RFK Jr. Weighs Major Changes to how Medicare pays Physicians

The move from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would allow Medicaid and Medicare to cover access to drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy or Zepbound, and could cost taxpayers up to $35 billion over the next decade.

Mr Kennedy has continually railed against the medication and has said it should not be covered by government-funded programs.

“For half the price of Ozempic, we could purchase regeneratively raised, organic food for every American, three meals a day and a gym membership, for every obese American,” Mr Kennedy said earlier this year.

Dunno if the 50% is true but shouldn’t diet & exercise be the first response to a metabolic disorders?

USians have demonstrated, over the decades, the one thing that is out of bounds, is making them change some aspect of their life. Remember that short lived dalliance with the metric system in the late 70s?

Steve

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You have to protect the drug company JCs! :innocent:

The Captain

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Now that is some funny stuff! Have him start by making the future POTUS demonstrate that for all of us so we know it works first. :slight_smile:

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They did not include RFK jr on the “Austerity” memo. He does not know budget cutting is happening. His scientific mind "as a lawyer’ is not thriving.

They cut his budget another 90% or more after tariffs start to impact the economy. He will be unable to buy vegan whole wheat bread WITHOUT the nuts.

The USA has had multiple dalliances with the metric system. Namely after a big war: Revolution, Civil, and WWI and various excuses over rode the change.

Funny aside, every time I do a big woodworking project with my FIL, I keep saying we are going to change to metric. Inevitably we wind up having to divide 3 5/8 inches into 3rds or 4ths and metric would be way easier.

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Logic never seems to penetrate the USian mind.

Ever watch “Junkyard Wars” originally titled “Scrapheap Challenge” in the UK? I noticed, watching the teams building their projects, when the team members were in their 60s, they tended to work in Imperial units. When the team members were in their 20s or 30s, they worked in metric units.

The UK could both abandon Shillings and Pence, and the Imperial weights and measures, but not the US.

Steve

You could always choose to divide 3.625 inches into 3rds or 4ths instead. Offhand, that should be the same level of math difficulty as 3.625 centimeters.

—Peter <== being difficult today.

Canada’s transition to the metric system almost caused a fatal aviation accident. Wrong amount of fuel loaded. The safe landing was quite spectacular as told by Mentour Pilot.

The Captain

Yup. Tim reminded us of that one, several years ago. But, if the US had kept on it’s course of 1980, it would all be ancient history now. and the young’un would have no more idea than “Ace”, Dr Who’s companion in the late 80s. In one ep, they went back to the early 60s, where she declared the pence and shilling system “impossible”.

Steve

My dad was a mechanic, and he hated the dual (both metric and imperial) system. He was always picking up the wrong tool or the wrong nut. We would really be better off just biting the bullet and changing.

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I was going to do something on my 2002 Ford Escort. I dusted off the long-disused SAE socket set. Nothing fit. Either too large or too small. Pulled out the metric set: 10mm fit perfectly. Even though the US is “officially” a weight and measure luddite, the automakers don’t care, as they source parts globally.

Steve

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I had one post flagged and hidden. Ever. Well, since the mid 90s when I joined Motley Fool while they were still at AOL. That was sometime two weeks ago. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was, but someone had already replied to part of it, so I simply copied and pasted that part and posted it again.