New healthcare thread...

[Its On A Slab]

I'll be 86 my next birthday and feel blessed to have most of my marbles still about (I'm sure some here would disagree). I honestly don't know how I would react to a cognitive decline diagnosis. One friend, a bit younger than I, got an unfavorable diagnosis. He and his wife went out to dinner and he excused himself to go to the restroom. Instead, he went out to their vehicle, retrieved his pistol, sat down on a bench and blew his brains out...

That is the irony about dementia and losing control of your personal freedom. When you are with your senses, you want to think that you don't want to die in a nursing home when your quality of life goes into the crapper.

We watched my Dad succumb to Lewy Body Dementia, and my Mom to Parkinson's. I don't know about my Dad, but my Mom had been doing research on the Hemlock Society, assisted suicide. It was never a real option for my Mom in MIssissippi.

It is always the present thought that you would wish to go out on your own terms. Not too many people are able to do it, sadly. And it's also unfortunate that people will take extreme measures such as guns, or grab a rope.

 

[rjtide]

Man dies of asthma attack after inhaler cost rises more than $500, family sues to save others

Cole Schmidtknecht couldn’t afford that, and so for the next five days, he struggled to breathe with only an emergency asthma inhaler, the suit states.

www.al.com

totally unnecessary clinical outcome for that young man in wisconsin. i hope this forces some serious changes in the PBM atmosphere. there is NO need for those entities to jack up the prices for rx meds as much as they've done.

 

[Padreruf]

I'll be 86 my next birthday and feel blessed to have most of my marbles still about (I'm sure some here would disagree). I honestly don't know how I would react to a cognitive decline diagnosis. One friend, a bit younger than I, got an unfavorable diagnosis. He and his wife went out to dinner and he excused himself to go to the restroom. Instead, he went out to their vehicle, retrieved his pistol, sat down on a bench and blew his brains out...

I keep some Oxycodone in my safe if I ever decide to go quietly into that dark night. The problem is that with dementia you are never sure that you will be able to make that decision in any rational form. My father had Alzheimer's, Lewy body dementia, Parkinson's and had developed diabetes when he died. He was rarely rational...but not violent.

He died from complications of a drug -- Haldol -- which he took to control his dementia. Without it he would have had to be restrained-- and we all knew he would not want that. Basically assisted suicide the last six months of his life here.

Who ever thought that leaving this world could be so difficult?

 

[tusks_n_raider]

As sad is this story is, I get it. My father started suffering dementia in his mid-90's and he lived to 99. He was pretty cantankerous towards the end and it was a little unpleasant when he would come to visit. He would barely get in the door for a visit when he would tell my Mom that he needed to get home because the Air Force Reserves were trying to get in touch with him (he had retired from the Reserves 30 years prior).

I told my wife that if that were to start happening to me I would rather take my life than put my family through it.

Stuff like that happened with my Dad a lot.

I never really talked about it here but I had moved back home to live with both my Mom and Dad for their final years to help take care of them because both their health issues were so bad.

After my Mom passed my Dad really started losing his mind and hallucinations started happening.

Sometimes they were really creepy like he would be convinced that the ‘Hatman’ was in the house and that FBI agents were trying to get him.

One time I woke up in the middle of the night because it sounded like holes were being knocked into the walls with a sledgehammer and I found him in his bedroom with the whole place a mess because he was ‘throwing the Football around with Coach Saban’.

It’s very upsetting to deal with from the outside so I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to be the one living it.

If given the choice I can’t say I’d want to live with dementia or Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.

They are cruel conditions.

 

[DzynKingRTR]

Man dies of asthma attack after inhaler cost rises more than $500, family sues to save others

Cole Schmidtknecht couldn’t afford that, and so for the next five days, he struggled to breathe with only an emergency asthma inhaler, the suit states.

www.al.com

totally unnecessary clinical outcome for that young man in wisconsin. i hope this forces some serious changes in the PBM atmosphere. there is NO need for those entities to jack up the prices for rx meds as much as they've done.

there will not be any changes. it has been like this for years. inhalers are insanely expensive and even with good insurance with no deductible, they cost $45 or more

 

[75thru79]

there will not be any changes. it has been like this for years. inhalers are insanely expensive and even with good insurance with no deductible, they cost $45 or more

It's not going to change until we (Americans) rise up and demand change. Did you know we pay the highest price in the world for prescription drugs? It's because 1) we are subsidizing the medical industry for the benefit of the rest of the world and 2) at the end of the day we'll pay whatever it takes to save our lives.

At the very minimum we should pass a law saying drug companies cannot charge a significantly higher price in the US than say Uganda or Brazil, or wherever. I get it, the citizens of those countries likely do not have the money to pay the market value for drugs but why should US citizens continue to subsidize medical care for the rest of the world. It's basically medical care welfare for third world countries.

