I read about the fake cancer patient today and it reminded me of this, the last post by a late DUer

[marble falls]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1002252691

The slaughter of innocents.
My story is not short and may take a few minutes to read. You will read it or you will ignore it and either way I am content. But if you should be so inclined I would appreciate your thoughts and comments especially as they pertain to solutions. That is what this board is supposed to be about, isn’t it?

You may be asking yourself why, in the whole wild world of thoughts and worthy causes that you should give this one even a moment of your precious time and that is a good question. After all, there is the Republican primaries and the many laughs those are providing us with.

Let me present you with this reason, and if you feel it is worthy then read on and I will explain at the end why it should matter to us all and not just me, although I must admit to having more than a passing interest in the subject. Here’s the thing. I am dying and I shouldn’t have to. It could have been avoided easily, but it wasn’t and the reason is the crazy patchwork quilt of health care delivery that we call private insurance.

Here’s my story.

Six years ago I was healthy, employed, happy, and in good shape. I ran 10 miles a day (half of it on stairs), had a healthy diet, saw a doctor when appropriate, and contributed to my community through volunteer work. My wife and I loved each other and we were about to finally start a family. We had finally settled down after wandering the world and finishing our masters and doctors degrees (she’s the one with the brains). We had just bought our first house (an old fixer upper well within our budget) and had started fixing it up. In addition to trying for a kid of our own we were also looking at adoption because it was a need that we felt an obligation to fulfill both in ourselves and for children in need. Life was, in short, pretty good.

Then a company vehicle, driven by an unlicensed driver, ran a stop sign and plowed into me. I had a spinal injury and a lot of pain but surgery wasn’t initially indicated contingent on PT (physical therapy) and other therapies to see if they would reduce the pain. And if it didn’t work then I would have the surgery. I was making some progress, my boss was holding my job, and I almost recovered in about 6 months. It was hard painful daily work, but I felt that I was getting my life back one screaming session at a time. Hard work was paying off again.

And then it happened again. Ironically I was driving back from another PT session when someone in a big assed pick up truck ran a stop sign and T boned my ass. This time I couldn’t feel my arms, back or legs, was in incredible pain, lost control of my bladder and bowels, and had to be hauled out of what was left of my car on a back board. I clearly remember people beeping their horns and yelling at me to “move my fucking car.” Oh, the humanity. Did I mention that I live in Michelle Bachmann’s district? Anyone surprised? As a former certified First Responder, this stunned me as much as my physical injuries. I didn’t know that such casual disregard existed.


The ambulance took me to an ER where I laid for 6 hours in my own cold urine before being seen by anyone on staff. Hmmmm. In my experience the much-ballyhooed great care in the US wasn’t so good. I was in an ER in Canada about 10 years ago for a much less serious injury and I was seen in less than an hour.

I couldn’t move. I thought I was going to die and it frightened me. And then I thought I might live and be paralyzed and that frightened me more. I think I aged about 10 years lying on that table.

Eventually I was released from the hospital with a strong recommendation for spinal surgery and either vertebral fusion and/ or disc replacement. Because of the location and complexity of this procedure, there was a 1 in 20 chance of death or total paralysis with a lesser chance of partial success. But between a choice of that or of having to live with the pain, diminished feeling and partial paralysis that I had (have) it was easy to say to the surgeon “start cutting baby. I’m feeling lucky. Daddy needs a new pair o’ shoes. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.”

Here is where the story becomes relative to the rest of you.

As you know, America’s health care is paid for by a worn out patchwork quilt of insurance companies (read: devils masquerading as thieving con men masquerading as middle men masquerading as efficiency experts). They are the “Department of No” that the mentally unhinged worry about when they moan, “keep the government out my Medicare.”

This is when the shit got bad. There were, at this point, 3 insurance companies involved in my care; two auto insurances and one health insurance (mine). The first accidents’ insurance company claimed that they weren’t responsible because my problems were the second insurance companies responsibility. The second insurance company claimed that my injuries were the first insurance companies responsibility. My health insurance said that it was a car accident so they weren’t paying either.

