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healthcare

Saturday 24th of October 2026

2016 Presidential election What the geographic numbers do show is that the specific subset of Mr Trump's voters that won him the election – those in counties where he outperformed Mr Romney by large margins – live in communities that are literally dying. Even if Mr Trump's policies are unlikely to alleviate their plight, it is not hard to understand why they voted for change. Economist, November 19, 2016, commenting on the fact that an index of public-health statistics pertaining to life expectancy and the prevalence of diabetes, heavy drinking and obesity is an even better predictor of a county's change from 2012 to 2016 in the share of eligible voters that voted Republican than the % of non-college whites © 2016 Kwiple.com
American exceptionalism No guaranteed paid parental or sick leave © 2015 Kwiple.com
Bad news Constant repetition of the bullshit that “the majority of Americans oppose Obamacare” when only 37% oppose it outright and 58% either strongly support it or oppose it for failing to create a “Medicare for all” system based on data from The Washington Spectator, January 1, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Bullshit The President's physical exam today at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center went exceptionally well. The President is in excellent health and I look forward to briefing some of the details on Tuesday. Dr. Ronnie Jackson Statement released by the White House on January 12, 2018, following Trump's first physical exam since taking office, purportedly written by his doctor, Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, whose first name is misspelled  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Bullshitters say In a word, we're going to make the best healthcare system in the world even better. Mike Pence, pushing the widely-despised Ryancare, a.k.a. American Health Care Act © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers 1 in 6 hospital beds in this country is now in a facility that abides by Catholic restrictions on care ACLU, “Health Care Denied” © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers As many as 24 million Americans risk losing health coverage over the next decade under the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said on Monday. … An estimated 52 million people would be uninsured in 2026, compared with the 28 million who would lack insurance that year under the current law, according to the report. The Guardian, March 13, 2014 © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Average number of hours by which an hour of running increases one's life span: 7 Harper's Index, July 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Estimated number of emergency room visits last year attributed to adverse effects of sexual-enhancement supplements: 610 Harper's Index, January 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Number of countries worldwide with maternal death rates lower than that of the United States: 76 Harper's Index, August 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Perentage by which the average response time of privately run ambulances exceeds that of publicly run ambulances: 55 Harper's Index, October 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers  Perentage change in the length of time someone can withstand pain if they use profanity: +34 Harper's Index, November 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Percentage of worldwide vaccine-preventable mumps cases last year that occurred in the United States: 95 In Canada: 0.3 Harper's Index, July 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers Portion of Americans who believe that people can be supernaturally healed: 2/3 Who claim to have experienced such healing personally: 1/4 Harper's Index, December 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
By the numbers The UK Competition and Markets Authority said the company [Actavis], owned by Teva, the world largest generic drugmaker by volume, had hiked the price of the [hydrocortisone] tablets by more than 12,000 percent since 2008, from 70p to £88. Financial Times, December 19, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
COVID-19 coronavirus An internet joke proposed that the only way to find out whether you had the virus was to sneeze in a rich person’s face. George Packer, The Atlantic, June 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say Nobody knew health care could be so complicated. Donald Trump © 2017 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say Now think about it. Before COVID did anyone go out and seek testing to determine if they were sick? It's usually you feel like you're sick and you get tested to determine what you maybe have come down with. Ron DeSantis, who either never heard of preventive healthcare or doesn't believe in it © 2022 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say Over 70% of Americans who died with COVID, died on Medicare, and some people want #MedicareForAll ? Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), 1:00 AM – Feb 9, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say The Republican Party will become “the Party of Healthcare!” Donald Trump, 9:58 AM – 26 Mar 2019, after having having announced his plan to to use the courts to overturn Obamacare in its entirety and to deprive tens of millions of Americans of healthcare insurance © 2019 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in! Donald Trump, 10:17 PM - 17 Jul 2017, either unaware or not caring that repealing without replacing Obamacare is likely to raise premiums by 50% and result in 32 million people losing coverage – 10 million more than by repealing it and replacing it with either GOP-concocted Trumpcare bill, which GOP senators killed rather than pass into law © 2017 Kwiple.com
