Whether or not it passes, a lot of time & effort was involved in introducing this legislation, and I appreciate everything the guy’s trying to do. He could just be bitching about the prices while sitting around on his couch, but no, he bought a god damn suit. ✊🏼
Dream. I have no idea how much I've paid as a type 1 in america for 20+ years. To damn much though! I'm not rich or old enough for a pump and supplies. This country love/hates us like all others opressed by systems.
I don’t know how people can afford this! My fiancé was diagnosed last year as type 1. We just spent $2500 for a 6 month supply of monitors. Needles are $50 for a box of 100. This is all with insurance. I just don’t understand our healthcare system.
Same with Mexico, there are tons of pharmacies along the Mexican border where one can get medicines for much better prices.
I listened to a news story (it was released as a podcast episode on the Latino USA feed on June 1) where a woman was able to buy her son’s insulin pens for $17 per pen instead of the $100+ each in the US.
It’s a system made for them to take your hard earned money for something you require for quality of life and staying alive while they shit back at their $20m vacation home on the beach sipping margaritas
If you’re in the US, grab your insulin syringes on Amazon it’s way cheaper. Easy touch 30g 5/16” is like $15 for 100, and it’s what me and my wife use for twice a week and every other day injections.
Yup! Big pharm and insurance companies need a major reform. They're the cost drivers and thus the reason why anything health related costs ridiculous amounts and doesn't line up to actual true value. Ethics are lost on their policies, but are allowed to continue without question from most political leaders here due to kickbacks and such.
Big America needs a reform, pharma, insurance, the whole political situation we have on capital hill, Wall Street, everyone’s since of entitlement and disregard for our fellow humans.
Bug pharm needs to detonate and go bye bye. I fucking hate living as a type 1 diabetic with no hope for a cure anytime in my life. I do know big pharma would do the most to restrict a cure as much as possible.
My dad is a diabetic. Thankfully he’s had good insurance from his work for the past 20 years, but it’s always scared me that his life was completely dependent on him having a job. It’s pure evil to not make insulin affordable for all
Trump signed it in. Biden wiped it out. It was only affordable for a few wonderful months.
My Dr even tried to get me an extra few months worth while we could, but the pharmacy wouldn't let the Rx go through.
Not so... participation is totally voluntary. My; insurer chooses not to participate. Of the 5 companies in my area that do, the pricing on all my other drugs were so much higher, it was almost a wash.
Oh, that is so scummy. Good for those who only need insulin then I guess, but shees, you Americans never seem to catch a break when it comes to healthcare. I also need a lot of different drugs, but luckily my out of pocket expenses are capped at ~$350 annually (I usually hit that cap in March).
I wish you the best, I hope your future brings a way to reduce the amount of drugs you need :)
The only solution is to eliminate all healthcare costs at the point of care. It should cost zero out of pocket for medical care. For every dollar you “save” by having deductibles and copays, you end up losing $3 or more because of the negative consequences.
$350 annually?? Wow. If you don't mind my asking, where do you live where your drug costs are so low? Unfortunately, our drug costs in the States are outrageously high because of all of the government regulations. If you're don't mind my asking, where do you live where you get such awesome healthcare?
Thanks, too for the well wishes! I wish you the same!
Norway ;) And the price includes anything health related not just drugs. If I at any point have spent more than ~$350 for healthcare, it becomes free of charge for the rest of the year. I have hit that ceiling in January a few times, and everything after that was free. Hospital admittances, surgery or what ever, it would all be free. Even if you don't hit that ceiling, which is possible even if you are admitted to hospital, have surgery and take an ambulance to get there, a single visit to the hospital, regardless of what you have to do, is a flat fee of about ~$18. Drugs is really the biggest cost, but as soon as you hit that ceiling you're done paying for everything.
Jesus man! I’m so sorry! My dad went through a similar ordeal. He suffered a heart attack, uninsured, and had to be life flighted about 40 miles away and the bill for it was a bit over $20k. I think he racked up pretty close to $100k after everything was said and done. My parents ended up having to file for bankruptcy.