Understand that all of them admitted that I should be treated. They all said that I deserved treatment. But they all said it was the other companies’ problem.

My doctor wanted to help but the hospital wanted to be paid and they had 3 refusals of claim forms in hand, thus they asked for either cash or a credit card with a limit in the 6 figures. What had been “the other companies responsibility” had become my problem.

I didn’t have the money so I had to wait. 6 months later, my boss said she was very sorry to tell me that she HAD to replace me. That was pretty nice of her actually. She kept me on the books and my family covered with insurance for a full year. But I was replaced. There went my health insurance and my income and my disability insurance. I thought things were bad, but they were about to get worse.

After that I didn’t have the money to ever see a doctor much more than every other month and then every 4 months and then every 6 months and then never. The income just wasn’t there. With the loss of my income and the extra bills, my wife and I went from solidly middle class to poor. My car bloke down and I couldn’t afford to fix it so I had to walk anywhere I needed to unless my wife was around and could drive me in her car. And she took a second job out of town to help cover the bills so I walked a lot. And in the winter, in Minnesota, let me tell you, walking everywhere sucks ass.

I hired a lawyer, a very good lawyer. In fact I hired the lawyer that none of the insurance companies wanted to see in court because he is very, very good. Of the top 10 payouts in our states personal injury history, he owns 3 of them. But the insurance companies are allowed by law to stall and not respond for up to 6 months to every request made and every question asked and they do. Why? Because they can. And it isn’t their problem. It’s our problem.

Using procedural and other dodges all the insurance companies in question have pushed off any settlement now for almost 6 years. Just last week we got our first settlement offer from the first insurance company - $2000. This is an insult. Counting just lost income I’m out more than 300K. It is an invitation to sue which we are now doing. Finally the end is in sight. In about a year, we will likely get a court date.

Of course this is the part of the story where shit goes from worse to worst.

About 6 months ago I started to bleed out of my nose on a regular basis. This was accompanied by migraines. But I didn’t think much about it because; I couldn’t afford to do anything about it anyway, I already hurt, and what is one more symptom in the old shit sandwich. I figured it might just be another symptom connected to my spinal injury, or maybe just dry weather. I didn’t know and I was worried about it, but I couldn’t afford to see a doctor and I sure as shit couldn’t afford any diagnostic tests, and even if I could afford those test, how in the hell could I afford any treatments? It was a dilemma and one I decided to ignore because, well, I couldn’t do anything about it anyway.

This is the same dilemma that every man, woman and parent in this country makes if they lack coverage or have a crappy policy (that percentage is about 50% of the population and raising). This attitude may not make much sense to anyone with money in the bank or functioning insurance coverage, but remember that I had all of those things too and that coverage was denied to me. The insurance companies claim it is just a contract dispute, a minor administrative detail. To far too many of us, it is murder.

Here’s the rest of my story. The bleeding and headaches got worse. So my current boss at the clinic, where I work part time, offered to pay for an MRI. The MRI indicated a few more tests that my boss also paid for. She’s a wonderful woman. And while I’ve earned my keep, some days I feel like a charity case. These days I feel like a complete one, because I am.

The tests came back. The news was bad. Real bad. Life ending bad. Which sucks.

What pisses me off is that if I had had access to even a basic physical exam with some basic lab exams a year ago, it might likely have been diagnosed early and I wouldn’t be facing my death soon. The type of cancer I have is so treatable that it is considered non fatal if caught early enough. But it is too extensive, too pervasive to deal with now. It’s mutated. It’s spread. It’s now highly malignant.