Death One of the biggest worldwide public health triumphs in recent years has been maternal mortality. Global death rates fell by more than a third from 2000 to 2015. The United States, however, is one of the few countries in the world that have gone against the grain, new data show. Its maternal mortality rate has risen despite improvements in health care and an overwhelming global trend in the other direction. New York Times, September 22, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Death Mortality rates in recent years have been increasing for all whites, in contrast to decreases in the rest of the world. At the same time, it is worth noting that mortality rates for African Americans remain higher than for whites. Adverse economics is bad for health, regardless of race. Joseph Stiglitz, People, Power and Profits © 2019 Kwiple.com
Doctors Doctors, then, have behaved like a classic political interest group, and they've been very successful. They are now more likely to be in the top one per cent of earners than members of any other industry. James Surowiecki, New Yorker, December 19 & 26, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Gun lobbyists say Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control. Most upsetting, however, the medical community seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves. NRA, 11:43 AM – 7 Nov 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Healthcare B83 and W76-2 are not vitamins. Avoid using them. © 2022 Kwiple.com
Healthcare – Cost of iPhone: $399 – Cost of healthcare for 1 year: $10,345 – Hearing @jasoninthehouse compare the 2 as if they are the same: priceless Gavin Newson, @GavinNewsom, 7 Mar 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Healthcare Every time you are seen by a doctor or a nurse, every time a test is run, the algorithms of the hospital duel with the algorithms of the insurance company to see who will make how much money. Timothy Snyder, Malady © 2021 Kwiple.com
Healthcare House Republicans make healthcare great again by passing Trumpcare bill offering two options: Go broke   OR   Go without May 4, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Healthcare “I am lucky I can get my teeth looked at because I'm dating a dental hygienist. But” — here he showed me his white-toothed grin — “I can't date a dental hygienist and  a cardiologist.” A childhood friend who lives paycheck to paycheck, quoted by Atul Gawande in  The New Yorker, October 10, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Healthcare It has become something of a convenience to refer to the whole endeavor as the "Health Industry." This provides the illusion that it is in a general way all one thing, and that it turns out, on demand, a single, unambiguous product, which is health. Thus, health care has become  the new name for medicine. Health-care delivery is what doctors now do, along with hospitals and other professionals who work with doctors, now known collectively as the health providers. The patients have become health consumers. …  the government has officially invented new insti-  tutions called Health Maintenance Organizations … spreading across the country like post offices, ready to distribute in neat packages, as though from a huge newly stocked inventory, health. Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell © 2022 Kwiple.com
Healthcare It was in his self-neglect, rather than his hostility, that my father found common cause with the tens of millions of American patients who collectively hobble our health-care system. … Could the problem with with the American health-care system lie not only with the American system but with American patients? David Freedman, The Atlantic, July 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Healthcare Last year, the share of physicians who work as employees surpassed the portion that owns their practice for the first time, according to the AMA. Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Healthcare Now, the effects of Covid and the promise of more federal spending on health are fuelling investor interest in areas such as psychiatry practices, home healthcare and even hospice care. Dangers lie ahead. “Think about how private equity will make money in something like hospice,” says [Eileen] Appelbaum [of the Center for Economic and Policy Research]. “They'll cut the seasoned staff trained to help families understand and cope with the process of dying, and hire people who might be able to help clean the house.” Welcome to healthcare, American style. Rana Foroohar, Financial Times, April 10, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Healthcare Obamacare will be replaced with a MUCH better, and FAR cheaper, alternative if it is terminated in the Supreme Court. Would be a big WIN for the USA! Donald Trump, 10:09 AM – Sep 27, 2020, instructing Amy Coney Barrett and sitting Republican justices on the Court to kill Obamacare during a pandemic and in a transition period between administrations  © 2020 Kwiple.com