It sounds like he made it, but the bankruptcy is horrible.
I have a neighbor in her eighties who racked up around $500,000 in costs for pneumonia some years ago.
I'm not sure how this works, but apparently the medical companies have a lien on her house, and when she dies they will take it and her son will get nothing.
Good grief, how on earth do you cope with that if you're on a low paying job? I hope you're doing well, I truly do.
My favorite story to tell from my mom when she was a nurse, is about an American who was here working who fell ill. He refused to receive any treatment and only wanted to be released from the hospital. According to my mom it was real serious, and doctors and nurses had all tried to convince him to take the treatments. I just said in a throw away sentence "maybe he is afraid of the cost?". She immediately ran to the phone and called her colleagues and told them that they should inform the American that the treatment would be free of charge (all work related illness is free of charge, any employer is mandated to cover expenses like that). They finally got to treat him, and that story will stick with me, I think worrying about economy when your gravely ill is heart wrenching.
Hey dude. Rob from Australia here. Hvørden har du det? Universal healthcare is too communist for Americans but they’ll puke when I can travel to Norway and receive… universal healthcare and Norwegians can travel to Australia and receive… universal healthcare. And twenty other countries haha. Go team.
Please also state how much you pay for your insurance through your salary.
I live in Germany and tried to explain many times on here, that our „free healthcare“ isn’t free at all, we just pay it beforehand and it’s of course better, but not free.
Here it’s 14% of the salary, divided amongst employee and employer.
Of course people realize it’s not “free” but that system is a helluva lot better than what we’ve got going here in the US. I will gladly pay more in taxes if know that everyone gets access to AFFORDABLE healthcare.
Yeah that’s the difference though - it’s not payed through taxes.
We pay taxes, health insurance, care insurance, unemployment insurance.
These are the things you can’t opt out of and where the percentage is the same for everybody by law.
I answered you further down the comment chain but it probably should have been on the actual comment that made the inquiry.
We only pay taxes, it's not split up like you have in Germany. If it is, I've never seen or heard of it in my 37 years on this planet ;) But even if it was a fixed percentage, I'd wager it would be cheaper for the vast majority of people in my country, compared to health insurance in the US. And you also never have to worry about your care being more expensive than the insurance is willing to cover.
Faith in humanity restored? By a man that pushes legislation for an issue he has seen the dire consequences from first hand? Don't get me wrong, he could've done shit all and definitely deserves respect for pushing this issue. But faith restored?
Edit: apparently you're not supposed to critique victories, but this is my take: why not address the actual reason a month supply of insulin can cost $1000 or Covid related hospital bills in Texas can be up to and over $250k. No he chose to not address the actual issue but the one consequence he had been confronted with.
Edit 2: Because I keep getting the same replies a couple more things:
A. Yes it's a win, much more should be done but a win is a win.
B. Respect for the guy pushing such a socialistic bill in Texas.
C. Faith restored just sounds to me like he fixed everything for everyone and in my opinion it's kind of a self-centered bill because it took someone getting diabetes to actually fix it for people in a similar position.
D. I don't expect him to reform the complete healthcare system, but they could've spread this fund state wide over the healthcare system and help everybody that get sick a bit instead of helping a specific group a lot. I don't think people with diabetes don't deserve it, I think everyone does.
Actually, this is why massive bloated bills end up happening that Democrats get chastised for. Instead of us just fixing the health care system, we end up doing all these small patch jobs everywhere that inevitably end up creating more issues then they solve. And so Democrats try to force a bunch of dysfunctional shit into bills instead of the thing that we need to do, and the thing that would solve the problem.
I'm a conservative and totally agree. I was 100% against Obamacare. However, once it was passed the Republicans filled it with poison pills and continued to fight it.
I have an idea. How about we focus more on efficient, good government rather than big vs small.