And understand. Even if it wasn’t it doesn’t matter. Because I can’t afford treatment. If anyone want to claim that medical care is free at an ER I will just be more polite than you deserve and say “you are a low life, low information, immoral, pig ignorant, hateful suckass motherless asshat.” You can and do get basic ER care in an ER. The law is specific. Public hospitals are required to treat you just enough that you are stabilized and then they release you and bill you and then sue you if you can’t pay. And they will do NOTHING for any long term, chronic, and deadly disease like cancer. That is NOT what they are set up to do. They are called EMERGENCY ROOMS because that is all that they deal with. How fucking stupid does someone have to be not to understand that? (OK – I’ll stop ranting now, but seriously, WTF?)

In other words it didn’t have to happen and wouldn’t have if I had coverage and could have seen a doctor occasionally. In fact the original surgery would have been done and none of this story would have happened. I would be working on my house. My wife wouldn’t be working herself into an early grave. My car would work. I would be employed. And I would be a father. And I would have a future. And my family and I would grow old together.

I will die soon and the ONLY REASON is that I don’t live in a civilized country. Let that sink in for a moment.

…

Now let this sink in: I’m not alone. There are 100,000 Americans who face the same thing every year. This is an honest to god slaughter of innocents.

People dying of preventable disease in the USA every day because insurance companies decide they deserve to die. A clerical snit between my insurance companies has killed me.

In answer to some of you who may suggest that I check with the hospitals and charities and programs, and I have. The problem is that both my wife and I are self-employed so we make too much gross income (on paper) to qualify for any aid or any programs. However the net income is too little to afford much beyond the basics. And so here I sit, close to the end. My wife of 20 years will be alone. This make me so sad.

It feels strange to be so accepting of my own fate. I’m dying and I’ve spent the last few weeks calling old friends and family and reconnecting. I’ve been thinking about what I have done and accomplished in my life and except for the fact that I never had kids, I am content.

I’ve lived in Canada, the USA, and Venezuela. I have traveled to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Columbia, Panama, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. I have friends all over the world. I have experienced some really cool shit in my life. I’ve worked as a rig pig, corrections officer, teacher, conductor, musician, private chef, and medical administrator. I’ve hiked glaciers and mountains, shot white water rapids, played with jazz, rock and symphonic bands, explored the Amazon, and eaten way too much ice cream.

I’ve helped set up a food co-op and a school in Guatemala, taught English as a second language to immigrants, taught composition and elocution to Chinese diplomats, worked with the sick, developed curriculum for developmentally delayed students, helped find housing and education for homeless people, donated to charities, conducted an orchestra, worked to get progressives elected (I’m a graduate of camp Wellstone – a highly worthy cause) and I make one mean roast leg of lamb.

I’ve been diving, mountain climbing, mountain biking, camping, hiking, skiing, and so many other things. I’ve had great friends and I’ve had an impact on my world. My life, although shorter than I wanted it to be and missing a few adventures, has been good. I am content except for my worry about my wife.

Someone once said that we all live the same amount of time. We are born and then we die. What happens in the middle is what counts. My life has been full. My life counted. I just wish it could have counted for a little while longer.

But that isn’t what I wanted to talk about. What I want to talk about it is why we tolerate this.

It has been estimated that about 100,000 people die in the USA a year from lack of proper care. That is more people every 2 weeks than died on 9-11. We spent about a trillion in response to that event. So why aren’t we responding to this with the same passion and strength?

More importantly, what are we going to do about it? Well, not we, but you. I won’t be around for the rest of this fight. So it’s up to all of you.

I want to ask that question to every politician, media person, lobbyist and advocate in the country; “what are we going to do about this?” But I’m out of time.

Farewell DU. This will be my last post and with the exception of answering questions on this post for the next day or so, I’m done. I probably have about another month or 2 and I’d rather spend them not worrying about the state of things. I plan on spending as much time with family and friends as possible. There are still a few books I haven’t gotten to and a few songs still un-played.

In my opinion, progressives are the last, best hope for America. Don’t give up the fight. Too many lives depend on what you do and the opinions you influence. Don’t stop taking the fight to the enemies of democracy. Don’t just stay on DU. This place is a store-house of knowledge and help and vision. Use that. Then go out into the world and make a difference. And then get up tomorrow and do it again. Be the difference you want to see in the world.

