Enrollment for 2018 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) starts on November 1 and ends on December 15. The current administration has cut the funds to announce when people can enroll. Please reblog and #Resist

they have also scheduled some 12-hour “maintenance sessions” to occur on sundays during the enrollment period so be aware of those as well.

Also there’s one scheduled for the first night so be aware of that. They’re basically doing everything in their power to make it as difficult as possible so young and healthy people don’t bother signing up in an effort to kill the program that way. Please don’t let that happen spread this around and sign up.

I’m reblogging this every single Fucking time I see it

It’s not politics.  It’s spite.  It’s callous disregard.  It’s nastiness.  Tr$mp’s America, folks…  Don’t let them destroy Affordable Care.  Enroll! 

I get really confused when americans, when talking about universal health care are like ‘yeh but it’s not free sweaty :) :) you have to pay it through taxes :) so gotcha!!’

and I’m like ….???? That’s the whole point??? Everyone pays their fair share so that no one has to be turned away because they don’t have insurance??? And no one has to set up a Fundraiser page just so that they DONT DIE???? So people don’t put off going to the doctor because they’re scared of going bankrupt?? Because healthcare is a RIGHT and should be free at the point of access?!?

“So no one has to be turned away” she says hahaha go to a universal health care country and get a necessary operation in less than a few years and come back and talk shit.

Look at the cure rates compared to mortality rates in universal health care countries and compare them to ours, then talk shit.

Tear your ACL in a universal health care country and see what the people say if you should go to their hospitals or go to an American hospital, then talk shit.

I do live in a universal health care country, actually. And I HAVE had a necessary operation here myself. I broke my arm years ago - the ambulance came within 5 minutes. I was seen in A&E by a doctor within 20 minutes. And I had the operation to put my arm back in place within hours - despite my condition not being life threatening. Hmm, don’t see what was so hard about that? And oh yeah, it was all free of charge.

You don’t seem to understand about how it works. Firstly, operations are prioritised. If someone comes in with an emergency, such as a ruptured aorta and bleeding out - of COURSE they will get an operation STRAIGHT AWAY. Like what do you think doctors do here, twiddle their thumbs while patients die? 

And if someone has something that is not quite an emergency, but is serious, such as a bowel cancer, they will have their surgery within 1-2 weeks of seeing a specialist. And it’s free. The poor patient who is already stressed and worried sick about their cancer, will NOT also have to worry about insurance and bills and going bankrupt.

Sure, some operations that are not quite as urgent will have waiting lists. My gran just had her cataract operation - this is something that isn’t life-threatening, not causing her pain at all, but of course is still affecting her life because she couldn’t see very well. She had to wait a few months, which of course in an inconvenience, but she still got her operation, and she definitely didn’t have to wait years (and I have never heard of anyone waiting years for an operation, and as a med student I have talked to a LOT of patients) so I don’t know where you got that from (probably some right-wing american media, I assume). And like, I’m sure most people would rather wait a bit longer than have to pay, or not ever get their operation because they can’t afford it?

And I’m not sure what you mean by your last bit. Are you really implying that countries other than the US couldn’t repair an ACL tear? Like, really? Do you think countries with universal healthcare have no resources or money? Sorry to burst your deluded bubble, but other countries can handle an ACL tear, and many other operations (even neurosurgery - shock horror!), just fine thanks. I’ve never seen a patient shipped off to America. 

“I’ve never seen a patient shipped off to America” daamn, i love this post

Not to mention that in countries like Australia, there are *also* private hospitals. If you *want* to spend tens of thousands of dollars to avoid waiting, you can?

The point about the rich, privileged right wing in America.

They can’t understand basic reality or practicality. 

Or how the real world works in the end.

He literally compared needing life-saving healthcare to wanting a nice, fancy expensive sofa.

I mean, my God. Think about this.

That statement is shuddering and downright creepy. 

people have no idea what its like to be 14 and have everyone telling you that you’re faking and pretending to be ill for attention or to skip art class and the doctor’s telling you you’re ‘just being a teenager’ when you actually had a serious kidney disease

if someone hadn’t eventually listened to me i would have died

Please, please support self-diagnosed teenagers, don’t pretend they’re not really disabled, don’t belittle or mock them, don’t exclude them from disabled spaces and for the love of god don’t pretend you know more about them than they do

i am disabled to this day because when i was a teenage girl, my doctors didn’t take me seriously. when i said i was in extreme pain, they said i just wasn’t trying hard enough at physical therapy to repair a broken ankle. turns out they’d fucked up the surgery to fix it, and their neglect of my months of complaints meant it was damaged beyond repair. i still have mobility issues 8 years later, will have pain and require surgeries throughout my life and will, always, be disabled. because of them. because of the silencing of girls’ voices, in all spheres. because doctors do not value the voices of teenaged girls.

When I was twelve, the knee specialist I had finally convinced my mom to take me to (after years of begging) told me that my knees hurt because of my hips widening.

