Juan Gonzalez from Democracy Now! reports on his concern and frustration with our healthcare system and how it is failing during this pandemic.  His 92-year old mother and his wife both have contracted COVID-19 and he had to fight to get his mother admitted to the hospital. He promotes the need for a grassroots effort to change our current healthcare system and to also help our undocumented immigrants during this crisis and beyond. 

In this podcast, Joe Sparks interviews Dr. Donald Berwick, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to discuss the advantages of a single payer healthcare system and why he believes it to be the only viable option for providing healthcare for everyone. 

Healthcare companies are putting profit over people!  Now that healthcare workers are in dire need of face masks, instead of charging 58 cents per mask, companies are now charging $7.00 per mask.  Farron Cousins from the Ring of Fire Network reports that this shameful practice should be illegal.

"A sick planet, in short, means a sick public" Josue De Luna Navarro.  Our healthcare system is being tested by the coronavirus and is having a negative impact on the underinsured here in the United States. It appears, however, that PHARMA and the hospital industry are reaping the benefits. 

Philip A. Verhoef, an intensive care unit doctor in Honolulu, Hawaii makes the case for Medicare for All.

Medicare Advantage plans are attracting consumers, while the insurance companies turn over huge profits.  Do these plans really help us, the consumers, as they claim, or is their real purpose to deceive? If a person gets ill, often times Medicare Advantage plans do not protect enrollees from high fees or worse, from not being covered for a procedure. 

Because of the high cost of prescription drugs, many Americans are forced into declaring bankruptcy so they can get out of debt.  No one should ever have to choose between paying their bills or taking necessary medication. Profits over people should not be acceptable in this country.

Due to rising healthcare costs, fewer adults are seeking medical attention for their routine care such as an injury, flu symptoms, etc.  A recent report in the Annals of Internal Medicine provides several reasons and in-depth data as to why people are choosing not to visit their primary physicians.

As Out-Of-Pocket Health Costs Rise, Insured Adults Are Seeking Less Primary Care  by Elena Renken, NPR

Declining Use of Primary Care Among Commercially Insured Adults in the United States, 2008–2016 Annals of Internal Medicine, Abstract

As Dylan Scott traveled around the world,  he talked with people about their healthcare system.  He heard their stories, compared both the positives and negatives of each system including costs, and made several comparisons. He concluded that there really is not one perfect system, yet each country has made it work for their citizens.  The United States needs to do the same.

9 Things Americans Need to Learn From the Rest of the World’s Health Care Systems  by Dylan Scott, healthcare policy reporter, VOX    What are your thoughts? Please write your comments below. 

The healthcare industry is heavily involved with lobbying and has spent over $2 billion dollars in the past four years spreading an abundance of propaganda about healthcare, insurance and Medicare for All.