In closing I would like to apologize for every mean word, turn of phrase, misunderstanding, or slight that I have delivered to anyone here. I wanted to be a better person and I failed in that, so I hope you will forgive me. My mom used to say that those who were the hardest to love probably needed love the most. Be good to each other and respect and honor our differences, as they are our greatest strength. Thank you, DU, for giving me a home these past few years.

Good luck everyone. May your road home be filled with sunshine, gentle slopes, green grass and many a glass of fine beer on warm summer nights.




on edit - the title of the essay does NOT refer to me. I could be called many things, but innocent isnt one of them.

[elleng]

1. Thank you.

[dixiechiken1]

2. Wow. Very powerful.

[Kaleva]

3. Kicked

[KT2000]

4. Oh my god

Thank you for sharing this with us. I am really sorry you have to go through this. All insurance companies need to be sued because what they did was a procedure as you say, to avoid paying. Money is the only way this will stop - putting those companies in charge like this is indeed criminal - first degree.
I wish you peace marble falls and joy with your loved ones.

[malaise]

6. I remember MedicalAdmin

Reading that again has me in tears - it does not have to be this way

[BlancheSplanchnik]

35. Me too, malaise. I remember him.

The string of catastrophes he endured… and then the cruelty of large corporations…

And, his poor wife.

[malaise]

36. I wonder how she is doing these days

And yet across the globe we have allowed the billionaires and their tools to call these simple rights entitlements.

[marble falls]

45. To our eternal shame. As a veteran I get absolutely the best care from a socialistic health ...

scheme supported by a government that in spite of itself (between vets, ex federal workers, the armed forces, MediCare, MedicAid, active Federal employees, Congress, SCOTUS, etc) is one of the largest socialist health care providers on the planet.


Everyone deserves the quality of the service I get. Everybody. No one should die in the margins because they can't afford to stay alive.

[Thtwudbeme]

7. This was incredibly sad; if I recall his wife vowed to leave the US over it

and I don't blame her.

But, why did a person faking a cancer diagnosis remind you of this?

[salin]

8. And - for those of us who missed it - who/what situation does this refer to (the fake cancer)

was this a DU thing? A news item?

The repost, however, is very powerful.

Btw Thatwudbeme !

[Thtwudbeme]

9. Hi!!!

How are you?! Long time no see!

[salin]

13. Same old same old (just older)

Always good to see you. Hope you and Jan Michael are well!

[Thtwudbeme]

16. We are!

Married 18 years now

[salin]

21. Wow!

Time has flown by (though the last six years or so have crawled). Can't help myself, but... "I remember when..." (learned you met, you got married, a few phone conversations... good memories!)

[Hugh_Lebowski]

10. Here you are ...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215956778

[salin]

14. Thanks and (to the article/woman) Ugh!

[marble falls]

15. Because if we had a decent medical care system in this country, people wouldn't be BEGGING ...

... for help or dying needlessly. If we didn't make the under and uninsured beg for financial help, the slimy grifters would not be banking on misery and those with empathetic pocket books to rob.

[marble falls]

18. The wife's post ... It is heartbreaking, too ...

re: Medical Admin
I thought everyone should know that my husband passed away a little more than a month ago. He had devoted the last part of his life to his family, but I know that he really appreciated Democratic Underground and often mentioned to me some particularly good argument he had, or some new information that he learned while posting here.

I would like to thank everyone on here for giving him such passion and fun. I appreciate it and I know he did. I only wish he hadn't been taken (and yes, I do mean taken) from us so early. He was truly a renaissance man. In his life he had worked as a social worker, teacher, oil worker, conductor, print and publishing sales, and an officer. His last career was as a medical administrator, a job that he was gravely passionate about.

I miss him more than words can explain. I feel it like a knife twisting in my heart. I wake up in the night and he isn't there. I look for him to come through the door and he doesn't. My phone rings and it isn't him. But my world is a little less empty every day. Maybe someday the scars on my heart will heal over. In the meantime God help the insurance exec that ends up in front of me when I'm driving anywhere.

