Did you know that healthcare in the US is a nightmare run by greedy hell-weasels who are unable to conceive of the humans whose health they are responsible for as deserving of affordable and reasonably good coverage? It is! I made a comic about it for the Village Voice.
Thanks to AD Ashley Smestad Vélez and writer/healthcare expert Nina Pearlman!
I think we don’t talk enough about how many disabled people in the United States would be able to leave poverty, or never be poor in the first place, if we had unconditionally free and accessible healthcare. There are people that have confessed to me that they can never leave poverty because then they would lose their healthcare and die. The cost of their care outstrips the income cutoff by several orders of magnitude.
There’s this big influenza epidemic this year. This has been the worst flu season in like 8 years I believe and the ER rooms have been flooded with patients.
But I don’t have the flu.
I have acid reflux and if you’re not familiar, its when your belly gets bloated, you hiccup nonstop and other symptoms like chest pain and what not. How it comes about, there are a variety of reasons as to why mostly with if you eat too much greasy food, eaten something different from your normal diet, etc. Its been a week I’ve had it and the hiccups and bloating have gone down immensely but that chest pain is still there and very uncomfortable. People keep telling me to go to the hospital but I hate going for:
Unhelpful
Long wait
Expensive
And that’s exactly what I got from it. I waited 4 hours to receive only a max of 10 minutes of actual face to face interaction with a doctor, a trash doctor, a higher dosage of the medicine I am currently taking, and a $100 copay bill.
I could’ve stayed home and suffered for all of this
^link to the article for further info & accessibility
Just so ya’ll know. They’re gonna loophole this which is why we have to spread this information. I work at a pharmacy and I can tell you that a lot of these insurance companies only “Cover” them. Here’s what has been happening: You go to your doctor to get PrEP, they write a prescription and send it to the Pharmacy. When you get there they tell you that insurance isn’t covering it. You say that the law says that they have to. They say that it will, but not through THEM. The insurance company says that they’ll only cover it through a “specialty pharmacy” (which on the one hand, fair enough, NIOSH standards for drugs state that if you are handling the pills then there are specific forms of PPE you need that we at retail do not have, but on the other hand that doesn’t matter if we aren’t opening the freaking bottles) which will then either mail it to you or ship it to the pharmacy to take it out of the box, scan it in, and bag it. Which is what we’d do normally anyways except with the added step of making you wait 2-3 business days to get it. And because technically they “cover it” it’s not a law violation. But they’re hoping that you’ll not want to wait and just pay the $3000 out of pocket.
This may seem like a meme, but it is real. It’s formatted like this to get people’s attention and be memorable, in the hopes that maybe it saves some lives.
This cartoon has four panels. Each panel shows the same two figures walking through a city environment while they talk. The first figure is a dark-haired woman wearing a business outfit, with a black shirt. The second figure is a middle-aged man wearing glasses, slacks, a collared shirt, and a striped necktie.
In the first three panels, they’re both walking in the same direction with the man in front, so the man is facing away from the woman.
PANEL 1 Both speakers are friendly-looking.
WOMAN: Okay, Pro-Life… let’s brainstorm ways to reduce abortion!
MAN: Reducing abortion is definitely my number one priority!
PANEL 2 The man dismissively waves a hand.
WOMAN: Research shows that giving people free long-acting reversible contraception reduces abortion more than anything!
MAN: Nope. That would encourage promiscuity.
PANEL 3 WOMAN: Okay, um… How about a super generous child benefit program, like Belgium or Germany?
MAN: I don’t want taxpayers paying people for being irresponsible.
PANEL 4 The woman loses her temper a bit, looking angry and holding up her hands. The man has turned around to face the woman, smiling and looking eager and excited.
WOMAN: Come ON! There must be SOME way of reducing abortion you approve of other than punishing doctors and patients!
MAN: Now you’re talking! What’d you have in mind… Shaming? Prison? Death penalty?
SMALL KICKER PANEL BELOW THE BOTTOM OF THE STRIP The man from the previous four panels is now talking sternly at Barry the cartoonist.
MAN: If a million “pre-born babies” have to die to avoid compromise on birth control, it’s worth it!
i never do these PSA posts because most PSA stuff isn’t actually actionable, but, uh, this one is:
tl;dr:there are now a bunch of drugs that are really damn good at treating COVID. if you or a loved one get COVID, especially if you have extra risk factors, you should ask your health provider about them (and, if you’re in the US, you can even use this handy dandy website to see what’s in stock near you). also, consider telling people (esp. older people) about this, i guess? so that they know too?
As of March 7, 2022 The US “Test to Treat” program allows you to get a covid test and, if it is positive, you will be met by a trained medical practitioner at that same location who can give you a prescription for a covid anti-viral drug. This new program allows you to directly bypass the normal medical nonsense that is part and parcel of life in the US.
Here is themap of american locationsfor Test to Treat (test + medical professional) plus additional locations to fill your prescription of Lagevrio (molnupiravir) or Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir / ritonavir) if they cannot fill your prescription at the same site.
When visiting a Test to Treat location, bring a list of your current drugs with you. Both of these medications can interact with some drugs. The medical staff and pharmacist at Test to Treat locations will be able to select the best course of treatment for you if you have your complete list of prescription drugs (or just bring the drug bottles) with you.
Covid anti-viral drugs need to be started during the first 5 days of symptoms so if you or someone in your life has symptoms, look into this. Especially do not delay of you/the person has one or more high risk factors for covid.
Test to Treat
The Biden-Harris Administration launched a new nationwide Test to Treat initiative in March to give individuals an important way to quickly access free lifesaving treatment for COVID-19. Through this program, people are able to get tested and – if they are positive and treatments are appropriate for them – receive a prescription from a health care provider, and have their prescription filled all at one location. These “One-Stop Test to Treat” sites are available at hundreds of locations nationwide, including pharmacy-based clinics, Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA)-supported federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs), and long-term care facilities. People can continue to be tested and treated by their own health care providers who can appropriately prescribe these oral antivirals at locations where the medicines are distributed.
ATest to Treat locator is available to help find participating sites. A call center is also available at 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489) to get help in English, Spanish, and more than 150 other languages – 8:00 am to midnight ET, 7 days a week. The Disability Information and Access Line (DIAL) is also available to specifically help people with disabilities access services. To get help, call 1-888-677-1199, Monday-Friday from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm ET or email [email protected].
This may seem like a meme, but it is real. It’s formatted like this to get people’s attention and be memorable, in the hopes that maybe it saves some lives.
Americans are kept deliberately in the dark about how uniquely terrible their private for-profit healthcare system is compared to international socialized alternatives if they were made more aware that things didn’t have to be like this that their sense of exceptionalism was misplaced and they were suffering for it there would be a lot less tolerance of the status quo.
I had to have an outpatient medical thing last month and without insurance it would’ve been over $10,000. Everyone I told kind of just cringed and said ‘oof yeah that’s healthcare’. Even though I 'only’ had to pay less than $1,000 of it, it baffles me so much how any of this became normal.
People with chronic illnesses, or people recovering from illness or accidents often have outrageous medical bills that they have to pay off. When medical debt is recorded on credit reports it makes it harder to borrow money, buy a home, get a car, etc. All these make it harder to work, live, and pay off the medical debt.
If this doesn’t effect you, congrats, but it is an incredibly important thing for a lot of people.
Now that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and The White House have finalized new nondiscrimination provisions under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, it is more important than ever to know your rights and what to do if you face discrimination.
To better explain what these protections mean, Out2Enroll partnered with trans comic artist, Dylan Edwards, on a series of illustrated discrimination situations.
