I think the thing that drives me the most batshit about the medical fatphobia conversation is that the burden of proof feels so exactly backwards. Just from an obvious best practices standpoint???

Things like intentional malnourishment, intentionally incapacitating vital organs through surgery, denial of potentially lifesaving medical care until those things are done, etc.

Those are all pretty extreme. The kinds of things it feels like a “first do no harm” system should have a lot of solid evidence for before recommending or implementing them.

But they’re so bog standard and accepted and everyone from doctors to your own family will look at you like you’re a flat-earther when you suggest maybe we shouldn’t be defaulting to that.

This ABSOLUTELY works.

I have used this for many years. Definitely b do it.

This article was super long-winded so I screenshat the important part

the fact we’re responsible for getting doctors to “lower their defenses” in order to literally just do their jobs is ✨INFURIATING✨

maybe turning every doctor in america into a comptroller was a mistake

I know the American healthcare system is already a joke but this is to funny

My aunt-in-law does this. She asked for an itemized bill once and saw that they charged her $25 for a single bandaid for her son’s 3 stitches. So she marched over to RiteAid, bought a box of bandaids, marched into the billing office, slapped one band aid on their desk, and demanded they take the $25 off her bill since she reimbursed them one bandaid. Needless to say, the rest of the ridiculous charges were dealt with in a similar manner.....she’s scary.....

Don’t be afraid to be a Karen about your healthcare

Health Karen

i saw a thread about this on twitter and tldr you should ALWAYS ask for an itemized bill, bc whats going on here is a byproduct of the broken and corrupt american healthcare system where like, the hospital can overcharge you for everything bc your insurance is supposed to pick up most of the bill or whatever

essentially you're nominally getting charged for only *the portion of your bill not being covered by medicare or whoever*, and the higher the full bill is the more your portion of it will be. but they can do this bc noone usually bothers to check the bill bc iirc the hospital and insurance cos both benefit from the scam

so if you actually DO check the bill and make a fuss about individual line items or etc, it mysteriously will get smaller as they 'forgive you bc you're being a hassle' when whats really going on is theyre being caught scamming you and the insurance cos and the govt and etc and then dropping your bill down closer to their actual costs

so! ALWAYS ask for an itemized bill, bc even just making a stink about the size of the bill can get the inflated amounts reduced, and even if you only owe part of the total it can reduce your amount owed by a mile

Holy fucking hell. 

This explains so much about me.  And I never knew.

so it boils down to, there is insufficient research into female reproductive organs, so this can’t be confirmed to the satisfaction of doing something about it like, researching alternatives, which oh good now it’s a circle

wild how like PCOS, endometriosis, vaginismus & hell, even frequent yeast infections are “mysterious” with no well known cause and little to no decent treatment, but we have tons of supposedly well researched body fat removal methods, about 20 different kinds of breast implants, laser hair removal, and 100 different dermatologist recommended anti aging creams. we sure had the money and brainpower to cure those “diseases”

that feeling when you get that *italian hand* good doctor

The time my doctor told me he was surprised I was able to get out of bed and come to the doctors. Because despite my Iron levels being fine my vitamin b12 levels were, and I’m quoting here, “through the floor”.

And I got prescription vitamins and Actually Ordered to go eat marmite and baked beans? And then when I read up on the symptoms of B12 deficiency and I ticked all of the boxes including that big one labelled depression and oh wow that might explain why that got suddenly majorly worse like 6 months ago for no reason.

Best Doctor Was Best and I am grateful. I’ve made sure to keep b12 rich foods in my diet ever since.

Please help my father pay for cancer treatment.

Hey y’ all

I hate to ask, but recently my father was diagnosed with cancer. We are so thankful it’s treatable, but even with decent health insurance, the bills are adding up fast. 

Furthermore, my father is the primary caretaker for my younger brother, who has significant disabilities and health issues of his own. As a result. any help that can be given won’t just cover the cost of cancer care, it will ensure that my brother’s health and safety needs will be covered as well. 

For personal safety reasons, I do not have a large social media presence. Even if you are not in a position to donate, please share this post so that it reaches as many people as possible. I am so incredibly grateful for any dollar amount given and any share across any platform. Every little bit will help. 

https://www.gofundme.com/help-a-father-fight-cancer

UPDATE 6/28

I am so thankful for all of the attention this post has been given. Unfortunately, however, I need to keep asking for your help. Insurance has covered less of my father’s care than we originally thought, and we were just handed a $2,800.00 bill due in three weeks. There is no way we can afford to pay this charge without assistance, especially because at this stage treatments have made my father too ill to continue working. 

Please, if you can give any amount at all, we would be so grateful. If you cannot donate, please share this post on Tumblr, on Twitter, on Facebook, on any social media you have. We have a very small window to raise $2,800.00, and we need all the help you can give. 

UPDATE 7/23

Thank you all so, so much for your help and generosity. Thanks to all of you we are only $600 dollars away from paying off my dad’s treatment completely. I’m asking one more time for everyone to please share this link and give if you can. My father’s treatment ends two weeks from today, and I would love to surprise him with the news that his care has been completely covered. Please help me raise that last $600 by August 6th. I am eternally grateful for your generosity and support. On behalf of my entire family - thank you, thank you, thank you. 

hEAlth insurance

So I was doing some research on common medications for a pharmacology class at school, and realized that Wikipedia is calling out the outrageous practices of pharmacological sales in the US. Right up there in the main intro to the medication they’re showing how much the drug costs to produce, versus how much a typical course of treatment costs in the USA.

