New healthcare thread...

[CrimsonJazz]

I do take 25 mg DHEA per day, a precursor of a precursor. To counteract BPH, I also take 150 mg of DIM (dimethylmethane) and also counteract prostate cancer. My PSA is 2.37. At one point, it was over 6...

Just out of curiosity, have you had any side effects using DIM? I’ve been looking at it because it’s supposed to help break plateaus in the gym and provide a natural energy boost. Pre-workouts are a no-no for people with heart conditions.

 

[crimsonaudio]

 

[Huckleberry]

NYT gift link


Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine
Aaron Siri, who specializes in vaccine lawsuits, has been at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s side reviewing candidates for top jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services.

The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death.

That campaign is just one front in the war that the lawyer, Aaron Siri, is waging against vaccines of all kinds.

Mr. Siri has also filed a petition seeking to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines; challenged, and in some cases quashed, Covid vaccine mandates around the country; sued federal agencies for the disclosure of records related to vaccine approvals; and subjected prominent vaccine scientists to grueling videotaped depositions.

Much of Mr. Siri’s work — including the polio petition filed in 2022 — has been on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, a nonprofit whose founder is a close ally of Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Siri also represented Mr. Kennedy during his presidential campaign.

 

[Bama75&80]

Personally having grandparent, aunt and uncle who contracted this horrible disease, all I can think of is: Inmates running the asylum. This should be truly criminal.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Growing up in the 40s and 50s, we lived every summer in terror of it. Activities with kids in groups were greatly curtailed and all public pools were closed...

 

[arthurdawg]

I can see why people would be concerned about the COVID vaccines. New and we were in a phase where the data was and is still developing.

But polio vaccine has been available for 70 years. It works well and the agents themselves have been improved, and it clearly has very low incidence of serious side effects. The notion of making it unavailable is a moral and ethical crime against humanity.

As for the admin costs in medicine, I can tell you that our local hospital has a goodly number of empty suits that do little to add anything to medical care, while we struggle with inadequate beds and an ER without enough capacity. But the new ortho wing makes bank and was the priority for the past few years.

 

[jthomas666]

Shocking...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/business/pharmacy-benefit-managers-opioids.html?unlocked_article_code=1.iE4.nvfE.gAqxVvlyCnKh&smid=url-share

Drugmakers including Purdue Pharma paid pharmacy benefit managers not to restrict painkiller prescriptions

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I can see why people would be concerned about the COVID vaccines. New and we were in a phase where the data was and is still developing.

But polio vaccine has been available for 70 years. It works well and the agents themselves have been improved, and it clearly has very low incidence of serious side effects. The notion of making it unavailable is a moral and ethical crime against humanity.

As for the admin costs in medicine, I can tell you that our local hospital has a goodly number of empty suits that do little to add anything to medical care, while we struggle with inadequate beds and an ER without enough capacity. But the new ortho wing makes bank and was the priority for the past few years.

Hearts and bones pay. Our local municipal hospital is in the midst of, I think, a 150 million expansion. I'm sure you can guess what it will house...

 

[jthomas666]

Hearts and bones pay. Our local municipal hospital is in the midst of, I think, a 150 million expansion. I'm sure you can guess what it will house...

Yeah, I remember how the Huntsville Hospital expanded over the years, as my mom was a regular customer.

 

[75thru79]

We spend literally trillions of dollars bringing new drug and treatments to market with literally no one considering whether we (as a society) can ever possibly afford these new treatments and what it will do to our economic stability. What if a doctor came to you and said you have stage 4 cancer and the only way to save you is to get a one-time treatment that will cost $1 million? Without it you will be dead in 6 months. Would you bankrupt your family and legacy to keep yourself alive? Should the Federal Government pay for that $1 million treatment. What if you were 75 years old. Would that alter your decision?

These kinds of questions are just going to get tougher and tougher to make as we become closer and closer to playing God. Right now many of those decisions are based on the ability of the patient to pay for the treatment. If the Federal Government takes over then some bureaucrat is going to decide whether you live or die. Is that how it should be? That’s how it is in socialized medicine countries like Canada and the Europe. There is no good answer. I am extremely pessimistic about the future in this regard.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Yeah, I remember how the Huntsville Hospital expanded over the years, as my mom was a regular customer.

HH Expansion

 

[CrimsonJazz]

San Francisco just appointed Virgie Tovar as their Weight Stigma Czar

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1869029771876941975

And yes, she's serious. She actually working with the SF Department of Public Health.

 

[JDCrimson]

But we already have that dynamic for at-risk mothers needing an abortion, seems okay to me to extend my life expectancy to a bureaucrat...