“No,” I said. “You don’t understand. I can’t walk when it happens, it hurts so bad. It’s been since I was a little kid.”

“It might twinge a bit, sure,” he told me. “Go to physical therapy for a few weeks.” I burst into tears.

My mom then refused to take me to physical therapy, because it was a long drive and the doctor said it wasn’t serious, so why should she bother? That was the start of her not listening to any complaint about my joints I ever had.

As it turns out, my knees were dislocating every couple of days. She and my doctors ignored and taught me to ignore sprains, fractures, cartilage tears, and dislocations until I moved out and learned that it wasn’t normal. I missed out on years of my life because of my doctor not only discounting the experience of a young girl, but fully blaming my pain on the fact of my being a young girl.

Listen to children when they tell you something is wrong with their bodies.

I had stomach pains for years as a kid. Almost daily. I was blamed as a faker. 

I have Celiac.

People know what the hell is going on with their own bodies. If they don’t think something is right fucking listen to them.

In their study, “The Girl Who Cried Pain: A Bias Against Women in the Treatment of Pain,” researchers Diane E. Hoffmann and Anita J. Tarzian documented the degree to which girl’s and women’s pain is routinely dismissed as the “not real,” “emotional,” response of “fragile” females. Not only are girls and women who experience pain less likely to be taken seriously when they describe it, but they are less likely to be treated by medical professionals.

Failure to diagnose an illness (when a competent doctor would have done so) is medical malpractice and you CAN sue for it if you have the appropriate resources to do so.

It won’t give you your life back but at least it will destroy the life of the doctor that harmed you.

Shit like this has happened to me so often. 

And the really weird thing is a lot of the support staff tell a completely different story.

I had a “cold” that was refusing to go away and was frankly frustrating the hell out of me because I wanted to go back to work. After about five days, I was again trying to get ready for work when I suddenly couldn’t breathe. Went to the emergency room, they took an x-ray,turns out the reason my “cold” wasn’t going away was that I had pneumonia. Badly enough that despite the fact that it was a bad year for it, my chest x-ray still warranted the comment “Wow, no wonder you don’t feel good.” from the technician.

But it was the other thing she said that stuck with me. “And let me guess, you’ve been trying to work through this. Women always do.”

People who actually pay attention notice the exact opposite situation to “Women just make it all up.”

See also the time I toughed out a peritonsillar abscess for over a week because I didn’t want to be told it was just a viral sore throat and get sent home. Finally went in when it got to the point it was taking me over an hour to drink a cup of water and even breathing hurt, and the doc was pulling the “Yeah, yeah, another over-dramatic woman” routine at the after-hours clinic until he saw my throat and the first words out of his mouth were, “Holy shit!” 

And then, “Sorry, that was unprofessional. But wow, that’s a nasty throat! I’m amazed you can still take liquids at all. If you had a fever, I’d be sending you to the ER right away - we might still end up there, because this isn’t a simple sore throat, you’ve got an abscess here.” Later he admitted to kicking himself for assuming it’d be nothing because “Women always tough it out until they’re in agony, and you’d think one of these days, I’d figure that out.” Dude also gave me kids liquid antibiotics for the first week of the prescription because he realized I was not able to swallow anything solid and he didn’t want me torturing myself to try (his words). But yeah I have a bad habit of being more stoic the more pain I’m in, so if I’m whining a lot, it’s probably something minor but annoying, but if I’m quiet and curled up in a ball, that’s when you need to worry. Unfortunately, most doctors expect yelling and screaming if someone’s in severe pain, so they tend not to believe me unless I have something screamingly obvious (like a peritonsillar abscess that is obstructing half my throat).

In the USA, it’s 100x cheaper to take an Uber to the hospital instead of an ambulance.

I don’t know if this is true or.. Like, having to pay for an ambulance that is taking you to the hospital? That doesn’t make any sense. What kind of distopian world is that?

It costs thousands of dollars to ride in an ambulance

In America some people with chronic health conditions like epilepsy literally have to wear medical IDs that say “don’t call an ambulance/911”. Some well-meaning person calling an ambulance for you will turn into a thousand (or couple thousand) dollars that YOU are on the hook for, even though you didn’t make the call. So, PSA: if you see someone having a seizure, look for a medical ID! You should only call an ambulance if: the person is elderly, pregnant, or the seizure lasts more than 4 minutes. Otherwise, wait for the seizure to pass, then ask the person if they want an ambulance when they regain consciousness.

wtf

Oh my god what. Here in Quebec, if you call an ambulance for something they deem non-emergency, you get a bill later for like $180. But if it’s anything like a loss of consciousness, chest pains, labour, whatever, or if you’re in a public place and a a well-meaning samaritan calls 911, it’s paid for by the government. Seriously, everything about healthcare in the US makes me want to cry.

Imagine a world where you have to wear tags to tell people trying to help you that “It’s ok, don’t try to help, I can’t afford to pay if someone tries to save my life. I’ll just take my chances and hope it’s not life-threatening.”