 

[jthomas666]

Our insurance regularly switches out what they cover; they've always notified us 30 days in advance. They do not provide a list of approved alternatives (which seems to be the least they could do), forcing me to call them and get a list of alternatives, which I then have to pass along to my doctor.

And yeah, they pulled this crap on me with Advair.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I have been unemployed for seven weeks, not a big deal as it happens with contract work and you plan ahead.

However, it was so nice of the for-profit company that runs the hospital in Wyoming to offer me a 20% pay cut to come back and do more work.

It took less than two seconds to give my response to that one. And I was even willing to come back for less money than I was making when I left, but not far less than I was making when I arrived almost one year ago to the day.

I understand the pandemic is over, but your hospital still has no workers……..

 

[CrimsonJazz]

 

[Huckleberry]

When research facilities can't pay their utility bills, equip/build out important laboratories, or provide infrastructure for clinical trials, then important research can't continue as before. This is a Project 2025 Heritage Foundation policy that will impede research and likely lead to the unnecessary deaths of untold numbers of people.

Discussion about NIH research funding cuts requires 'data, time and careful evaluation'

NIH’s plan to cut what it pays universities and other entities for indirect costs associated with scientific research would create “extremely challenging” short- and long-term impacts, according to a renowned data scientist and researcher.“If this comes to fruition, we’d be in a situation where...

www.healio.com

 

[CrimsonJazz]

When research facilities can't pay their utility bills, equip/build out important laboratories, or provide infrastructure for clinical trials, then important research can't continue as before. This is a Project 2025 Heritage Foundation policy that will impede research and likely lead to the unnecessary deaths of untold numbers of people.

Discussion about NIH research funding cuts requires 'data, time and careful evaluation'

NIH’s plan to cut what it pays universities and other entities for indirect costs associated with scientific research would create “extremely challenging” short- and long-term impacts, according to a renowned data scientist and researcher.“If this comes to fruition, we’d be in a situation where...

www.healio.com

I didn’t know P2025’s master plan was to create more cancer by reining in waste and theft. Pretty crafty, I must say.

 

[Huckleberry]

I didn’t know P2025’s master plan was to create more cancer by reining in waste and theft. Pretty crafty, I must say.

Their plan was to cut government, regardless of the impact to science (which they don’t seem to particularly care for anyway).

 

[75thru79]

When research facilities can't pay their utility bills, equip/build out important laboratories, or provide infrastructure for clinical trials, then important research can't continue as before. This is a Project 2025 Heritage Foundation policy that will impede research and likely lead to the unnecessary deaths of untold numbers of people.

Discussion about NIH research funding cuts requires 'data, time and careful evaluation'

NIH’s plan to cut what it pays universities and other entities for indirect costs associated with scientific research would create “extremely challenging” short- and long-term impacts, according to a renowned data scientist and researcher.“If this comes to fruition, we’d be in a situation where...

www.healio.com

The unspoken part is the double, triple and quadruple hits at the trough for the research community. The "infrastructure" money is meant to help pay for those expenses you referred to. The truth is that most of these university affiliated labs have multiple research initiatives going on at the same time. For every grant the government is paying for infrastructure so that after the money is all counted these institutions are probably being reimbursed more money than the costs being incurred. I am all in favor of medical research but I am not in favor of overpaying for it.

 

[Huckleberry]

The unspoken part is the double, triple and quadruple hits at the trough for the research community. The "infrastructure" money is meant to help pay for those expenses you referred to. The truth is that most of these university affiliated labs have multiple research initiatives going on at the same time. For every grant the government is paying for infrastructure so that after the money is all counted these institutions are probably being reimbursed more money than the costs being incurred. I am all in favor of medical research but I am not in favor of overpaying for it.

I’d like to see some evidence of this waste that’s pervasive in the scientific research community. If these accusations are valid, then certainly adjustments need to be made.

 

[CrimsonNagus]

I’d like to see some evidence of this waste that’s pervasive in the scientific research community. If these accusations are valid, then certainly adjustments need to be made.

It’s Trump and the MAGAs. They don’t have proof, we are just suppose to “trust them”. They’ve been attacking science for years and now they have the means to take it down. You’d think MAGAs would read PJ2025 so they understand what is at stake but they don’t care, everything Trump does is a okay in their minds. Screw whoever it might harm.


Now on to my next rant…

I hate our current healthcare system, especially the corrupt insurance companies. I don’t know what the answer is and I’m not saying we need free healthcare. But if a doctor thinks you need a procedure, a test or a prescription then it should not be up to insurance whether you actually get it or not. At the very least it should be 100% illegal for these billion dollar company’s to deny care. They are not the medical professionals, they are scummy paper pushing bean counters.

