PHOTO/SARAH MENEFEE
Dr. Margaret Flowers, a pediatrician, and activist for Medicare For All says disputes those who say universal healthcare is too costly: “Everyone is in the system for life. If a person needs health care, they see a health professional of their choice, the health professional cares for the patient and submits a bill to the system, or they are paid a salary, and that’s it. Simple. Just as it is in most other industrialized countries. Single payer systems save money. . . The only system we can’t afford to maintain is the current one. Private health insurers are insatiable. The government subsidizes them by hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and still they raise premiums and out-of-pocket costs and ask for more. Pharmaceutical companies are increasing their prices by as much as they can get away with. A single payer system is the best way to put private insurers where they belong—on the margins of our healthcare system, and to control the pharmaceutical industry.” (Excerpted from Health Over Profit article by Dr. Flowers)
Missouri votes for workers everywhere.
In August, by two to one, the “red” state of Missouri voted against their state’s anti-union right to work law, boosting the rights of all workers. — The editors
I used to like Medicare and then I found out that Medicare will not pay for physical rehabilitation unless the patient is hospitalized. Since August 15, 2018 in the afternoon my father has been having difficulty walking. He can’t go up and down the steps in front of the house and we can’t take him to the doctor’s. It’s not the insurance companies, according to our insurance agent, when I asked for insuance that would help my father, she said Medicare doesn’t cover physical rehab unless the patient is hospitalized. My father received that aid in 2016 when we found him lying on the bathroom floor and we had to call an ambulance because we couldn’t pick him up. It’s horrible how the government decides the fate of our parents, grandparents, greatgrandparents.
Dr. Flowers is talking about an expanded and improved single-payer system so the type of care your father needed would automatically be covered. You can read more about the plan at HealthOverProfit.org.