explain why communism doesn’t work.
Nearly everything is better than the US&A’s take on capitalism.
Tax paid universal healthcare and healthcare insurance both work on the idea of socializing the cost.
I think if we used their language it might help: we should outsource healthcare costs.
The Acquired podcast went over this history very briefly in their Epic episode and it’s so crazy how close we were to having universal healthcare.
Tl;dl:
- during WW2, wage controls were in place due to a large demand of workers but very few people available due to being in the war
- unions and companies alike were looking for ways to make their positions and companies more attractive.
- government permitted benefits to augment salaries. Some companies started offering health insurance.
- back then going to the doctor was NOT the bankrupt causing thing that is today and was considered a fringe benefit
- larger companies were able to offer better incentives due to healthcare benefits
- add a few years of corruption and “market forces” and you have the system we have now
So blame wage controls during WW2.
Oh and the Brits were facing similar forces when they were starting to stand up their healthcare system but decided instead to hire people to build a robust system so everyone didn’t have to pay anything at the point of sale.
Yeah, it really was that simple.
I prefer to blame the people who take advantage of the sick
Universal healthcare is one of those things that’s not only tricky to set up but also to keep going. Here in the UK, yep the NHS is amazing. But it’s also terribly underfunded - despite taking over 10% of GDP (IIRC) we still have long waiting lists, and healthcare staff are overworked and underpaid. Greedy vermin are constantly looking for opportunities to privatise it, the only reason this hasn’t already happened is that it would be hugely unpopular. I’m pretty sure almost everyone in the country would prefer more taxes be spent on the NHS and maybe a bit less on, say, fossil fuel subsidies - but here we are. Still, it’s one of the few things our country can actually be proud of.
the only reason long waiting lists don’t exist in the us is because some people just are not getting the things they need done at all. Even people with insurance you often can’t find a specialist who takes it and the insurance denies things like in the article. The wait is very long when its impossible to get the treatment at all.
I wouldn’t say it’s tricky to keep going. Keeping it going is simply a case of funding it.
Now, repairing the damage of years of underfunding? That’s tricky
add a few years of corruption and “market forces” and you have the system we have now
Sir you are being shareholder-phobic
/s
Well, capitalists own the government that made this possible and they know a gap in the market when they see one…
Removed by mod
thanks Reagan
What’s the guy gonna do? Sue them? He’s dead. Murdered by the capitalist authoritarians.
The only rightful place for kings is under the blade of a guillotine.
Guillotines are too 18th century. I am a fan of woodchippers. Feet first, of course!
I don’t want to hear a billionaire shrieking as their toes are mulched. Even if they’re parasites, it’ll still sound like a human shrieking as their toes are mulched.
Just guillotine them and redistribute their wealth already.
I believe this is what is meant by “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”
a scimitar would be sufficient.
Can’t the family sue?
Ah yes, America, where corporate murder and tragic loss of life is compensated with money.
fam can do other things as well
The most painful thing we can do to them is take their money and make them live like the rest of us.
IDK man, you got some lemon juice, duct tape, and a cheese grater?
Can we at least carve their highest net worth into their foreheads?
They might appreciate that - an instant indicator that they are different (“better”). Even if it makes it impossible to hide.
luigi tried to tell us
He could have done some side jobs to cover it. I mean, even though it is unethical, I’ve heard that smuggling drugs could help you cover these medical bills. Just not sure how you get into that
This is flat out no different than shooting someone in my book.
This is why people are behind Luigi.
Hey, I’m a people! I’m behind Luigi! I’m proof of this!
I wonder if their CEO considers himself medically necessary? To me it seems their C-suite might be a bit of a cancerous growth on the business.
It’s like the trolley problem, except on one track is somebody’s beloved father and on the other is some executive’s 5th yacht.
I remember when I was 5 years old, my dad tried asking me the trolley problem.
So I took my train, and yelled at the G.I. Joes on my tracks “GET OFF THE TRAIN TRACKS, IDIOTS!!!” and ran them over. Then I backed the train up, switched tracks, and ran over spiderman. Then I yelled “FREE BONUS POINTS!!!”. Then I punched my dad in the balls, and ran upstairs giggling.
