Socialism Is Your Friend, Shirley
It will hug you and show you pretty pictures
Links are collected at the end of the post.
Bruce Davidson at the National Gallery of Art.1
Can Liz Truss Outlast a Head of Lettuce?
Liz Truss fired her finance guy — which, glory be, your editors predicted when he said “I’m not going anywhere” — in a probably futile attempt to save her own job.2
A British newspaper on Friday pitted Liz Truss in a race against a lettuce, asking readers if they thought the under-fire prime minister would lose her job before the vegetable decayed.
The tabloid Daily Star set up a live feed of an unrefrigerated iceberg next to a photo of Truss.
"Which wet lettuce will last longer?," it asked in a Twitter post showing the feed that had garnered over 50,000 likes in its first five hours online.
You can follow the live stream (not lively, but live) of Liz and the lettuce on YouTube.3 Produce people give the lettuce 10 days or so; London bookies give the lettuce a solid edge.
It’s conceivable that a U.S. tabloid would get up to a stunt like that. It should be a feature. Lettuce Pol of the Week. Never a shortage of the latter.
Medicare Advantage providers are racking up record profits off U.S. government money. Medicare, along with Medicaid, is being not-so-stealthily privatized with the support of both Republicans and the majority of Democrats.4
A new analysis from former health insurance executive Wendell Potter shows that six of the seven largest health insurers — Centene, CVS, Elevance, UnitedHealth, Humana, and Molina — now receive the majority of their health plan revenues from the federal government, while the seventh, Cigna, gets 42 percent of its revenue from the government. These revenues are fueled in large part by the growth of Medicare Advantage plans, the expensive privatized Medicare plans operated by private health insurers that often wrongfully deny care.
These figures do not even include the subsidies that insurers receive to help people buy individual insurance plans offered on state exchanges under the ACA. Under President Joe Biden, Democrats have twice expanded this ACA subsidy program, now until 2025. If Democrats move to authorize these subsidies yet again, the total ACA health insurance subsidy scheme would cost the public more than $800 million over the decade. Meanwhile, these plans deny nearly 20 percent of all in-network health claims.
The Commonwealth Fund says 43% of us were “inadequately insured” in 2022.5 Socialized medicine looking pretty good right now.6
Socialized medical school looking pretty good, too. Medical school is effectively free in Norway and, as mentioned here before, in France as well.7 Both countries have much higher doctor/population ratios than we do, and their doctors aren't carrying a ton of debt that they have to pay down by cramming as many patients as possible into a day.
Among countries offering single-payer universal health care without insurance company entanglements, Norway comes closest to spending what we do per capita: they’re up to about $7,000, and we’re at a bit more than $12,000.8 Our federal government spends about the same as theirs, and then we tack on another several thousand in private expenditures.
Norway provides home visits from a midwife and a postpartum public health nurse after a mother and newborn come home from the hospital.9 So do The Netherlands.10
Norway (and every other wealthy country) has better health care outcomes than we do in almost every category.11 Overall, we're last by a mile.
Everybody here deserves better.
Nationalize health care. Nationalize medical school. Nationalize the power grid. Nationalize the oil companies. Nationalize (and break up) the banks. Municipalize water systems. Reform the central bank.12
Swaddled in care: that’s what we’ll be, Shirley. Swaddled in good feeling. Transforming the culture.
Cannonball Adderley: “Sounds for Sid” is two hours long. The album was previously unknown to us. “Remember Alderaan” from Dogleg is 14 minutes, which seems about right and was sufficient to play us out.
And that, comrades, is all we got. Be well, take care.
I wonder too. If I find out, I’ll speak up.
Comparative health benefit here: I was scheduled for hip replacement surgery 3 weeks after applying. My health insurance approved one night in the hospital. A friend had the same surgery in a different hospital. She was sent home the same day. Danish friends say it takes 3 years to get approval. A Canadian friend said it took her a year for app, but they kept her for 5 days after the surgery. Some comfort for the ailing would be oh so nice.
And, I’m choking over Liz and the Lettuce! I thought her speech the other day was kind of a falling turnip. Pls keep ‘em coming.