I wish everyone here good luck. As for myself and the rest of our family, a cousin of his has sponsored us to move to another country where this insurance BS won't be able to happen again to us. And so we are leaving. I would stay and fight with you but I am so tired that I can't see past survival mode right now.

Thanks again for being my husbands online friends.

Lee Ann.
Posted by MedicalAdmin | Tue May 1, 2012, 02:57 PM (143 replies)

[yonder]

11. Slaughter of Innocents is right.

This is the most powerfully poignant essay I've read on DU. I wish I had known MA, even though then or now, I have no words while at the same time having 10,000.

Here's a followup in 2012 from Mrs. MA:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1002632763

[dalton99a]

12. Kick

[leighbythesea2]

17. I think medical admin was before

My time. This is so moving, and eloquently written, even in the rightful anger/disappointment in our system, and the worst outcome possible. They must have had a lot to offer this life, based on just ten paragraphs of writing-- I am sorry to have not known them.

[Delmette2.0]

19. What an amazing and sad story.

I am truely sorry for all you and your wife have experienced. It breaks my heart that corporate America has done this to you.

I am taking this as a rant against insurance companies and people who don't want healthcare for everyone, Medicare for all.

My story started about five years ago. I took early retirement and as soon as i turned 65 enrolled in Medicare with supplement insurance and Part D for prescriptions. I needed to be at home for my son with Muscular Dystrophy and my elderly Mother.

With in 8 months of enrolling in Medicare I was in the hospital. Over the years I have been admitted 3 more times. Never have I paid anything other than my premiums which are much lower than any insurance quote I had when ACA started.

In the middle of all this my son and Mother have both passed.

Now I am facing a meeting with a cardiologist that i know will not be good news. I am not worried about paying for anything, just the affordable premiums.

America needs to join the rest of the world with Universal Healthcare or Medicare for all. We cannot let people die for lack of care like we are forced to now.

Again, Marble Falls, my dearest sympathy to you and your wife.

[marble falls]

20. After I posted this, I found MedicalAdmin's and his wife's posts and I went so angry I reposted ...

... all three.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212198406

Survivor's Guilt ....
I am fortunate, I am blessed. I have single payer, national health care. It is an "unintended consequence" of my wanting to be able to express my antiwar opinions at the dinner table by enlisting in Navy in in Feb '72 two years after my exposure to the lottery.

When I got out of the navy, I got a job at the Brecksville VA hospital. The first day home from work I asked my wife that no matter what that I would never end up in a VA hospital.

Insurance was no problem: at that time every employer offered some sort of health insurance.

Years later, not so much.

I was at fifty-five suddenly without insurance and my wife started the paperwork for me to go to VA. I went because I do know the power dynamics in our home unit. And I knew she'd see how bad it was and that would be the end of it.

In 2012 I had a minor, ignorable sort of symptom of something. No pain, but an occasional dribble of blood in my urine. As soon as I had noticed it several times, I went to VA. It turned out to be bladder cancer.

Five surgeries to remove tumors, one partial excision of my colon, two rounds of BCG (which has a very high rate of success but not for me) and a biopsy later: I still have that cancer.

The biopsy determined that the cancer is not going to be responsive to either chemo or radiation but hadn't broached the wall of the badder.

The theory is that if the cancer is only in the bladder then .....

And so here I am going for at least one more very serious surgery tomorrow.

What my mixed feeling are about are: there's been a lot of money spent to keep me going (has to be close to a million) and I do worry about how many small children could be in a program for wellness with what VA has spent on on this one old man. About how many people much more productive than me are dying over inability to come up with insurance premiums and I am living because I wanted to eat Turkey at Thanksgiving and tell my dad how wrong he was about the war. About a President who is operating contrary to the interests of the majority and even against the interests of his average joe MAGA hat supporter.