My wife has had 2 runins with insurance this week. They denied a prescription because it needs prior authorization. How the hell are we suppose to know we need it before the doctor prescribes it? My wife suffers from really bad acid reflux, has for many years. She’s tried every over the counter option and they don’t help. She had an endoscopy done this week and nothing major was found but some inflammation. Doctor wants to try a stronger Rx that also helps heal the inflammation. Stupid insurance want her to use over the counter options. They are not the medical professionals! Just approve it already you greedy billionaires!

The other run-in pertains to her yearly OB visit and a cancer test they do each year. Suddenly BCBS only wants to pay for it every 3 years. So she might get cancer one day and not know it for 3 years because the greedy billionaires don’t give a damn about people’s health.

I hate our healthcare system and I hate this country’s wealthy class. They have held us down for long enough just to squeeze out more profit.

 

[arthurdawg]

I’d like to see some evidence of this waste that’s pervasive in the scientific research community. If these accusations are valid, then certainly adjustments need to be made.

The funny thing is that this will hammer red state universities over blue state universities who have funding from their states and larger endowments. UAB, as a good example, simply can't make up the funds that will be cut.

There is no evidence that universities are "quadruple" dipping. I mean, I don't know much other than being and oncologist and having been involved in clinical research for a number of years. And yes, the indirect costs are critical to most large state universities. The idea that you can magically cut them to 15% and "send more money to research" is fine Republican math. No lights, no bricks, no research.

There is also no way around the fact that a huge number of medical and scientific advances have come from the basic studies that don't have a clear cut commercial application. Private industry has no interest in doing this work or training the next generations of PhDs, engineers, and other workers that are critical to its functioning. I hope changes will settle and be more realistic, but this could seriously impair our STEM base in the country. Once again, we seem to be willing to cede our lead to the Reds of the CCP in order to make a political point. We've already done so with renewable energy tech and electric cars, which will be a huge market globally going forward, whether or not Present Trump wants it that way.

I think the major aspect of letting Elon Musk rip everything apart is that he simplistically views the Federal Government as another Twitter, when it is a very different and much more complicated beastie that needs revamping, but not destruction. The downstream effects have to be considered and I don't see anyone from President Trump and the Administration giving this issue much thought.

 

[Huckleberry]

Thank for that post. I agree completely.

 

[Huckleberry]

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-human-brain-may-contain-as-much-as-a-spoons-worth-of-microplastics-new-research-suggests-180985995/

The Human Brain May Contain as Much as a Spoon’s Worth of Microplastics, New Research Suggests
The amount of microplastics in the human brain appears to be increasing over time: Concentrations rose by roughly 50 percent between 2016 and 2024, according to a new study

 

[Huckleberry]

Family says Cincinnati Children's won't put unvaccinated daughter on heart transplant list

A family related to Vice President JD Vance says Cincinnati Children's won't put their daughter on its transplant list because she is unvaccinated.

www.cincinnati.com

Family says Cincinnati Children's won't put unvaccinated daughter on heart transplant list

An Indiana family says Cincinnati Children's won't put their 12-year-old daughter on its heart transplant waiting list because of her vaccination status.

Janeen Deal, who is related by marriage to Vice President JD Vance's half-siblings, said the hospital requires her daughter to receive COVID-19 and flu vaccinations, which Janeen and her husband are unwilling to do.

The couple adopted Adaline from China when she was 4 years old. Adaline was born with two heart conditions, Janeen said, and they adopted Adaline knowing she would one day need a heart transplant. Janeen said Adaline has been receiving treatment at Cincinnati Children's for almost 10 years, and they hoped she would receive a heart transplant there because they consider it the best hospital in the area.

But earlier this month, Adaline's doctor said she would need to have the two vaccinations to be put on the transplant list, according to Janeen. The couple told the doctor the vaccines conflict with their religious and medical beliefs (the family is nondenominational Christian), but the hospital would not honor a religious exemption.

"I thought, wow. So, it's not about the kid. It's not about saving her life," Janeen told The Enquirer.

Vaccines are recommended for transplant recipients because those patients have a much higher risk for infections.

A Cincinnati Children's spokesperson did not answer The Enquirer's question about whether the hospital withheld Adaline from the transplant list.

Janeen believes the vaccines are unsafe, and also said they came to their decision after "the Holy Spirit put it on our hearts." The couple is now considering taking Adaline to a different transplant center – one that won't require her to be vaccinated.



Willing to risk the child's life because "the Holy Spirit put it on our hearts." Madness.

 

[CrimsonJazz]

$UNH Added diagnoses to patients’ records for conditions that no doctor treated, which triggered an extra $8.7 billion in federal payments. Untreated diagnoses from in-home visits by nurses cost an avg of $2,735 in additional federal payments per visit.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1892914878433620180

Holy crap on a carousel! If these accusations are proven......just wow. And I highly doubt only United is doing this.