What are the needs of the people? How can they be best served?
If our politicians spent 1/2 the time they do trying to beat their opponents, actually trying to make things work, good or even great things might happen.
Solution = Term limits/Senior political appointees and national politician banned from lobbying for life. = great constitutional amendment.
This seems to be an American thing. In most countries, including mine, politics revolves more around bilateral relations, budget allocations, immigration and so on. Issues surrounding healthcare shouldn’t even be a conservative vs liberal thing in my opinion because citizens deserve a good life from the taxes they pay just as much as they deserve security from external threats.
You say the most important part of healthcare is looking at the needs of people and how they can be best served, that's a socialistic view, can't get much further from a conservative perspective.
Also your piece of term limits and lobbying is a very progressive perspective, not conservative.
This is why I hate the US political system, not everything should be them against us, blue vs red, you say you're a conservative but bring an progressive and even an socialistic point. Maybe have some purple options in between.
It's not that I've got anything against conservatives but it's just very conflicting with the rest that you said.
All part of the system, it feeds the right wing narrative that government is always bloated and inefficient and we'd be so much better off with no regulation anywhere.
The reality of what exactly?
I’m speaking to the ridiculous practices of health insurance companies fleecing people of their hard earned money. In the US, a cancer diagnosis can bankrupt a family who has health insurance because they didn’t buy “cancer insurance”. That’s the reality and I don’t have to watch the news to know that.
Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress my friend. You’re right but you have to take the good with the bad sometimes. Some people are dumb and change is slow.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that American people will have better access to insulin. But the fact that it needed to be done is absolutely laughably abysmal. Many countries, including 'third world' ones are interested in their citizen not dying. And the land of free and greatest and the most progressive country in the world only cares about money. It's just ironic how shitty US actually is vs how they portray themselves.
USA: "Great news everybody! We have managed to crowdfund through gofundme $500k to save 10 babies from getting shredded in the baby shredding machine!"
Rest of the world: "Have you thought of getting rid of the baby shredding machine? And who needed it in the first place?"
This is US exclusive problem, my grandma died at age 89 with T1 diabetes after taking gov refunded insulin for over 35 years in Poland - post soviet easter European country. Her monthly insulin costs were capped at around $12/month post inflation.
In US pre 1991 the cost insulin was also lower, as explained here:
Yeah we know it is. Because we live it. We don't need you to tell us this. Particularly in such a condescending and flippant manner. This may come as a surprise to you (lol, look at me, saying "may") but we don't actually do this to ourselves for shits and giggles. Read literally anything, anywhere, about the shitshow that is the US electoral system and political lobbying if you think you know so very much about why things are as they are here.
Or don't, and just give up the "teaching grandma to suck eggs" shtick. That would actually be my first choice, come to think of it.
He may have been confronted with it but why shit on the win for humanity as a whole. I’ve been following this issue for a long time and it’s disgusting how they have taken advantage of people for so many years. I saw this post and definitely had some faith in humanity restored. This is a win.
When this is implemented world-wide, then it's a victory for "humanity as a whole". Until then, a few people are being treated as humans, the rest are still being used as capitalist feeding herds.
thats the faith i have, human beings get better after experiencing hardships, so all the wrongs in the world is correcting us and making us better (with a lot of suffering), so yeah, faith restored
To me faith will be restored if people start treating their neighbour like they would like to be treated instead of treating yourself like your neighbour should have been treated all this time.
It's a win, respect for the guy pushing such a socialistic bill through such a conservative state/house, but for me it's too much of self-centred gesture to call it faith restored.