No matter what happens there's a terrible killing problem with healthcare in this country but not for me.

Survivor's guilt.

See you all in a week or so.

MFalls.

[WVreaper]

22. My heart bleeds for you.

And both of our hearts bleed for the United States.

[grantcart]

23. For clarity the OP is reprinting the sad post of a Duet who passed 2 years ago

The connection to a woman who committed fraud seeking contributions is lost on me.

[LeftInTX]

32. I know...I don't get the connection either.

[marble falls]

43. The connection is: Good health care: no begging: no opportunity for fraudsters. Jeebers.

[LeftInTX]

44. They will still do this even if we had the world's best health care.

They'll just say they need it for a relative in a foreign country. Or they will cook up some other scheme. Like a dying dog or something...

[marble falls]

46. But with less cover. It makes them easier to spot when there's less opportunity to blend in.

[LeftInTX]

49. Like this?

🙏💙 PRAYERS ARE NEEDED 💙🙏
We really need everyone to say as many prayers as possible for Auggie please!!!
Sadly, we still do not have a shunt and time is of the essence right now as Auggie is declining. But, we are praying really hard that either the medical supply company or shunt manufacturer, Integra Life Sciences, that were contacted today will be able to get one for Auggie, and soon!! 🙏🤞
We are doing everything possible to procure a shunt and we just seem to keep running into one wall after another! We’ve never felt so helpless and so frustrated that we can’t do anything to help Auggie, despite knowing exactly what needs to be done!
Please say lots and lots of prayers that we find a shunt in the next couple days as our Neuro team doesn’t feel Auggie’s has much more time…😿
Please also consider making a donation to help us pay his Auggie’s bills. His hospitalization and tap over the weekend cost another $895, making the total to date for these last few weeks over $8,000! No amount is too small, every dollar adds up and we desperately need your help!
🙏 And…don’t forget those prayers for our little boy! He’s fighting so valiantly! 🙏

Auggie is a cat....He weighs 2 pounds and needs a human shunt for his hydrocephalus. Even if Auggie gets his shunt, there will be more bills and more bills and more bills...

[soldierant]

38. The connection is that neither story would have happened

if we had universal health coverage single payer. There would have been no wrangling with multiple companies all saying it was the other sompany's responsibility with Medical Admin. And the fraud would not have been possible if we had single payer, because people wouldn't need GoFundMes and everyone would know it. She would have had to come up with a non-health-care related story and would have raised much less, if anything at all.

Inother words, ther are multiple reasons to support single payer, and some of those reasons are wildly different.

[grantcart]

48. If you think that someone who commits obvious fraud would not commit

Fraud if we had a single payer system then you are deluding yourself. The criminal who commits the fraud would do it just with different framing.

In any case your OP is very confusing with many readers confused thinking you are the one dying and no one getting the connection between the two with a single reading. In fact almost no one understood what cancer story you were referring to until someone posted a link to a likely story.

[soldierant]

51. It isn't my OP.

However, I didn't find it confusing. The op stated up front, at least when I read it, that it was someone else and was also in the past, not the present.

[orleans]

24. just heartbreaking. i don't remember this from 2012. i don't think i ever saw it

[Joinfortmill]

25. Oh my, I'm so sorry. I'm speechless.

[FoxNewsSucks]

26. My God. 9 1/2 years later

and not enough has changed.

We still live at the mercy of for-profit insurers and are sacrificed to pay their dividends and bonuses.

[mountain grammy]

27. Thank you for re posting this..

We need a daily reminder of how horrible our healthcare system still is.. and we need to keep fighting to change it. Thousands die daily because of lack of healthcare. It doesn't and shouldn't be like this.

