“Parkview is among scores of wealthy hospitals that have quietly used century-old hospital lien laws to increase revenue, often at the expense of low-income people like Ms. Smith. By using liens — a claim on an asset, such as a home or a settlement payment, to make sure someone repays a debt — hospitals can collect on money that otherwise would have gone to the patient to compensate for pain and suffering.”
Medicynical Note: No surprises here, to understand the core values of American healthcare providers just follow the money and observe the trickery used to maximize revenue……which of course discourages service. Charging the least able to pay the most is a long-standing American hospital tradition.
“Survivors of the homes say urgent action by the state is needed, and many say the Roman Catholic church, which ran the homes, needs to be held more fully accountable.”
And the Catholic Church features itself as an arbiter of morality.
Medicynical Note: Nothing new here the church has abused and persecuted people on every continent for hundreds of years. Children and women have been their victims–the most vulnerable in societies. It continues today.
But somehow this flawed institution persists. It self-righteously tries to be the arbiter of morality and as such continues to abuse the rights of women and children.
I have no doubt there are good “moral” well meaning people in this organization but its roots are rotten and corrupt. As such it should be discounted as a arbiter of morality.
“A Republican congressional ally of President Trump solicited more than 100 of his fellow GOP lawmakers to sign on to a brief with the Supreme Court in support of a long-shot lawsuit filed by Texas seeking to delay certification of presidential electors in four battleground states won by President-elect Joe Biden.”
Medicynical note: let’s be clear, just as the reaction to recent police shootings says black lives don’t matter, the legal action by republicans against Biden’s election is saying, very loudly, that black voters don’t matter. It’s not subtle.
I’ve been following the COVID epidemic watching as the death toll rose from zero in January to over 290,000 today. For perspective these are the U.S. deaths in WWII.
Deaths in WWII–Combat deaths, Other Deaths, Total deaths
Medicynical note: While Republican political hacks have been minimalizing and denying the impact of covid, the deaths have inexorably risen. Today they will exceed the U.S. battle deaths in WWII (291,557). This was an unbelievable (till now) failure of government. The focus of Trump was almost solely on money, not citizens. Billionaires have done well while wage earners were exposed to the virus and many have died.
Trump denied, obstructed, provided misinformation and largely ignored the deaths and suffering. He’s soon to be gone while the aftereffects of his gross incompetence will linger on.
“We expect governments to move with urgency towards aligned testing standards and in parallel, to implement a robust pre-departure testing regime that supports international travel, safely replaces quarantine as soon as possible and enables the skies to reopen at scale.”
Medicynical note: We used to carry a yellow proof of vaccination booklet when traveling, particularly in places where infectious diseases were rampant. As our knowledge of vaccinations and treatments improved that requirement slowly disappeared except for yellow fever vaccination for travel between endemic countries.
“To prevent the international spread of the disease by protecting countries from the risk of importing or spreading the yellow fever virus. These are requirements established by the country. The countries that require proof of vaccination are those where the disease may or may not occur and where the mosquito vector and potential non-human primate hosts of yellow fever are present. Any importation of the virus into such countries by infected travellers could result in its propagation and establishment, leading to a permanent risk of infection for the human population. Proof of vaccination is often required for travellers arriving from countries with risk of yellow fever transmission and sometimes for travellers in transit through such countries.”
“Countries requiring yellow fever vaccination for entry do so in accordance with the International Health Regulations. Country requirements are subject to change at any time. Updates can be found at: http://www.who.int/ith.”
Without doubt proof of vaccination and/ immunity to COVID will soon be required for travel.
Medicynical Note: Benign neglect is Trump’s approach and it has resulted in thousands of deaths. His fear of failure, his remarkably short attention span and his obvious intellectual shortcomings have contributed to the fiasco.
“You don’t want to go to war with a president,” he said. “But you got to walk the fine balance of making sure you continue to tell the truth.”
FoxNewsSunday
✔@FoxNewsSunday
Doctor Anthony Fauci talks about staying away from political spin when addressing the American public about the risks of the coronavirus. #FNS
Medicynical Note: What’s going on here? Think there might be a conflict between the scientists and the politican? Trump has called global warming a hoax and recently called the Coronavirus worldwide epidemic bordering on pandemic a hoax as well. Think he has your best interests in mind?
“Immediately after the carnage in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, Trump said “there is a great appetite” for tightening background checks on people who buy firearms. But in recent days, Trump has focused in public remarks on the need to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill while emphasizing that the nation already has “very strong background checks right now” — positions that hew more closely to the views of the National Rifle Association.”
Medicynical note: Sadly it will happen again and again. Vote this incompetent out of office.
“Beginning in 1996, the military launched the largest-ever corporate takeover of U.S. federal housing, shifting ownership of more than 200,000 family housing units on bases to private real estate developers and property managers under 50-year contracts.”
18 is the “Number of times Tinker-based Air Force housing officials warned that Balfour Beatty maintenance logs contained false information, Reuters found.”
“These lucrative contracts include bonuses, or incentive fees, that private landlords can earn by meeting performance goals set with the military. To receive the fees, real estate companies must meet quarterly and annual goals, such as responding to resident maintenance requests within a specified time. The fees are payable each quarter, and are generally worth up to 2% of the total rent payments from service families living on base.”
Medicynical Note: Privatization almost never works when service to the public is involved. The very services that the company was hire to deliver become secondary to assuring profits. We’ve seen this in health care, education, other services to the poor, the prison system, the military industrial complex and so on. Revenue becomes the goal and in an America that has surrendered to monied interests people suffer the consequences.