Don’t be so naive. There’s a reason the prices are that high and are staying that high - it’s difficult to fight them. This was a much needed victory and sets precedent for future battles
Naive? Quite the opposite; naive is the person whose faith in humanity is restored from a story that showcases how difficult it is to do something good, and how it usually takes someone with a personal stake in it to care enough to try to do anything. If anything, op is cynical
Wrong. OP was the one who said "awesome" and posted it to r/mademesmile. Whomever you're talking about may not be naive... Or they may be. Or they might just be a very dull edge lord who wants everyone else to be as jaded as they cultivate themselves to appear, instead of putting the energy towards thinking of or saying anything actually constructive. How boring. What an awful life you must live, going around seeing people fighting for drastic personal stakes as anything but deeply human. All medical issues are personal stakes for someone.
What could count as an honorable motivation in your obviously venerable opinion, I almost bother to wonder?
You’re really insistent on this faith thing, damn. Well if it makes you feel any better, I can explain: It’s relatively easy to feel helpless and hopeless when you learn that every politician in power is in it for themselves and not for the people. Therefore, your faith in humanity takes a nosedive. Look at Texas, fo example. The fact that that shit was allowed to go into effect basically killed all hope I had for the states remaining a democracy within the next ten years
But it's like instead of increasing the minimum wage by $1 you increase the wage of only meat plant workers(don't know if they actually earn minimum) by $3.
They deserve it but it doesn't do anything to the actual problem, it's a win, but don't get complacent.
The people criticizing you are abused spouses. Metaphorically speaking. They've been abused by and begged for better from their husband America for so long, that the fact America stopped punching them because America got carpal tunnel seems like an amazing incredible victory. And a sign of better things to come. So for one night at least, there is improvement and the punching stops.
....but then the abuse starts back up when the husband realizes kicking hurts too.
This congressman only went after this issue because it affected him personally. Progress was made and deserves an attaboy, but if that's the only issue he relentlessly pursues, he's a selfish prick. Unless the improvement he's made to the prices of insulin are implemented to all healthcare costs, he's only benefitted himself.
ButtocksRefunder isn't a stick in the mud. He's a sentinel making sure that after a victory lap, we don't all get high off our own farts and pack it in. James Talarico fixed an issue that personally affected him. Now start on the ones that affect OTHERS.
Exactly! To complain that the guy did not fix the entire healthcare system, covid bills, and ER visits is not productive. The complainers are why I get irritated with politics. No matter what, someone always throws another issue at every step on the right direction...what about crime? what about abortion? what about homelessness? Ffs this is huge, acknowledge that.
"ButtocksRefunder isn't a stick in the mud. He's a sentinel making sure that after a victory lap, we don't all get high off our own farts and pack it in."
...no, he's just a stick in the mud, because why would anyone assume that people would just give up after this small victory? People can celebrate this victory as major progress, go to sleep, wake up, and still know that the healthcare industry still needs radical reform. He's not a savior helping guide a social movement. This is a reddit comment section where he was a buzzkill. That's it.
Love this metaphor, unless you're running 5k in 5 minutes don't get complacent. 5 minutes is more than most people will run so respect and applause to you. But no need for victories laps and a celebratory beer yet(maybe a small one and a sip) because you haven't reached your goal.
Thanks, I had similar feelings about this
Hope he pushes just as hard for fair pricing for other drugs which should be affordable, for ailments he hasn't had personal experience with.
i mean 1 man manages to pass it when 100m dont vote and 60+% of those under 35 dont vote.
like lol i always find it funny that so many keep blaming government when government is actually reflecting the voters.
when 30% votes for healthcare and 30% votes against healthcare and 40% don't vote, it doesn't become a 50/50 vote.
it becomes a 30/60 vote. the people who don't give a shit to vote, guess what they don't go away they go with the against vote.
also ps: democrats are not a monolith, too many people keep going why arent the dems fixing everything, why not? because 100m eligible voters sat on their asses again. because 60% of those under 35 sat on their asses again. meanwhile 70% of those over 50 voted so what's happening oh look policies directed at elderly what a fucking shock. there are 38 progressive democratic senators, 10 conservative and 2 corporate shills. they do not agree or represent the same demographics. The democratic party is now representative of far left, left, left center, center, center right and some right, vs republicans who now represent right and far right. one party represents the whole fucking political spectrum and people demand they vote the same as a monolith and get upset when conservative democrats do not want to support far left progressive policies. Want far left progressive policies? guess what you gotta vote for them. 100m eligible voters sat on their ass after watching 400k dead americans die from a moron in chief who kept downplaying the virus and didnt even bother to prepare anything to help rollout vaccines.