[lambchopp59]

28. This describes precisely why I'm investigating expatriation by my full retirement time.

I've never travelled outside U.S. but I read such good things about the exchange rates and acceptable, state run healthcare expatriates can receive upon jumping a few qualifications. Brasil, my understanding allows coverage in their system with a minimum of 2000 a month income deposit to Brazilian bank. I'll have that Social Security level soon. I'd have taken a trip there to check out some places I've only read about online had it not been for this f'n pandemic.
I appreciate other suggestions as well.
There's an ultimate irony to this regarding myself:
I've worked all my career giving as gentle, as professional and as humorous as acceptable, care of patients in my specialty.
Yet I already got totally fucked after a mugging resulting in multiple injuries by Blue Cross, and wrote about how badly they screwed me, pre-Obamacare act, here on DU. I spent more than a decade digging myself out of Care Credit hole, 12 surgeries.
Lost my home. Lost my classic car, my job, my dignity, my entire nestegg of retirement savings.
Yet I'll never reasonably afford to receive good care once I'm on fixed income/Medicare. I see the horror stories connected to that, like this above, almost daily.

[SheltieLover]

29. K&R!

[dlk]

30. In a civilized society, some things should not be for profit

The American, for-profit healthcare system, with predators gaming the system for personal gain, is nothing short of barbaric.

[Jarqui]

31. Wonderful post. One of the best ever. ... nt

[PurgedVoter]

33. Nixon laughed when this mess was proposed to him

Including insurance companies and letting for profit companies manage this with rewards for not paying is in fact worse than having death panels. Until the public understands that insurance companies and our current form of health management companies are the sort of organization that mafia bosses dream of, we will just be teasing ourselves and continuing to enrich evil men with the money that should have gone to making lives better.

[FakeNoose]

34. Oh my goodness, what a sad story!

I've never seen this because it was originally posted in February 2012 and I joined DU in 2016.
He passed away about a month later, in March 2012.



Thank you for sharing this, Marble Falls!

[PatrickforB]

37. 'Murika is the land of crummy, rationed healthcare with financially crippling copays.

We can afford to squander $4.2 trillion on two forever wars, waste another $3 trillion on a feckless, irresponsible tax cut for billionaires and corporations, and spend untold amounts of our tax dollars on the prison-industrial-complex and its attendant 'war on drugs.'

WHERE IS OUR HEALTHCARE? When is the last time Congress did ANYTHING that materially benefitted you or your family? We had the stimulus checks, of course, and a not-enough unemployment stipend while at the same time businesses had several trillion thrown at them.

Nope. The last time I can think of when Congress passed anything that materially benefitted me is 1965, when they passed Medicare.

We individual taxpayers pay in 86% of the federal government's tax revenue and corporations only 6.8%. How come corporations are getting virtually ALL the benefits of our public treasury?????

[Autumn]

39. Here we are, after all these years still begging for healthcare. And we still can't get it.

[rlegro]

40. Thank you, and know how sad and angry I am about our infectious oligarchy. We'll keep pushing.

Godspell and Godspeed.

[denbot]

41. At first I thought it was going to be Kephra

How could I forget..?

[Vinca]

42. Thanks for reposting that. I must have missed it all those years ago because it's something that

will be remembered. What a loss. What a shame. I hope his wife has found happiness.

[LittleGirl]

47. I missed this or don't remember

Because the stories of our brutal insurance scam system overlaps with so many patients.

My spouse is a UK citizen so we’re looking into moving there mainly because of my shitty health. I didn’t get diagnosed with thyroid disease until I was 50 so the damage was done. I’ve been sick since puberty.

I don’t know how Americans put up with this nonstop insurance bribes and denials forever. I’m afraid I’ve given up. I have decent insurance here in Switzerland and it’s pricey but pays 90% of everything after the 500 deductible. When I had another ear infection last summer, I saw a specialist within 24 hours. When my eye started twitching last spring, I saw a specialist that day. The difference is stark.

Good luck everyone.

[calimary]

50. Kicking this. With a lump in my throat.

And an ache in my heart.

[Celerity]

52. Most gut wrenching post I have read on DU. American healthcare is a crime against humanity

[marble falls]

53. American health care is a crime. It picks and chooses who lives and who dies.