And This Is Why You Shouldn’t Get Sick In America

Many believe that the US healthcare system is the best in the world. Not so according to the World Health Organization’s ranking of the world’s health systems. The US doesn’t even rank in the top 25. It ranks 37th and is the most expensive in the world. I would argue that even if we had the best healthcare system in the world, what good is it, if no one can afford to access it.

Most companies are buying 60/40-policys for their employees these days, but even if you are lucky enough to have good insurance with 80/20-policy coverage, that 20 percent your responsible for can drive you right into bankruptcy as easily as the 60-40 policy given the cost of healthcare.

Insurance cost have been going up dramatically in the last two decades, long before the new Affordable Healthcare Act has taken affect, in some cases as much as 35% per year.

But have you noticed the latest trick the insurance companies have roll out?

Yes, Higher Deductible… most averaging $5,000 per year, per person, but I have seen some as high as $10,000 per year. For those of you that are wondering, this tactic is specifically designed too stop you from using your insurance. It reduces the insurance companies out of pocket liability by shift costs onto consumers, especially those dealing with chronic illness such as diabetes and arthritis. Consequently, because consumers can’t afford the deductible they will avoid necessary care to save money.

Although insurance companies are a problem, the real crook is the healthcare system it self. A corrupt and bloated system desperately in need of reform!

OKAY SO I KNEW THAT TECHNICALLY IN AMERICA THAT YOU PAY FOR HEALTHCARE BUT LIKE THE IDEA IS SO BIZARRE TO ME THAT I’D NEVER CONSIDERED THAT YOU’D GET… A BILL?????? FOR BEING…. ILL?????????? I LITERALLY DON’T

how can anaesthetic cost that much??

how is this legal??

WHAT? And I thought having to pay £7 ($11.55) for stronger prescription allergy meds instead of £4 ($6.60) for the less effective store-brand ones was ridiculous.

You have to pay for the ambulance!?

OK, I’m shocked by the prices, but all of the people from other countries who are just shocked that there ARE prices just make me so so sad.

This is so screwed up.

To catch you up on current events, the House Republicans are currently lying on the floor, holding their breath, and turning blue, in a last ditch effort to get someone to make the Affordable Care Act (A/K/A Obamacare) go away. What terrifies them is not the idea that the program will fail, but that, in fact, it will succeed. And the thought of working people, children, and the poor having health coverage makes them panicky for some reason.

To that end, the Tea Party noise machine has done everything it can to spread misinformation about the law, prevent it from being implemented, and block the government from providing basic information about how the Affordable Care Act works. This is a familiar tactic from other recent political battles: frantically cut the legs out from under the law at the legislative level, then scream that it obviously doesn’t work, and try to have it eliminated.

Here are the facts the hissy-fit crew don’t want you to know:

If you have insurance, you keep it. Nothing changes.

If you apply for insurance, and you have a preexisting condition, most insurers can no longer deny you coverage.

If you can’t afford insurance, the government will help you pay.

Your insurance coverage, whatever it is - whether it is supplied by your employer, or you go and get it yourself in the new health insurance marketplaces - will help pay for everything from preventative care, to doctor’s visits, to prescriptions. Because working people shouldn’t be one accident or illness away from bankruptcy. This is a simple matter of decency and social fairness. I am confused why anyone thinks otherwise.

Some people worry if they don’t get insurance, they will go to jail. This is a falsehood. However, in 2014, if you do not have health insurance, you have to get some, or pay a fee. And you say: but why do I need health insurance?? I’m not sick and I don’t need medical care! But if you get hit by a drunk driver, you will need care. Or if you slip on the ice. Or if you’re diagnosed with a malignant tumor. Everyone is in the health care market… ill health is an inevitable part of the human existence.

Don’t worry signing up will be hard! Help finding a plan is available.

The ACA means your insurer cannot drop you just because you get sick. It also means insurers cannot set arbitrary limits on how much they will spend on your care each year. Need more care? Get more money.

The ACA protects your choice of doctors, and makes sure your children can stay on your health plan until they’re 26. It guarantees your right to appeal if your insurer tries to dick you out of your fair coverage.

Guess what else? The money you’re spending on insurance? The insurance companies now face an 80/20 requirement, meaning that they have to spend 80% of what they make on health care, not on marketing, or administration, or other happy-crappy. Now they have to do less selling, more doing.

There’s a lot more to learn, if you want - all the facts are right here - but there is no reason to be afraid of the law. The goal is to protect families from the worst: the debilitating illness that wipes them out financially and closes the door to opportunity.

For creative people, the ACA is probably the best thing to happen in decades. I can’t tell you how many comic book creators are one sickness from having everything swept away. The creative class has been one of the great engines of the American economy, and in that way, the Republican attack on the Affordable Care Act is an attack on what America does best: invent and create.

Again: all the information you need, including how to sign up, is right here. Take a few minutes and get some facts for yourself. You won’t need more than a few minutes - this is simple, not hard, and a positive, not a negative.

By all means, reblog this post. It’s important for people to get good information. You can help by passing along the essential facts.