Yeah, honestly fuck that guy for.. making a positive and realistic change in our government instead of fixing literally everything wrong with it at once?
This is probably gonna blow your mind but it’s a lot easier to legislate the cost of insulin than it is to fix whatever larger problems you vaguely hint at, and saves a lot of people a lot of money. But go ahead, be a wet blanket
it still a step in the right direction. its easier to push for caped prices than for acutal free healthcare, and its easier to get that to pass.
i bet he is also supporting free health care. you are throwing away a win becasue it didnt solve every problem at once. learn the concept of baby steps, and celebrate the victory
I’m happy for the future beneficiaries of that cap. A friend dear to my heart who lived in TX died due to not being able to afford insulin. It’s so shitty that we have to write legislature so that people can not die of treatable illnesses.
Very close. What I think is going to happen is he will win the next election, obviously, and then a year in he will gift his seat to his grandson.
As long as Mitch McConnell tells him it’s OK. Because that’s who he follows.
All of them. Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, right, left, I don't give a fuck. None of them should have a career in high level politics, it should be a fairly limited position.
No matter how morally good someone is when they're getting into it, after 30 years the people they represent will just be numbers on a stat sheet, and they'll behave like it too. Have your stint in Congress, then fuck off and make a career as a town mayor if you insist on staying in politics.
Yeah, we have term limits. They're called elections. The only trouble is that elections aren't fair, due to gerrymandering and racial programming. If you think having new people, who know shit, coming into congress every two terms is a good idea, then I'd like to introduce you to the Heritage foundation, happy to help, with ready made legislation. Because why do all that work when you can just give us what we want and not bother.
Also, Bernie. So, thank you for not voting term limits seekers.
the Biden administration re-enacted the same travel ban the Trump administration had issued a year earlier
Interesting. Could you elaborate with a source? I want to know if it's true, and if it's true, I want to use it in debate. But I don't use anything unless it's verifiable fact.
This. Term limits are nice in theory, but if we don't fix gerrymandering then instead of one terrible politician that doesn't give a shit about their constituents holding office for 40 years, you'll just get a string of terrible politicians who don't give a shit.
You know that’s weird. We think term limits would help improve the situation. But there have been studies and it appears that would quite possibly make the situation worse, because they have a limited time to pass what they want, and they disregard their constituents more because they are trying to get done what they want, and fuck their voters. We see this already even without term limits.
But at the same time, we have to do something to stop the career politicians
depends on the way they're done. California has them, and they're set up so that a tiny fraction of voters can call one, and potentially win one with a crazy ass candidate that can't get half as many votes as the loser did last election. For evidence, see the recall that just ended.
Yeah I really don't get the term limits thing Americans keep touting. Most of the more functional democracies don't need them. It seems like a smokescreen to not clamour for more effective change
It's a well funded campaign of misinformation put out by monied interests that want something that sounds good, but really would empower them more in their leverage against politicians. If americans wanted term limits, we have them, they're called election. If we want them fairer, we need to eliminate gerrymandering and racial discrimination in the vote, oh, and get outside money out of politics so campaigns are publicly funded. THAT is the effective change, not this gimmick that just makes pols free to fuck the public because hell i'm out in four years anyway and don't wanna bother learning how to do this complex work called legislating.
... you do realize how many bills in the Trump administration were filibustered by the Democrats right? Hundreds of them, wonder what would have happened if they didn’t have the ability to filibuster at that time? I certainly would have been upset with some of the bills being passed.
So you are telling me you are ok with getting rid of the filibuster RIGHT before some midterm elections that could swing the house and senate the other way?!? So that then they (the republicans) could pass whatever they had the votes for?
