Gun Violence & Maximizing Medical Profits
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UnitedHealth Squeezes Doctors and Patients
Ten years after Optum/UnitedHealth bought Connecticut's ProHealth Physicians, the primary care network it has become a mere shadow of its former self. (MedPage Today). When UnitedHealth bought the practice it promised to take a hands off approach. Here are the results:
Doctors are retiring earlier than they planned, or leaving for competing practices, patients with serious medical conditions struggle to make appointments, and others complain of mysterious diagnoses popping up in their charts. Patients are the customers and they vote with their feet and are leaveing.
Over the past 20 years, UnitedHealth has brought some 90,000 physicians -- or 1 in 10 in the U.S. -- under its control, and it has leveraged these physicians, along with its position as the largest Medicare Advantage insurer, to maximize profits.
After speaking with more than 15 former doctors, current and former ProHealth patients, and experts in corporate medicine, and reviewing documents obtained through public records requests, STAT reported that what has happened at ProHealth is "much the same as described by former doctors at five other primary care practices UnitedHealth has purchased around the country."
Here is what UnitedHealth did, according to the report by STAT. Corporate managers pushed doctors to add diagnoses to medical records that would make patients look sicker and justify higher payments from Medicare. Doctors' concerns were addressed with skepticism, condescension, and even retaliation.
I’m still back on the 10% of doctors work for UnitedHealth. What monopoly? By the way the Department of Justice is investigating the merger of Optum and United Health for anti trust violations.
When the object is not care but a vehicle to generate cash for investors, patients and doctors suffer.
Project 2025 and Health (Revisited)
Project 2025, the tight wing playbook for another Trump presidency, written by Trump appointees and the Heritage foundation criticizes the USDA as “a major welfare agency” (p 323).
It takes issue with the agency’s long-standing nutrition programs that help feed millions of low-income Americans every year, including pregnant women, infants, and K-12 school children. It outlines policies that would substantially cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, and the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). It would also shrink federal support for universal school meal programs.
The proposal to restructure the USDA builds on a previous Trump-era proposal to consolidate federal safety net programs. This included moving SNAP and WIC–which it rebranded as welfare programs, a term often used pejoratively–from the USDA to HHS. It’s a move that experts pointed out would likely make these programs easier to cut, including by designating them as welfare benefits, often deemed unnecessary by so-called conservatives.
In fiscal year 2023, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) served an average of 42.1 million people per month, which is about 12.6% of the US population. However, the number of people receiving SNAP benefits varies by state, ranging from 4.6% in Utah to 23.1% in New Mexico.
Removing the programs is not the solution. Removing poverty is the answer. There are proven strategies that work. Employment opportunities with healthcare makes a huge difference. How about solving the problem, not punishing those who are evidence that a problem exists.
Extra Credit Action
Call any elected representative and tell them to fix poverty not the evidence of poverty. Reach them here, https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials.
Gun Violence
Another school shooting in Georgia yesterday by a teenager with an AR type weapon. If we as a society choose not to act we can expect this behavior to continue.
Gun Violence is the number one killer of children and teens. Not hunger, not disease, guns. It is a public health hazard.
Here is a collection of data to peruse from the Gun Violence archive.
Notice that the number of mass shootings keeps rising. None of these data are good. We need background checks that matter, no private ownership of weapons of war, gun safes/trigger locks, mandatory training, licensing and registration, and insurance. Then make sure there are enough Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearm agents to actively do the job.
Let our elected reps know.
ACTION
Use RESISTBOT via [Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER] or by texting SIGN PSEWBG to 50409 on your cell phone to send this message.
“I am your constituent and I don’t know about you, but I am fed up with gun violence in our country. As you know, another school shooting with an AR type rifle at a school in Georgia this week and more dead and injured.
We deserve to live in a country where we and our families can to go to school or work in safety. What part of 5 year olds having active shooter drills in school makes you feel good?
Look, it is way past high time for We The People, that means you in Congress, to get in gear.
No weapons of war allowed in homes, nothing that can make a gun shoot dozens of bullets a minute like a machine gun, mandatory in depth background checks on EVERY GUN TRANSFER, mandatory training and licensing and insurance. Demand safe storage and trigger locks, red flag laws. You get the picture - elected representatives have successfully blocked all of these. Well I’ve had enough I want you to engage and get those laws passed and start protecting the public. And while I have your attention, how about sufficient funding for enough Alcohol Tobacco and Firearm agents to actually enforce those good regulations we have been discussing.
I will watch your words and your behavior and I promise I will remember and vote accordingly.”
Find My Elected Officials
Contact State and Federal Representatives - phone and email
Healthcare Advocacy (Us) Website
Our Newsletter resources including reproductive healthcare - Healthcare Advocacy Reading List
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
Organizations to Contact
National Nurses United Medicare4All
Physicians for a National Health Program
One Payer States
Healthcare Now
Reproductive Health
NARAL - Pro Choice America
Charley. chatbot abortion resource - make sure to use a secure incognito browser if you live in a state that has banned abortion
Planned Parenthood
Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline has references about where to procure abortion medications. They also assist women in the process of self managed abortion or miscarriage by phone or text and will respond in an hour. Details and hours of operation at their website.
United State of Women Reproductive health page (bottom of the page) has important resources such as medical support, access to Telehealth, prescriptions by mail, and legal support references.
Practice careful communications - The Digital Defense Fund has a number of tips to keep texts, calls, and internet use private. Here is their site.
If you need financial help with an abortion try abortionfunds.org
Claims Denials and Appeals & What to Do
Appeal a Healthcare Decision
Appeal/Negotiate a Hospital Bill
Disinformation Management
Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency
Save Democracy
Chop Wood, Carry Water by Jessica Cravens
RESISTBOT
Link to the RESISTBOT site to learn more
Link to Chop Wood, Carry Water RESISTBOT write up
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