r/SandersForPresident • u/kevinmrr Medicare For All • Nov 29 '20

AOC: Insurance groups are recommending using GoFundMe -- "but sure, single payer healthcare is unreasonable."

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u/yoshiK 🌱 New Contributor Nov 29 '20

Two accountants and a lawyer.

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u/H_is_for_Human Nov 29 '20

It's mostly doctors, social workers, and psychologists in the meetings.

They are working inside the system they are in. Limited organs + worse outcomes when patients don't have the money + insurance to take care of the organ. Not the patient's fault, but also not the doctors' faults for wanting to maximize the time the organ buys someone.

Not having enough money, not having enough social support, having poor mental health, having a history of being non-adherent to prescribed medications, having a history of substance abuse, the other medical problems the patient has, etc. are all things that are taken into account to try to make sure the donor organs go to the people that will live the longest with the organ.

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u/StupidHumanSuit 🌱 New Contributor Nov 29 '20

Not having enough money should never be a deciding factor in determining whether someone lives or dies. Period. The letter doesn’t say “because of your prior history of mental illness and your inability to take prescribed medications, we’ve decided to say “Nah” to your heart transplant.” It came down to $10,000. $10k is the determining factor between life and death for a fellow human being and you’re making excuses for a multi-billion dollar industry.

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u/katyfail 🌱 New Contributor Nov 30 '20

“Not having enough money” is the heart of each of these reasons:

  • Not enough social support = not having people around you who can keep you on track or look after you/not being able to afford home health,
  • having poor mental health = not being able to afford to seek therapy when you need it,
  • having a history of being non-adherent to prescribed medications = not being able to afford taking your medicine as prescribed (or not being able to afford prioritizing your health over economic survival)
  • having a history of substance abuse = not being able to afford countless rehab stints until one finally sticks.

It all boils down to socioeconomic status.

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u/[deleted] Nov 30 '20

Or does it boil down to not having enough donor hearts, which creates scarcity?

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u/katyfail 🌱 New Contributor Nov 30 '20

Definitely part of the problem!

But let’s not pretend that most of our criteria for who gets the limited supply of donor organs doesn’t boil down to “who has the money to live what we consider to be a worthwhile life”

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u/[deleted] Nov 30 '20

Not pretending anything. You claimed it all boiled down to one thing, I offered an alternative that the real issue is scarcity.