SARS II: Respiratory Boogaloo

Coincidentally it took me using the VA--albeit one on the right side of the bell curve for service and quality--to realize that this can work and that everyone should have this ease of access to medicine.

I will never have reason to say this again, but thank God I listened to Dinner on this.

Speaking from my POV, nursing homes/assisted living facilities do tend to test frequently as long as there's active cases amongst both the staff and the residents.

not saying that policy is bad, but isn't it closing the barn door once the cows are out? I would think testing from the git-go would be the more proactive way of controlling it.

At first testing was a rarity because tests were scarce (and we know why that is), but I'm sure the costs of tests are a factor too. Nursing homes et al. are in business to make money. They're not going to be proactive; it's just not in their nature.

Yeah you deserve it. No one else does though.

I never said nobody else deserved it (or something similar to it). But for the time being the VA is for those who chose to be part of the organization that provides the services. People who work at donut shops get free donuts. I want free donuts too, but I don't work there. Make sense?

Part of the variation in quality probably has a lot to do with the pressure the VA hospitals are under. In Florida, they're overwhelmed due to the huge numbers of retirees and former military, which is also due to the large number of bases, forts and stations in the state. In Boise, there isn't quite the pressure and the reputation of the VA hospital here is very good. The hospitals in Florida are always being expanded and they never seem to catch up to the demand.

Healthcare ain't donuts. So...no.

Assuming Your Boy Donnie hadn't fucked up the availability and distribution of testing.

Augusta doesn't really fit that template then. We have a fairly large number of retirees and a HUGE number of former military (lots of contractors & GS) but our VA care is top-notch.
IMHO management is the biggest factor in many cases.

But not every donut shop gives their employees free donuts. And even if the shop promises employees free donuts for life, that doesn't mean that the donut shop will be in business forever.

Of course, the analogy breaks down because nobody needs donuts to survive, but everybody needs access to the medical system to survive. And by ensuring that everyone has access to the medical system, not only do you ensure that you have a more productive society, you also ensure that people can be productive for longer. So fewer people have to quit a job that they love simply because their health won't let them, or that by quitting they have access (thanks to things like Medicare or Medicaid) to health care.

you're right, it's not. But the concept is the same - if you work for a company you get to partake in the benefits of that company.
Perhaps eventually all of America will have very low cost, effective medical care but that is not currently the case, and probably won't be in the near future.

Preaching to the choir! Everybody needs health care but for now not everybody is getting it. As it stands today and for the foreseeable future, if you choose to serve honorably (AKA be employed) in the military low cost medical care is one of your employee benefits.

So, why don't you support political candidates who are promising to ensure that everyone gets healthcare? You know, like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren?

Because they're socialists!!!

because that is one issue (admittedly important) but I'm not a one issue voter. That said free health care for all is a noble idea, but not an idea that is likely to happen in our lifetimes.
That's not an excuse to stop trying, but that's the hard reality of the situation, no matter who is HMIC.

Well that, and Floriduh has a vested interest in making Teh Soshulizm ™ look as unappealing as possible.

The one here in San Diego has a VA hospital and four or five outpatient clinics, but that level of convenience is unusual, even in California. NorCal has two hospitals: one in West Sacramento and one in Palo Alto, which I had to visit once. If this is the average VA, , I wouldn't go, either.

At any rate, San Diego was proof enough of concept for me to get onboatd with a national plan so people no longer have to be slaves to jobs because of medical care.

Ten years ago, people like you said Obamacare was an unmitigated failure and DOA. Now, it's so popular that not even Moscow Mitch and Yankee Doodle Fürher couldn't kill it outright.

I wouldn't be surprised if it be became law in the next 20 years....if even that long.

So what issues are more important to you than this?

So what is/are the issues that caused you to vote (without regret) for Trump?

Yanno, you gotta love the Luddites. "If man were meant to fly, he'd have wings!" I keep thinking of @Volpone's lecture about buggy whips when, in fact, it's his cohort that's still insisting we need buggy whips, instead of clean energy, health care, etc. because the alternative is SOSHULISM!

@Ancalagon keeps praying for all the Boomers to die off because it's his fervent belief that everything willl be all unicorns and rainbows once we do (sorry, Skeezix, there's longevity in my gene pool; you ain't getting rid of me for at least another 20 years and, guess what? We're not the enemy, Pogo), but it's the Libertopians and the nihilists, regardless of age, who are the societal speed-bumps.

That would make sense, if it could be demonstrated that free donuts for everyone, paid for out of tax money, was cheaper to the consumer than them having to buy them themselves, and that one political party was screaming and fighting against it in order to protect the corporate interests of those who make money by gouging the public on the cost of donuts.

Until that is the case, comparing healthcare to donuts makes even less sense than comparing apples to oranges.

Swamp drainin' and wall buildin'......

Although it appears that both of those policies were abject failures.....

Uh, not sure I agree with you here.

I need for this stupid pandemic to end so I can get over to the US and get some real donuts. I'm close to dying here, and I haven't even caught Covid.

Cases and deaths in retirement homes are plummeting, according to last month's figures.

This coincides with the massive vaccine roll-out for the elderly, which is great news.

Jan 20th, 8% of people 65 and over had been vaccinated.

As of yesterday, 34 days later, 50% had been.

Biden is killing it.

Trump was just killing.

is that Whoopie Goldberg giving him a shot? Oh myyyy.....

OK, that's worth a chuckle. Not a belly laugh...but I like it!

This is the dumbest argument against a UHC I’ve ever heard.

messed up the quote tag. Can a mod help me out?

[Fixed. Quote blocks with a member name need to have the double-quotes (") on both sides -O2C]