Amoxicillin, a front line antibiotic, typically taken at one pill per day. 10 pills cost between 0.20 and 0.50 USD to produce, marked up at up to 80 times the price in the US.

Salbutamol, AKA an asthma puffer, on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines (considered to be the most important basic medications needed to be stocked by a pharmacy/hospital), a life saving medication.

How about oxygen? A tank of oxygen, used as a basic treatment for everything from low blood oxygen to respiratory failure to maintaining oxygen while administering anesthesia for an operation?

Epinephrine/adrenaline, AKA an epipen, given to people having a type of severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, where their airways swell and close up. A person in anaphylaxis will die without epinephrine/adrenaline. Costs at most $0.95 to produce, and they’re sold for $70 at the absolute cheapest for a single vial.

Naloxone/Narcan, used to stop an opioid overdose. $5.30, at most, to produce. $4500 to buy.

Bisoprolol/Zebeta, given for high blood pressure, angina (chest pain), and heart failure, sold at over 1000% it costs to produce.

The combined birth control pill, ethinylestradiol/levonorgestrel. 

Also, just so you’re aware, as of late Mat 2018, 1.80 GBP is 2.40 USD. For a three month supply of the pill. The same amount could cost you 150 USD in the United States.

The MMR vaccine, given to prevent mumps, measles, and rubella - diseases that could leave you deaf, blind, infertile.

Casual reminder that the for-pay medical system is vicious and morally bankrupt.

The pharmeceutical industry in the US is absolutely disgusting

Medicine should never have been privatized in the first place. The concept of profiting off of human desperation and the need for life-saving medicine is, philosophically, intrinsically, and morally wrong both as a fundamental concept and in practice. The fact that Martin Shkreli was ever able to buy an AIDS drug and increase its price 5000% is indicative of a problem even bigger than a truly evil, despicable, and selfish human being; it is indicative of the problem of the current system of for-profit pharmaceuticals with obviously inadequate price regulation.

hot take: hrt, gender therapy and trans surgeries should be free

if cis people don’t have to pay to have a body that doesn’t make them dysphoric, neither should trans people

So by that logic does that mean that I should get anti-depressants and all the other pills for my mental issues for free because the people who don’t suffer from them don’t have to pay to have them?

yes

And does that mean that corrective lenses should also be free, because people with good vision don’t need to pay to see clearly, and that devices to aid in mobility for people with limited mobility (from crutches to (practical) canes to wheelchairs to prosthetics) should also be free, because people who don’t have limited mobility don’t need to pay for them?

yes? why does everyone in the notes keep trying to come up with gotchas lmao everything to do with healthcare should be free

Then by that logic, healthy food and clean water should be free because without food and water we will die. Also, without water, hygiene will be minimal therefore increasing the chances of disease.

Yes. People should have access to a healthy happy life and the whole point of a society is to support eachother and work together. how brainwashed by capitalism are you to think food and water shouldn’t be free in an ideal world.

this post is such a wild ride every time. ‘so by this logic, people should have free access to the things they need to live and survive?????????’ like yes bitch, all of it !!!

The Golden Rule For Judging HealthCare Reform (via redcloud)

Blogging this tweet because this explains SO MUCH about the mindset of pretty much all the folks I’ve known who’re against single-payer, it’s not even funny…

This….

This never occurred to me. Not once. That Americans are against Health Care because they think it actually costs tens of thousands of dollars for a broken arm, hundreds of thousands for a complicated birth, millions for cancer treatment.

Because they’ve never known anything different. The idea that a broken arm is only a couple hundred bucks; a complicated birth a couple thousand; cancer treatment only tens of thousands; all easily covered by existing tax structures.

This explains a lot.  And it’s a good example of what I was talking about in my post on scarcity being used to prop up ableism – always question the idea that a resource is genuinely scarce.  Even if it seems obvious that it is, quite often that’s the result of careful manipulation and misconceptions that you’re not even aware of.  

And never think you’re too smart to be fooled by that kind of thing, it doesn’t work like that.  Similarly, don’t think people who are fooled by something are stupid.  Nobody can have all the information about everything, and nobody has the time and energy to investigate and put together conscious conclusions about every piece of information they’re given.  It doesn’t take being stupid, or even just gullible, to believe something like this.

I currently live in a country without free medical care and still, it’s enormously cheap compared to the USA. An American expat wrote a piece for our English language paper about how she paid more for parking at the hospital than giving birth to her baby that’s pretty interesting:

https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2016/01/06/healthcare-in-iceland-vs-the-us-weve-got-it-so-good/

Yesterday I had to go to the hospital cause I injured my eye, I’m frankly dreading what the bill is going to be, but what made me balk was being told in the pharmacy that my insurance was denied for the antibiotic eye drops and it’d be over $100 out of pocket. So I didn’t get my eyedrops.

I’ve had these same drops before living in the UK. They cost me seven GBP.

It’s the exact same drug, same steroid, same strain of antibiotic. But somehow the US gets away with charging $100 for a generic non brand version of a drug which is easy to create and widely used. It’s downright robbery, but also a form of eugenics through poverty and class warfare. You keep the poor poor by making sure basic necessities remain unattainable and then you make it seem like the norm so no one fights it.

The rest of the world is not like this.

Eat the rich. Resist.

It’s downright robbery, but also a form of eugenics through poverty and class warfare.

THIS. THISTHISTHIS. THIS IS WHAT I KEEP TRYING TO TELL PEOPLE.

that feeling when you get that *italian hand* good doctor

@setepenre-set