We spend literally trillions of dollars bringing new drug and treatments to market with literally no one considering whether we (as a society) can ever possibly afford these new treatments and what it will do to our economic stability. What if a doctor came to you and said you have stage 4 cancer and the only way to save you is to get a one-time treatment that will cost $1 million? Without it you will be dead in 6 months. Would you bankrupt your family and legacy to keep yourself alive? Should the Federal Government pay for that $1 million treatment. What if you were 75 years old. Would that alter your decision?

These kinds of questions are just going to get tougher and tougher to make as we become closer and closer to playing God. Right now many of those decisions are based on the ability of the patient to pay for the treatment. If the Federal Government takes over then some bureaucrat is going to decide whether you live or die. Is that how it should be? That’s how it is in socialized medicine countries like Canada and the Europe. There is no good answer. I am extremely pessimistic about the future in this regard.

 

[arthurdawg]

Hearts and bones pay. Our local municipal hospital is in the midst of, I think, a 150 million expansion. I'm sure you can guess what it will house...

Yes... HSV Hospital is who I speak of.

The new expansion will at least have 100 medical beds, desperately needed as we haven't had a free bed since 2019. Patients get mad, outlying hospitals get mad, but there is nothing I can do for it.


Edit: The Al.com article says 50 beds, but I think they are planning more. We could have filled 50 extra beds up every day by 2022.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Growing up in the 40s and 50s, we lived every summer in terror of it. Activities with kids in groups were greatly curtailed and all public pools were closed...

As much a Trumper as my old man is....he absolutely will NOT go the anti-vax route. Because of the polio epidemic of (around) 1948-55 - and he never got a shot until he joined the military in 1965 - he takes that stuff seriously.

I recall him telling me one time years ago that his Dad, who I don't think even finished high school (born in 1912), did enough reading and decided that as long as they didn't use the public drinking fountain at school - which IIRC was actually a tap on the side of the school (details are fuzzy, and I was a teen half listening to him) - they wouldn't catch polio.

That was the more amusing thing to watch as Covid unfolded. The guy swears by MAGA, but he didn't - and doesn't - trust them to keep him alive any further than he can throw them.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

One other point - we've had a sudden increase in positive Covid tests in rural Wyoming.

To the point it's now running through the staff.
Not yet since I know what will be asked.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

As much a Trumper as my old man is....he absolutely will NOT go the anti-vax route. Because of the polio epidemic of (around) 1948-55 - and he never got a shot until he joined the military in 1965 - he takes that stuff seriously.

I recall him telling me one time years ago that his Dad, who I don't think even finished high school (born in 1912), did enough reading and decided that as long as they didn't use the public drinking fountain at school - which IIRC was actually a tap on the side of the school (details are fuzzy, and I was a teen half listening to him) - they wouldn't catch polio.

That was the more amusing thing to watch as Covid unfolded. The guy swears by MAGA, but he didn't - and doesn't - trust them to keep him alive any further than he can throw them.

Sounds familiar......like VERY familiar. My dad spent nearly 40 years in the U.S. Army and he is full-blown MAGA. He watches Fox news every single day and still praises Operation: Warp Speed as one of Trump's shining successes. We don't talk politics very much.

I made the mistake of helping him create a Twitter account (back when it was still Twitter) and worse, demonstrating how to take a screen shot. To this day, I regularly get screen shots of something that has ticked him off to no end (and it inevitably falls into one of three categories: anti-Trump, anti-Israel or pro-Russia.) In case you missed it the first time, we don't talk politics very much.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

Right now many of those decisions are based on the ability of the patient to pay for the treatment. If the Federal Government takes over then some bureaucrat is going to decide whether you live or die.

Don't we essentially already have that today since the insurance companies set the prices and then decide if they will cover those prices? They are deciding how affordable our care is and if you become a burden to their bottom line, they will start denying your claims. Isn't that basically making the live or die decision. It may not be a government "bureaucrat", but it is paper pusher protecting those million dollar CEO salaries.

I hate medical insurance companies, and I believe that the only reason our healthcare prices are so high in this country is because of their greed.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

One other point - we've had a sudden increase in positive Covid tests in rural Wyoming.

To the point it's now running through the staff.
Not yet since I know what will be asked.

We're now up to eight out of our small choir, so that participation in services is endangered. I knew I was taking a chance by going back to choral singing. I lost...

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Don't we essentially already have that today since the insurance companies set the prices and then decide if they will cover those prices? They are deciding how affordable our care is and if you become a burden to their bottom line, they will start denying your claims. Isn't that basically making the live or die decision. It may not be a government "bureaucrat", but it is paper pusher protecting those million dollar CEO salaries.

I hate medical insurance companies, and I believe that the only reason our healthcare prices are so high in this country is because of their greed.

Yes, that's the decisions they make. In the case of my daughter, they decided her life was not worth $45K per treatment...