U.S. running out of $ vs. CV-19

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/29/opinion/covid-funding-ame…

**America Is Running Out of Money to Fight Covid**
**The New York Times, March 29, 2022**
**By Vivek H. Murthy and David A. Kessler**

**Dr. Murthy is the U.S. surgeon general. Dr. Kessler is the chief science officer for the U.S. Covid-19 Response Team.**

**...**
**The federal government is running out of funds to provide Americans, especially those who are uninsured, with Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. Our efforts to sustain other critical elements of the public health response, from Covid-19 surveillance to the global vaccination campaign, are also now at risk.**

**If adequate funding is provided, our country will be in a position of strength, well situated to manage Covid-19 and to adapt our response as future variants emerge. If the funding does not materialize, we will find ourselves in a far weaker position, struggling to keep up with a constantly evolving virus that will continue to threaten our health, our economy and our peace of mind...**

**When it comes to funding, timing matters. Manufacturers cannot turn the production of vaccines, treatments and tests on and off like a switch. Purchases have to be made months in advance if we want supplies to be available when we need them....** [end quote]

The rest of the article details what we all know: Covid-19 continues to mutate and will return. Without government funding, the many quickly-developed anti-virus functions, from environmental testing to home tests to vaccination to treatments, will not be available. This will especially target the uninsured and poor.

This has Macroeconomic impact because the work force is directly impacted.

I hope that Congress gets its butt in gear and allocates the needed funds. We may be tired of Covid-19 but it is not tired of infecting us.

Wendy

3 Likes

The federal government is running out of funds to provide Americans, especially those who are uninsured, with Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments.

The Federal Gov’t has wasted money in a big way by not making treatment for Covid only payable to those who where vaccinated, once vaccines were available, or could show defined reasons for lack of vaccination. This would have been a stronger encouragement to get the vaccine. Free testing and vaccines? Great. Treatment is on you if you chose to ignore the free vaccine.

Instead, you have cases like my niece’s family, which after refusing to get the vaccine and flaunting mask usage by wearing it on their chin, got Covid when great niece came down with an asymptomatic case and infected the whole family. Resulted in 6 weeks in the ICU for the husband, and a miserable drawn out death, but not one cent in payment required. Instead the life insurance distribution went to buying a couple of condos in FL for the vacation rental market. Their church based “health insurance” was not considered insurance by the hospital, so their lawyer told them the gov’t would pick up the full tab and they were to ignore the bills. No doubt that was the intent of the law, right?

So much wasted money by this gov’t. It’s like expecting a trust fund baby, who has never known anything but an endless supply of funds to throw at whatever they please, to figure out how to live within a budget. There needs to be accountability.

IP

27 Likes

<The Federal Gov’t has wasted money in a big way by not making treatment for Covid only payable to those who where vaccinated, once vaccines were available, or could show defined reasons for lack of vaccination. This would have been a stronger encouragement to get the vaccine. Free testing and vaccines? Great. Treatment is on you if you chose to ignore the free vaccine.>

I completely agree with you.

I’d take it a step further. Anyone who is not vaccinated (without a medical reason) and hospitalized with Covid-19 should be sent home if a patient with a non-Covid illness needs the bed. People have died from heart attacks because Covid patients were clogging the ICU.

Wendy

15 Likes

WendyBG suggests,

show defined reasons for lack of vaccination. This would have been a stronger encouragement to get the vaccine. Free testing and vaccines? Great. Treatment is on you if you chose to ignore the free vaccine.>

I completely agree with you.

I’d take it a step further. Anyone who is not vaccinated (without a medical reason) and hospitalized with Covid-19 should be sent home if a patient with a non-Covid illness needs the bed. People have died from heart attacks because Covid patients were clogging the ICU.

This really is the kind of thinking that makes US health care twice as expensive for much poorer results. Nations that just cover everyone through taxation pay much less for healthcare, live longer, and spend less time on the phone with their for-profit health insurer trying to get the health coverage they’ve paid for. It’s like we’re willing to pay extra just to insure that our “lessors” are screwed even more. It makes no economic sense.

It’s just like Lyndon Johnson said,

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/opinion/trump-immigration…

As President Lyndon B. Johnson said in the 1960s to a young Bill Moyers: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

intercst

6 Likes

intercst: "This really is the kind of thinking that makes US health care twice as expensive for much poorer results. Nations that just cover everyone through taxation pay much less for healthcare, live longer, and spend less time on the phone "


Of course, EVERYONE pays for it. Whether the lawn guy making $11/hour or the engineer making $150K/yr. (Canada being the exception where the ‘poor’ pay only a bit).

10% additional ‘social tax’ on paychecks. And paychecks aren’t any bigger since employers also pay 10-15% for social taxes.

Everything you go to buy is 22% more expensive with VAT. 11% in most countries on food. No sales tax but would you rather pay 6% sales tax or 22% VAT? Yeah. New cars - well 22% more. Cars are already out of sight. Oh, of course, that 22% VAT also on used cars and other stuff.

And even the little guy pays it. Now, heck, here, if you are low low income, and file taxes (!) , you pay your SS tax, but you get back ‘earned income credits’ likely to be more than that. Plus food stamps, housing allowances - Sec 8, ObamaPhones, now ‘cheap’ internet.

However, in many EU countries like Italy, it seems that about 1/3rd of all income is never taxed…under the table - to avoid the bite of government taxes.

t

I’d take it a step further. Anyone who is not vaccinated (without a medical reason) and hospitalized with Covid-19 should be sent home if a patient with a non-Covid illness needs the bed.

While I agree, emotionally, with this, I do not think it a good idea to have doctors making these kind of decisions. Should they also refuse care to a DUI patient because he’s killed a car full of people? Or a hostage taker who was wounded in a shoot out? A speeder who hit a pedestrian then crashed? Where do we draw the line, exactly? How much time do we give the doctors to investigate? What if the patient is mentally handicapped?

Mike

4 Likes

I’d take it a step further. Anyone who is not vaccinated (without a medical reason) and hospitalized with Covid-19 should be sent home if a patient with a non-Covid illness needs the bed.


Why stop with covid patients?

Send home lung cancer patients who continued to smoke even though they knew smoking was hazardous.

Why care for people who have health issues because of their poor diet and lack of exercise?

Same scenario for HIV patients, unless they were infected by a blood transfusion.

Vehicle accidents. Were they wearing their seat belt? Motorcycle riders, were they wearing a helmet and leathers? Let them suffer the consequences for not making the right choice.

The above could happen someday. Insurance companies already charge higher premiums if you are a tobacco user. How long before they mandate lifestyle changes in order to be insured?

gcr
Who isn’t advocating that any of the above happen.

3 Likes

The Federal Gov’t has wasted money in a big way by not making treatment for Covid only payable to those who where vaccinated,

That is coercion. That is not how medical treatments work at all.

1 Like