Healthcare – One recent study shows that, between 1970 and 2016, the earnings that laborers received fell twenty-one per cent. But their total compensation, taken to in- clude the cost of their benefits (in particu- lar, health care), rose sixty-eight per cent. Increases in health-care costs have devoured take-home pay for those below median income. At the same time, the system practically begs employers to reduce the number of less skilled workers they hire, by outsoourcing or automating their positions. Atul Gawande, New Yorker, March 16, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Healthcare Only 24 million will lose insurance? Only 52 million will be uninsured? That's not enough, God dammit!  Republican Party House Freedom to Die Caucus Justin Amash (MI) Jeff Duncan (SC) Alex Mooney (WV) Brian Babin TX) Trent Franks (AZ) Gary Palmer (AL) Rod Blum (IA) Tom Garrett, Jr. (AZ) Steve Pearce (NM) Dave Brat (VA) Paul Gosar (AZ) Scott Perry (PA) Jim Bridenstine (OK) Morgan Griffith (VA) Ted Poe (TX) Mo Brooks (AL) Andy Harris (MD) Bill Posey (FL) Ken Buck (CO) Jody Hice (GA) Mark Sanford (SC) Warren Davidson (OH) Jim Jordan (OH) Dave Schweikert (AZ) Ron DeSantis (FL) Raul Labrador (ID) Randy Weber (TX) Scott DesJarlais (TN) Thomas Massie (KY) Ted Yoho (FL) Mark Meadows (NC) © 2017 Kwiple.com
Healthcare Opposing healthcare because you suspect it helps the underserving is like pushing smeone off a cliff and then jumping yourself, thinking that your fall will be cushioned by the corpse of the person you murdered. Timothy Snyder, Malady © 2021 Kwiple.com
Healthcare So maybe rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest in their own health care. Jason Chaffetz, who believes iPhones and healthcare cost the same © 2017 Kwiple.com
Healthcare Then the agreement collapsed. Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff, insisted the drugmakers pay for $100 cash cards that would be mailed to  seniors before November – “Trump Cards,” some in the industry called them. Some of the drugmakers bridled at being  party to what they feared would be seen as  an 11th-hour political boost for Mr. Trump, the people familiar with the matter said. New York Times, September 18, 2020, on why attempts to make a deal with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices failed  © 2020 Kwiple.com
Healthcare Trump says Obamacare will be terminated after November poll Headline, print edition, Financial Times, September 28, 2020 [Headline in the online edition was, Trump raises prospect of Supreme Court striking down health law] © 2017 Kwiple.com
Healthcare We're not going to make an American do what they don't want to do. You get it [healthcare] if you want it. That's freedom. Paul Ryan, promoting Trumpcare's promise to poor people of their freedom to be uninsured and to die from preventable conditions, and its promise to rich people of their freedom to use tax savings to take yet another vacation © 2017 Kwiple.com
Healthcare We will probably have an AI family doctor on our smartphone years before we have a reliable nurse robot. Yuval Noah Harari, Nature, October 19, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Healthcare You have better healthcare than we do. Donald Trump to Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia, which has government-funded healthcare for all Australians and permanent residents, just hours after House Republicans repealed parts of Obamacare, which Trump called for during his campaign © 2017 Kwiple.com
Healthcare You have every provision of this bill tattooed on your forehead. You will glow in the dark on this one.  Nancy Pelosi, to House Republicans, on passing their Trumpcare bill, May 4, 2017  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Housing If you have a windmill anywhere near your home, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer. Donald Trump © 2019 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Extend Medicare to all citizens © 2016 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Implement universal health care by expanding Medicare into Medicare-for-all with no deductibles and copays and funded by a payroll tax like Social Security © 2018 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Legalize shopping at foreign pharmacies for branded and generic drugs © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Prohibit drug companies from  paying doctors to prescribe their drugs © 2017 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Require all hospitals receiving federal funds or funding to provide free abortions on demand © 2016 Kwiple.com
Liars say Republicans will totally protect people with Pre-Existing Conditions, Democrats will not! Vote Republican. Donald Trump, 5:45 AM – 24 Oct 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Mental health “I've been a big supporter of mental health,” Biden said at a Friday campaign event in Delaware, as first reported by Politico. “I'd recommend the people who believe it maybe should take advantage, while it still exists, of the Affordable Care Act.” Joe Biden on QAnon believers, Business Insider, September 6, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Moderate Republicans say Deeply cutting spending on healthcare after four years instead of three is change I believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Performative fundraising is a prism through which to understand not only the GOP activity during the impeachment hearings but also the Republicans' Benghazi hearings and the end- less posturing around repealing Obamacare. It's not about achieving policy goals as much as energizing the base and separating them from their cash. Performative fundraising favors simplistic narratives, melodramatic rhetoric, an implacable enemy, and rote phrases to crowd out reasoned debate. Snippets of the act become fundraising pitches. Facebook