The US Healthcare Mass Debate

[Svartalf]

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Hips and knees: done.
Now cancer.
Alzheimer? Install brain worms in all.

putting bllets in RFK and his bosses would be a good use of the money.

[Brian Peacock]

[L'Emmerdeur]

It's a good thing that Musk and his little buddies are slashing all that waste and fraud. It'll more than pay for important scientific inquiries that have been ignored up till now, or something.

'CDC to study vaccines and autism, despite several studies already finding no link'

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will study whether vaccines cause autism, despite numerous existing studies already showing there is no link.

HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon confirmed the effort in a statement overnight, saying the agency plans to leave "no stone unturned."

"As President Trump said in his Joint Address to Congress, the rate of autism in American children has skyrocketed. CDC will leave no stone unturned in its mission to figure out what exactly is happening,” the statement said. “The American people expect high quality research and transparency and that is what CDC is delivering."

Nixon did not answer questions about how the study would be conducted and how it would be different from the numerous peer-reviewed studies already published.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Two people dead already (that I'm aware of) out of a few hundred in the current outbreak of measles centered in Texas. The MMR vaccine causes encephalitis in 'between one and two of 1,000,000 children' according to Encephalitis International (quoted in the article below). The anti-vaccination dolt installed by Dear Leader and his lickspittle party has a brilliant plan ...

'RFK Jr.: It Would Be Better if 'Everybody Got Measles"'

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared to suggest getting measles is the best defense against the disease, as a Texas outbreak spreads across the U.S.

More than 220 people in the state have been diagnosed with the infectious virus, and California, New York, and Maryland have also reported cases of late. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sweating over the outbreak, warning health-care workers and travelers to “be vigilant.”

While RFK Jr. recently shifted his stance to concede that vaccinations are actually pretty useful, he has still stopped short of urging skeptics to go and get it. And in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday night, he appeared to still favor natural immunity through exposure to the virus.

“It used to be, when I were a kid, that everybody got measles. And the measles gave you lifetime protection against measles infection,” he said, then taking a swipe at the vaccine. “The vaccine doesn’t do that. The vaccine is effective for some people for life, but for many people it wanes.”

In Texas, uptake of the vaccine is lower than in other states, partly fueled by COVID skepticism. The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine offers 93 percent protection against measles if the recipient has one dose, and 97 percent after two doses, according to the CDC.

Clearly, Musk should shut down the CDC entirely.

[Brian Peacock]

I can't see RFKJ holding on to the job for too long. The Pharma lobby are a direct challenge to the authority of his brain worm. If he bends to them he'll destroy all that he has achieved (!!) and damage what remains of his cred. If he doesn't, he'll have to go, which will actually be good for his personal brand!

[Sean Hayden]

Parents are afraid to give their children vaccines but not to let them get sick. Unfortunately that makes it seem like they’re less worried about something terrible happening to their kids, than of being responsible for anything bad.

—sounds fairly weak, definitely at odds with a party of alphas

[Tero]

This was the 2017 Trump plan. Repeal all regulation.
But congress is in bad shape so they may not repeal ACA. If Musk can hold out another half year, they will disable the ACA by firing the staff.

[L'Emmerdeur]

The anti-vaccine grifter that Trump put in charge of overseeing Americans' health has chosen a fellow anti-vaccine grifting liar to 'study' the imaginary link between vaccines and autism. It's been disproven repeatedly by independent studies but these creeps know better. The results of this new 'study' are predictable.

'Vaccine Skeptic Hyped by RFK Jr. Tapped to Lead Federal Autism Link Study: "Worst-Case Scenario"'

A researcher hyped by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, for his work linking vaccines to autism, has been hired by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to lead a major federal study on immunizations, according to The Washington Post.

David Geier and his father Mark Geier have published numerous reports that falsely claim vaccines increase the risk of autism. This research has been cited by vaccine skeptic Kennedy, who has long claimed a connection between vaccines and autism.

Kennedy has spread dubious information about the combined vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), amid one of the nation’s largest measles outbreaks in the past decade, fueled partly by declining vaccination rates.

Current and former federal health officials told The Post on the condition of anonymity that Geier will lead a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study examining potential links between vaccines and autism—despite the theory having been thoroughly debunked by extensive scientific research.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Shitting on the less powerful while shooting yourself in the foot. It's the Trump/Musk way. Or so it seems to lesser beings--of course the super-intelligent destroyers of fraud and waste have got it all figured out, and the so-called experts who disagree are merely shills for Big Pharma, or worse.

'"Abhorrent. Evil. Indefensible." Trump Cutting Vaccine Alliance Funds Could Kill 1.2 Million Children Worldwide'

Public health experts and other critics on Wednesday condemned the Trump administration's decision to cut off funding to the global vaccine alliance Gavi, which the organization estimates could result in the deaths of over 1 million children.

"Abhorrent. Evil. Indefensible," Atlantic staff writer Clint Smith said on social media in response to exclusive reporting from The New York Times, which obtained documents including a 281-page spreadsheet that "the skeletal remains" of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sent to Congress on Monday.

