Bloomberg on healthcare

[melman]

Link to tweet

[Autumn]

1. What the fuck is "A young person, we should do something. Society's not willing to do that, yet."??

After telling the the older person "no cure for you". What is society not ready to do? Let the young person die. also?

[jmg257]

2. He's saying we have to pick and choose how to spend the hc money.

Young - you get covered
Old - not so much

Society isnt ready to make that choice.

[Autumn]

18. That should be a persons choice. There are many wealthy older people who get lifesaving care.

Why should someone who isn't wealthy or powerful or famous get the same option?

[jmg257]

19. They do. Bloomberg is saying giving that care will bankrupt us.

[Autumn]

21. Yeah. I'm more concerned about unending wars, tax breaks for him and a bloated military budget

bankrupting us.

[MarcA]

26. Agreed. Such a system would already be morally bankrupt.

First 95 then what: 85, 75, 65 or the financially incurable?
Some of the comments here supporting de facto death panels are
disgusting; whatever happened to choice. These are Democrats?

[virgogal]

3. No,he was saying that treatment for the

95 year old would be refused,not a young person.That’s what society is not ready for.

[Hoyt]

8. Pretty much happens in Britain and other countries. It's the only way to develop a viable universal

health coverage plan.

But, you are right -- Americans aren't ready to do what is necessary. Until, then, we'll nibble at the edges of a decent health system. And I'm at, or getting really close to, the age when somethings won't be covered. I'm fine with that.

[Midnight Writer]

4. So we should have told Jimmy Carter to arrange his funeral?

Jimmy Carter has done more good in the last year than I have in my life.

[lunasun]

12. ++ I was thinking of Carter too when I listened !

[zackymilly]

15. He's a billionaire. He doesn't care about health costs for himself or his family. n/t

[uponit7771]

5. How in the HELL did this guy become mayor of NY !?!? WTF ?! He sounds like a republican through

... and through !!!

[LeftTurn3623]

7. He was a republican and still is

[Garrett78]

25. What's really crazy is that people seem to think turnout for Bloomberg would be great.

Madness. Absolute madness. By the time November rolls around, people would be so disgusted that we'd see a combination of low overall turnout and high 3rd party voting that would make 2016 look fantastic by comparison.

[uponit7771]

35. +1, the sane MAGA Cultist wont vote for him because he's from NY alone !!

[Kurt V.]

6. this is how an autocrat thinks

[patricia92243]

9. SOCIETY IS NOT READY TO DO THAT are the key words.

[melman]

10. But he's saying that it's what should happen

[Autumn]

22. Can you imagine if Bernie said something like this?

Bernie wants to kill our Grandmas!!!!!!!

[Nanjeanne]

39. Hell Bernie doesn't have to say it. Some Twitterer could say it and pundits

would be blaming Bernie 24/7

[MarcA]

27. He certainly didn't seem to mind if society became ready to do that. n/t

[patricia92243]

11. Is there a place where we could see the whole video.

[zackymilly]

13. He just lost the 95 and over vote. n/t

[Blue_true]

23. All 0.005% of the people in the USA. He can't win Wisconsin now.

What he is saying makes sense, as does pulling life suport on a person that is brain dead.

I saw a lot of people post negative stuff about what he said and I know that many of those people piss and moan about the cost of health insurance and healthcare. Guess what people, when hospitals spend resources keeping people that are very old or basically already dead breathing, that runs up both healthcare expenses and health insurance premiums (of course those same people will claim that is because insurance companies are profiteering, hence missing a large part of the picture).

[melman]

28. Are 0.005% people in the USA really going to affect costs that much?

To the point where it's going to "bankrupt" us?


Probably not. Seems more likely "95 year olds with cancer" is a red herring here. I mean if it's going to bankrupt us we must be talking about a bigger group than 0.005%. So what do you think is a good cutoff date for treatment? 75? 80?

[Blue_true]

29. Providing extraordinary life support to just one person can cost millions

of dollars. The money doesn't take long to add up.

Someone made a point about healthcare systems in Europe, the point was they don't treat people where the upside to longer life is minimal. Canada doesn't do some types of procedures under it's social medical system.

[zackymilly]

36. Sounds like the "death panels" sarah palin talked about in 2009. nt

[Blue_true]

38. No, it isn't.

If a 95 year old person has cancer that is incurable, does it make sense to hospitalize that person, or should that person get a nurse visiting at home? A hospital costs a lot more. It is already happening now, medical doctors make calls on whether it makes sense to put a certain person through and expensive and physically demanding procedure when the procedure is most likely to fail.

[totodeinhere]

14. And the hits just keep on coming. n/t

[George II]

16. Where's the rest of the video?

[silverweb]

17. This already happens to some degree.

When I worked in the healthcare field, there were many instances when doctors said that no treatment was available or suitable for a very elderly patient. Sometimes it was because the patient was already very frail and would be unable to withstand treatment. Sometimes it was because the treatment would be futile and unable to benefit the patient anyway.

Age was the example used here, but it's not even the primary factor. The patient's underlying health is -- and that does deteriorate with age, no matter how we look at it.

[Blue_true]

20. He is right.

If I live to be 95 years old and get a serious disease, I only hope that we have assisted suicide at that point universally in this country. If not legally, I would purposely overdose on something in a location that I know that I want be found until I am dead.

[BusyBeingBest]

24. Interesting that he specified prostate cancer in his example--

because my grandfather in his 90's was diagnosed with prostate cancer but as he was in a nursing home for dementia, he was not treated for it beyond making sure he was comfortable. It was slow growing anyway, and he died of something else (pneumonia).

[delisen]

30. Your post misrepresents Bloomberg's statement

You should edit to show that he is referring to prostate cancer which is a cancer common in older men and one which most will not die from when untreated.
In fact surgery often causes incontinence


Right now best medical advice for many is do no surgery.

[melman]

31. No it doesn't

He says:

"all of these costs keep going up, nobody wants to pay any more money, and at the rate we're going healthcare is going to bankrupt us"


This clearly refers to more than just his example of 95-year-olds with prostate cancer.

[delisen]

32. The Finkelstein quote you cite is erroneous.Why are you repeating it?

Finkelstein either mistakenly or deliberately omittted the word prostate from his supposedly direct quote -yet used quotation marks. The audio clearly has Bloomberg stating prostate cancer- not cancer.

You re- posted a clearly inaccurate statement.I am requesting that you not post a verifiable inaccuracy or correct it.

[melman]

34. Nope

Not erroneous or inaccurate. There's nothing to correct.

[George II]

33. Yes it does. Where's the rest of it? You think he dropped in to speak for 44 seconds and then left?

[zackymilly]

37. "Yes it does". LOL Then you ask for the rest of the video you haven't seen. n/t