At first I doubted this, because this is America and the best interest of the public will never win, then I saw it was only in one (shitstain of a) state and realized it was a temporary win that they gave this dude, which will be crushed by the Pharma lobby on a national scale shortly.
This is too good to be true in America. What do you think we are, any other country which prioritizes its citizens over corporate gains?
It's a cap on state regulated insurance prices, meaning insurance should be eating the cost. What that typically means is that they'll get the manufacturers to sell to their coverees cheaper which will put some pressure on them from other insurances to lower prices for everyone in an effort to keep diabetics who can from jumping to a different insurance.
Another person trying to be funny instead of answering the question. How original.
Never been to Texas or anywhere near it, hence why I'm asking. Can not believe how hard it is to ask a simple question on reddit without smartass replies.
T Governor of Texas has passed strict anti-abortion laws and just recently passed a law prohibiting vaccine mandates. The current government of Texas is why many people are calling it a shitstain of a state.
Listen man, I totally hear where you are coming from and I appreciate you taking the time to type this. But imma keep it real with you, it's really hard to take you seriously when you are very clearly so emotionally invested.
Using language like
"They also decided to kill thousands of people"
"The governor just today decided to kill a potentially unbounded number of people"
Is 100% disingenuous. You are saying it like the governor is a mass murderer sitting in his officer planning on how he can kill thousands of people by making "energy more expensive"
Like I mean without sounding like a dick dude, you sound delusional. Sure the governor might not be making the best decisions, but to say he "decided to kill thousands of people" is just delusional.
If things are that bad, you can just state what they are. If they are that bad, you don't need to pad it with "the governor decided to kill thousands of people" to try to pull an emotional investment.
Also saying things like "This on top of all the other downright fascist things the state continues to do to fuck over and kill people of color." means literally nothing to me if you don't provide an example of what you are talking about, that is the whole point of my question was to understand what makes the state actually bad, and throwing out statements like that does literally nothing if you dont have an example.
Once again man I totally hear where you are coming from, I am not dismissing your points in anyway and I appreciate you taking the time to give me an actual response, but I am just letting you know for future reference, you should avoid being so emotionally attached if you are actually trying to convince people of anything.
dude it’s literally just one bill that says you have 6 weeks or so to get an abortion. It’s a shitty move by the governor but there ain’t much we can do. even then, if you don’t want children just use contraceptives
Question as a non american: This law is only active in Texas now but in other states you need to pay much more?
In how many states Insulin is cheap accessable and in how many its not?
I try to unterstand if Texas is the first one or not.
A type of insulin is cheap in every state. But that type is difficult to use and if used incorrectly can be dangerous. Typically comes in a vial and you have draw up some amount into a syringe. This involves calculating how much you need from your blood sugar level and what you’re eating, then manually drawing it up. The expensive types of insulin are designed to be longer acting with injectable pens to simulate the basal/bolus physiology of a functional pancreas.
Good news although $50 a month for some people is still very very hard. It should actually be free but the government doesn’t give freebies unless you’re a billionaire.
Texas frequently does stuff right. It's just that it periodically (read: 2-3x per cycle) does things very very wrong, and those things get most of the press
This doesn't make me smile. It makes me angry that he had to go to those lengths to do what the government should have already done decades ago. The government should be there to look after it citizens that vote, not the corporate citizens that give them cash to be re-elected.
I get you, but here's another way to look at it: citizens getting up and doing something to fix a problem is the essence of a functioning democracy.
Our government isn't some faraway, benevolent dictatorship. It's people like you and me. And some of those people -- perhaps more than we appreciate -- are in it to make the world a better place.
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u/VesuvianVillain Oct 12 '21
Whether or not it passes, a lot of time & effort was involved in introducing this legislation, and I appreciate everything the guy’s trying to do. He could just be bitching about the prices while sitting around on his couch, but no, he bought a god damn suit. ✊🏼