The leaked materials detail 898 awards that the Trump administration plans to continue and 5,341 it intends to end. A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, which runs the gutted USAID, confirmed the list is accurate and said that "each award terminated was reviewed individually for alignment with agency and administration priorities."

The United States contributes 13% of Gavi's budget and the terminated grant was worth $2.6 billion through 2030, according to the Times. Citing the alliance, the newspaper noted that cutting off U.S. funds "may mean 75 million children do not receive routine vaccinations in the next five years, with more than 1.2 million children dying as a result."

Responding to the Trump administration's move in a social media thread on Wednesday, Gavi said that U.S. support for the alliance "is vital" and with it, "we can save over 8 million lives over the next five years and give millions of children a better chance at a healthy, prosperous future."

"But investing in Gavi brings other benefits for our world and the American people. Here's why: By maintaining global stockpiles of vaccines against deadly diseases like Ebola, mpox, and yellow fever, we help keep America safe. These diseases do not respect borders, they can cross continents in hours and cost billions of dollars," Gavi continued.

The alliance explained that "aside from national security, investing in Gavi means smart economics too. Every dollar we invest in lower income countries generates a return of $54. This helps countries develop and communities thrive, taking away pressure to migrate in search of a better life elsewhere."

[JimC]

But it all depends on the words of woke scientists, so they can be ignored...

[Brian Peacock]

The magical thinkers have taken over.

[Tero]

Too much regulation! (industry)
Not enough regulation! (poor people and benefits)

Emeritus Prof Christopher May
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us

As Eva Wiseman points out:

'while governments have an obsession with efficiency, its still limited solely to cost-cutting. There seems to be little interest in, for instance, making access to welfare payments more efficient or healthcare, or childcare... No, efficiency is only important when trying to maximise profit'!

efficiency defined by cost, rather than by effective practice(s);

we know the cost(s) off everything but the value of nothing!

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... me-to-live

In the UK, Labour is battling inefficiency, too, through a series of cuts to welfare that are the biggest since George Osborne was chancellor. They’re already trialling weight-loss jabs to get unemployed people back to work (and reduce sick days), and sending job coaches to visit mental-health patients in hospital in order to get them into employment and so cut disability “benefits” (a misleading word, but God, that’s another column). Efficiency slices and barges its way through delicate structures, leaving the most vulnerable flailing. It works in tandem with “optimisation”, another lightning word that grips and shapes the way we live.

[Brian Peacock]

Your Money Or Your Life: Debt Collection in American Medicine



40m presentation
10m questions

The rise of an industry tasked with the collection of medical debts in the United States is a relatively recent development. Physicians and hospitals have long held themselves apart from profit maximization and have expressed a moral aversion to immiserating patients in the pursuit of unpaid debts. This is particularly true of nonprofit hospitals, which find their origins in almshouses, community associations and religious orders. In addition, while creditors have tremendous powers at their disposal in seeking to collect, including lawsuits, wage garnishment, and property liens, medical providers recoup relatively little even when they resort to such aggressive measures.

Why, then, in the last forty years, have US nonprofit hospitals increasingly turned to third-party debt collection, debt sales, and lawsuits against patient debtors? Answering this question demands an investigation of shifts in health insurance, hospital finance, and the moral economy of care. It also requires an understanding of physicians’ progressive disengagement from debt collection. What was once an unavoidably personal negotiation has become an administrative and legal process divorced from clinical obligations. This talk draws on historical research and new data to explain how unremunerative practices causing financial harm to patients became standard practice.

[Joe]

The last place I worked was a rural non-profit community mental health center, reporting to the Chief Financial Officer. I had lunch the other day with one of my former bosses who left to work for a for-profit hospital. He left them because he couldn't stand how care was determined based on the patient's finances, and their obscene debt collection practices.

US healthcare often makes me think of a line from an old song.

Don't believe them when they tell me
There ain't no cure
The rich stay healthy
The sick stay poor

[Tero]

new CEO replacing old shot one is making some lame comments about weak covearage of actual patients

The company said in a Thursday press release that its new outlook is net earnings of $24.65 to $25.15 per share and adjusted earnings of $26 to $26.50 per share.

It’s driven in part by “heightened care activity indications within [its] Medicare Advantage businesses, which became visible as the quarter closed, far above the planned 2025 increase, which was consistent with the elevated levels in 2024,” the release said. “This activity was most notable within physician and outpatient services.”

In addition, Witty told investors that the company added more new Medicare patients to its Optum Health program, some of whom were covered by plans that were exiting markets.

“They experienced a surprising lack of engagement last year, which led to 2025 reimbursement levels well below what we would expect and likely not reflective of their actual health status,” Witty said during the call. “Additionally, many of the current and new complex patients we serve are more affected by the CMS risk model changes that we are in the process of implementing. To be sure, it is complicated, but we’re not executing on the model transition as well as we should. We must and will work to better anticipate and address these factors.”

https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2025/un ... -earnings/