About a year ago my dad reminded me of that story. I’m in my 40s now. So I told him “I stand by that decision.”
This situation was more complicated then that. The treatment in question was histiotripy. While it might be less invasive than traditional surgery, it isn’t necessarily “better” when dealing with stage 4 cancer that failed to respond to surgery or chemotherapy. It just uses sound waves instead of scalpels.
Realistically, this guy would have died soon regardless of the treatment. It’s unlikely the technician would have been able to identify all the cancer after it’s spread throughout his body. It’s success depends on being able to target the majority of cancer cells, which isn’t easy for Stage 4 cancer.
That’s not even the point. Trying everything possible should be the norm, and it shouldn’t be dictated by some uncaring jackass with a 35th floor office. The entire little point of health insurance is to distribute the cost of those in need amongst all of the input of the whole. If you take enough of that input as profit for the stockholders and executives, there’s less available to do what the insurance is meant to do. They’re legally embezzling the investment of the whole without providing sufficient practical benefit to warrant it.
But even if you made the insurance system completely non-profit, there’s no upper bound on how much you can spend on each individual. You’d still run into cases where you have to distribute a limited number of resources.
Most of the world can pull it off. Why not the US?
Fuckin’ A.
I’m not advocating for the US style of health insurance. I’m saying this specific case, if the medical commentators in this thread are to be trusted, may have ended up the same way in a non-profit model.
I think the point is that while your point is broadly true, in this specific scenario the treatment might not have been available anyway. Looking up on the named procedure, it seems likely most nations would have declined to offer this treatment, considering it futile in his situation.
Let’s cross that bridge once we get there
If it’s recommended by the medical team, who the fuck are the insurance company to say no.
I know you think you’re being pragmatic but it’s really just coming off as depraved.
Does “not easy” make a treatment not medically necessary then?
Someone call Luigi.
I’m so fascinated by the image of him having 8 downvotes while the comment calling for him by name only has 1 🤔
Maybe people think he is depicting Jesus here? I mean the heart he is pointing at with his left hand is often seen in iconic portraits of Jesus (I am not sure if it also appears in portraits of saints, but that’s not entirely relevant if the point would be whether people THOUGHT that or not)?
Oh who are we kidding, people probably just assume that the animation was generated by AI and so hate it for that reason:-P.
You are Luigi, We are all supposed to be Luigi
What’s ironic is that the big opposition from the GOP to ObamaCare was this ludicrous idea of “Death Panels” weighing human life against budgets.
And yet, when the panels are a dictatorial insurance algorithm, where is that classic 2009-2010 outrage?
Every accusation is a confession with Republicans
You probably already know but, those arguments aren’t why the GOP were outraged. It’s what they thought would be most likely to get the public outraged.
“the public” seems dumb as fuck.
Yes, you can blame the GOP for defunding education as well.
(I have exactly zero love for the Zionazi-owned Dems either but I’m not aware of them ever defunding education)
Or discriminating against gays, or cutting food stamps, or invading Greenland, or storing nuclear secrets in bathrooms, or…
I do recall them being unabashedly genocidal in Palestine though, so I’m not exactly in a rush to give them credit for less-than-the-bare-minimum.
That’s table stakes in the US unfortunately. There’s no option for “no genocide”, you need a complete reform of the electoral system (basically anything newer than 18th century will do) and then some new political parties. But since that is wishful thinking at the moment, the lesser of two evils will do.
There’s no option for “no genocide”
Weird, I was able to find one.
the lesser of two evils will do.
“genocide is the lesser of two evils” is exactly where this mentality has gotten you. You may be compromised enough to sign your name off on that. I am not and never will be.
The public is way less intelligent than “dumb as fuck” hopefully we can get there on the way to marginally dumb. But I doubt it
That no longer matters as they are not the ones in charge anymore…
That’s not true, and a dangerous cop out
That’s not true
We shall see, only time will tell (though it’s interesting that any sitting President is allowed to legally assassinate anyone they want with virtually no oversight that we are told of).
a dangerous cop out
Fair.
The panels are often just an automated script that always replies with Denied the first time too, since people sometimes dont fight it.