microtargeting and e-mail lists ensure that pitches reach conservative retirees, especially in sunbelt states like Florida, California and Texas. Jake Bernstein, New York Review of Books, April 23, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Pain Drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone, they treat all kinds of pain. The pain of being a single mom looking after a kid. The pain of that person who who doesn't have a job. The pain of, I'm 20 years old, nobody cares. The pain of being bullied. The pain of I'm gay. It treats all of those pains. It's more about this social angst of there are no jobs. The economy's crushed. This is a state that's been marginalized in so many ways. Drugs are a solution to that. A Petersburg, West Virginia, doctor jailed for illegally prescribing pain killers, quoted in The Guardian, June 19, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Profiles in courage Of the 217 Republicans who voted for the [Trumpcare] plan, just 14 will hold town halls during the recess, according to the schedule of events compiled by TownHallProject.com. The Guardian, May 9, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Psychopaths say Beneficiaries of life-saving drugs should pay what the drugs are worth to them © 2015 Kwiple.com
Reich wingers say You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo — the IRS. Paul LePage, Republican Governor of Maine © 2015 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Allowing insurance companies to charge higher fees to people with trauma from sexual assault is change we believe in  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Blocking women on Medicaid from using their insurance at Planned Parenthood is change we believe in  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Eliminating funding for the Childen's Health Insurance Program is change we believe in. After all, why should we pay for their kids' healthcare? © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Get people working and make them happier by denying them Medicaid  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Healthcare is a privilege, not a right © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say  Healthcare is a product like any other, to be sold only to those who can afford it © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say If you can't afford health insurance, go gentle into that good night, invite the dying of the light, and do so out of sight, for our delight © 2015 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Imposing the “global gag rule” that prohibits any USAid funding going to NGOs that fail to certify they will not use funds from any source whatsoever to perform or even mention abortions anywhere in the world, is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Intellectual and developmental disabilities are pre-existing conditions  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Letting insurance companies sell health plans that don't cover “essential health benefits” is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say The poor must suffer disease that the rich may flourish © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say  Privatize the Veterans Administration — There's millions to be made caring for vets © 2018 Kwiple.com
Republicans say [knowing the bill will be vetoed] Repeal Obamacare … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again … again  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say [knowing the bill would pass into law] Repeal Obamacare? Are you kidding? We were.  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Sacrifice public education, health care and infrastructure on the altars of military spending and tax cuts for corporations and the rich  © 2018 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Sacrifice women on the altar of their unborn © 2015 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Sacrificing your healthcare to give tax cuts to rich people is change we believe in © 2017 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Terrorize doctors who perform abortions © 2015 Kwiple.com
Republicans say Wealthcare, not heallthcare © 2015 Kwiple.com
Resisters say Got the plague? Me neither Thanks science  Placard, Amsterdam Science March, Earth Day, April 22, 2017  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Resisters say That took some ovaries! Placard, Bangor, Maine, July 28, 2017, airport welcome of Senator Susan Collins after she voted against all three Republican attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Resisters say Trumpcare kills Placard, New York City Women's March, January 21, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Resisters say Viagra is gov't funded ($41.6 mil/yr) If pregnancy is GOD'S WILL so is LIMP DICK  Placard, New York City International Women's Day March, March 8, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Rural America [T]he assault on the safety net is espe- cially harmful to rural America, which relies heavily on safety-net programs. Of the 100 counties with the highest percentage of their population receiving food stamps, 85 are rural, and most of the rest are in small metropolitan areas. The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which Trump keeps trying to kill, had its biggest positive impact on rural areas. Paul Krugman, New York Times, May 9, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Rural America From 2010 to 2020, more than 130 of the 1,800 rural hospitals in America went out of business. At the start of 2020, almost half of the rest were at “high risk”  of closure, according to the nonprofit Center  for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. The situation grew even worse as the pandemic diminished the frequency of money-making elective surgeries and a growing demand for health-care workers caused hospital payrolls to soar. Many hospitals were kept open only by infusions of federal money. BloombergBusinesswork, January 28, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Rural America Over the past decades, 128 rural hospitals shut down as a result of financial pressure and 400 more were at risk of closing before the coronavirus pandemic, according to to the National Rural Health Association. Rural areas have 20% of the U.S. population and 9% of physicians, the group said. Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Rural America Since 2010 the amount of bad debt at rural hospitals has jumped 50%, according to the National Rural Health Association. It sets a vicious cycle in motion:  A depressed economy leads to unpaid bills; unpaid bills lead to hospital closures; the closures strip the local economy of higher-wage jobs; and the economy gets more depressed.  The National Institutes of Health estimates that when a rural hospital closes, per capita income in the surrounding county dips an average of 4%. BloombergBusinesswork, January 28, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Selfie I'm a germaphobe … There's no way I would let people pee on each other around me. No way. Donald Trump © 2018 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Health is priceless © 2015 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Obamacare is really I think the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery. Ben Carson © 2015 Kwiple.com
Snapshot He's huge. He's so unattractive. It's unbelievable. Brent Farenthold, portrayed by Susan Collins, who Farenthold said he'd challenge to a duel if she were man because she voted against repealing Obamacare © 2017 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest The American Action Network PAC suffers premature congratulation running television ads celebrating Republicans who repealed Obamacare © 2017 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest Gun owners say they add silencers to their guns to reduce damage to their ears  © 2016 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest The Oral B Genius 9000, a smart toothbrush that uses your phone to watch you brush and congratulates you on your brushing if it's impressed © 2016 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest People having lip surgery to look better in their selfies © 2016 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest Saying, “Nobody lives forever anyway,” Republicans, led by Paul Ryan, propose eliminating healthcare for the elderly, the poor and the sick An alternative fact [they proposed making it unaffordable  by anyone except the healthy wealthy, who'll get a big tax break to stay such]  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say I can't tell you how excited and enthusiastic folks are about the United States leadership as it relates to global health security. Tom Price, after returning from health summit meetings in Europe © 2018 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say I saw how easy it would be, as a parent, to accept the idea that my children deserve healthcare and education.  Virginia Kruta, associate editor of Daily Caller, a conservative news and opinion website, telling viewers of Fox and Friends how horrified she was by what she heard at a Democratic rally in St. Louis featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who advocated Medicare for all © 2018 Kwiple.com
Ukraine War There is no doubt that attacks on healthcare are central to the Russian military’s way of waging war. On February 24, the first day of the invasion, Russian forces hit three hospitals. Since then, attacks have damaged more than six hundred others, according to Ukraine's health ministry. Annie Sparrow, Financial Times, July 5, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Veterans The vast majority of traumatized vets … return from wars that are safer than those that their fathers and grandfathers fought, and yet far greater numbers of them wind up alienated and depressed. This is true even for people who didn't experience combat.  In other words, the problem doesn't seem to be trauma on the battlefield as much as reentry into society. And vets are not alone in this. It's common knowledge in the Peace Corps that as stressful as life in a developing country can be, returning to a modern country can be far harder. Sebastian Junger, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging © 2016 Kwiple.com
Vietnam War You know, if you're young, and in this era, and if you have any guilt about not having gone to Vietnam, we have our own Vietnam – it's called the dating game. Dating is like being in Vietnam. You're the equivalent of a soldier going over to Vietnam. Donald Trump, on avoiding VD in the era of AIDS © 2019 Kwiple.com
 
Wealth inequality One of the signers [of an August 2019 Business Roundtable statement proclaiming a “fundamental commitment to all  our stakeholders”] was Jeff Bezos, the multi-billionaire CEO  of Amazon and its Whole Foods subsidiary.  Just weeks after the statement appeared, Whole Foods announced it would be cutting medical benefits for its entire part-time workforce — at a total annual savings of what Bezos himself made in just two hours. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com