Waiting times for NHS gender clinics continue to grow. A trans person attending their first appointment in England or Scotland today will have waited between 2 and 7 years.
(ID: Purple background with a person waiting in front of a clock)
Medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. But for every $1 invested, cities and states can retire ~$100 worth of residents' medical debt. A growing number of them are starting to use public funds to purchase and forgive millions in debt. More of this, please.
@rbreich
City and state strategies to wipe out residents' medical debt is working well as a stopgap, but I am conflicted about the fact that it perpetuates and enables a system that creates enormous personal medical debt for absolutely no reason other than that our politicians are bought and paid for by Big Pharma, Big Medical, and Big Insurance.
We need single payer, universal healthcare.
Every public dollar diverted to pay medical debt is a dollar that supports debt collectors and private, for-profit predatory healthcare and insurance providers.
Every public dollar diverted to pay medical debt is a dollar that could be more efficiently spent directly on healthcare without the profit-taking middlemen.
A brand new Oxford University analysis has debunked #NHS privatisation.
Oxford researchers looked at studies of healthcare #privatisation and found they agreed on one thing: privatisation leads to poorer quality care for patients.
I believe we’re moving into a future where health care is a right, not a privilege. And we'll get there by capping the cost of insulin and prescription drugs for every American, not just seniors — President Joe Biden #quotes#quote#Biden#HealthCare#BidenHarris2024#VoteBlue
#POTUS Biden on Mon called for major new spending initiatives to lower costs for #healthcare, #ChildCare & #housing & enough new taxes on the wealthy & major corporations to pay for those proposals & also shave $3 trillion off the #NationalDebt over the next decade.
That spending would be more than offset by dramatically increasing taxes on the wealthiest individuals & corporations, the WH said. #Biden’s #budget would increase the minimum tax on billion-dollar corporations to 21% from 15%. It would raise taxes on US multinationals’ foreign income to 21% from 10.5%, & eliminate some #TaxDeductions for executive compensation.
After making billions in #TaxDeductible donations to his philanthropy, the owner of #Tesla & SpaceX gave away far less than required in some yrs— & what he did give often supported his #SelfInterests.
Before Mar 2021, #ElonMusk’s charitable foundation never announced any donations to CameronCounty, an impoverished region at the southern tip of TX that is home to his #SpaceX launch site & local ofcls who help regulate it.
At the same time, he runs a #charity w/billions of dollars, the kind of resources that could make a global #impact. But unlike #BillGates, who has deployed his fortune in an effort to improve #healthcare across Africa, or #Walmart’s Walton family, which has spurred change in the American #education system, #Musk’s philanthropy has been haphazard & largely #SelfServing — making him eligible for enormous #TaxBreaks & helping his businesses.
Here's the final section of a letter to the FT from Brendan Kelly (Professor of Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin) makes a crucial point...
While there is no doubting the problems of mental health, to treat all aspects of these personal travails as illness is to focus too much on the individual and allow our toxic society & workplaces to escape their share of the blame.
Help ProPublica investigate access to mental health care.
If you are a mental health provider and live in one of the 18 unshaded states below, please get in touch to help us reach our goal of connecting with care professionals in every state:
At its extreme end point, the #NHS crisis is further illustrated by the warnings continued in coroners' reports on deaths in #healthcare; these warnings are rising but remain largely ignored.
Of course, coroner's see the same thing everyone else does; over worked staff & under-resourced services, as well as Govt. whose only aim is to raise the proportion of us using private health care.
A study of more than 200 people undergoing surgery found that nearly 60% had microplastics or even smaller nanoplastics in a main artery. Those who did were 4.5 times more likely to experience a heart attack, a stroke or death in the approximately 34 months after the surgery than were those whose arteries were plastic-free.
😷 New Canadian Covid Society aims to address long-term effects
A national non-profit group called the Canadian Covid Society launched on Wednesday, with co-founders saying the organization is needed as public health agencies have pulled back on COVID-19 prevention measures and awareness campaigns.
#Syphilis Is Killing #Babies. The U.S. Government Is Failing to Stop the Disease From Spreading.
The only drug that treats syphilis during #pregnancy is in short supply.
Untreated, the #disease can pass to newborns, killing them or leaving them with disabilities. As cases rise sharply, the #government isn’t doing much to prevent shortages.
Hi everyone. I'm going to share a new #introduction.
I'm a #nonbinary (they/them) movement journalist in my 40s, currently based in Central #Texas. From 2022 until today's layoffs, I was Digital Editor at the @TexasObserver. I've been a writer, journalist, editor since at least 2011, when I got my start on the primordial political blog Firedoglake. My involvement with the Occupy Wall Street movement helped make me a journo and I've always worn my bias on my sleeve. (1/?)
As Lucian K. Truscott says, the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that cells in a test tube are a baby and deserve the same rights that a baby has puts Republicans in a real bind.
It does so because it tells us that "pro-life" Republicans have not ever truly meant what they claim to believe, when they say that "life" begins at conception.
@wdlindsy #Healthcare in #USA has been politicized and corporatized. Leading to medical debt. This needs to drastically change. Make a true single payer system as in various Western Europe counties. Where women can get access to care without any political or religious interference. Where healthcare for all is affordable and sustained through taxation. And reduce the amount spent on the DoD. Take care of the people first before trying to be world police.
The American healthcare system is expensive, inefficient, and ineffective. President Biden is taking this seriously and acting to reduce health care costs. Here are eight of the things he’s done recently.
The real threat to gender-diverse children is the politicization of care issues like puberty blockers and detransition
Under the pretext of protecting children, Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, has said he is opposed to the use of puberty blockers for gender-diverse children.
It’s Official. Climate Change Has Brought Deadly Health Risks to BC
Vancouver Coastal Health set out the dangers and offered solutions in a new report.
In a report released Tuesday, VCH analyzed how hazards such as wildfire smoke, droughts, heat, storms and flooding will affect our health and identified ways to mitigate future harms.