TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
I’m gonna marry a robot and sell my kidney on ebay.
Political Discussion
- Thread starter David A.
- Start date
I’m gonna marry a robot and sell my kidney on ebay.
bfly
Well-Known Member
Dtknuckles
Well-Known Member
Chucktshoes
Well-Known Member
Chucktshoes
Well-Known Member
I’m gathering that you may have been absent a minute as well. So, glad to see you back as well.
This is very interesting, and it looks like some scientists are using the idea of financial toxicity to create a new measure of stress for patients--a measure that impacts medical outcomes.
Worries about out-of-pocket costs of treatment they are receiving — so-called "financial toxicity" — may harm outcomes for patients with cancer, new research suggests.
The study found that patients with head and neck cancer who were worried about their finances had approximately double the risk of dying when compared to patients without such worries.
The findings were published in Oral Oncology.
"This is the first time that financial worry was shown to impact survival," senior author Anurag Singh, MD, professor of oncology and director of radiation research at Roswell Park Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York, told Medscape Medical News.
"The association we found was very strong, and very concerning," he said. "If you are worried about your finances, your risk of dying is roughly double."
Singh emphasized that the risk of dying was not related to missing treatment due to financial concerns. Although it has been previously reported that as many as a quarter of all patients with cancer choose not to fill a prescription because of cost, this was not the case for the current study population. "Our patients all finished on time and did not skip treatments," he said.
This study gives the people making our decisions empirical evidence that financial pressure negatively impacts medical outcomes in a very real way. If we want a nation of healthy people, we must also address financial concerns.
What kills me about all this is that it isn't new. This isn't an idea that we just came up with. I remember working on smoking cessation programs over 10 years ago where everyone knew that the best way to get anyone (and I mean anyone) to quit smoking is to raise their income by about 25%. We know that health behaviors and stress are a big problem which is why minority populations tend to carry a higher burden of disease. Those that are unable to make any ground economically, are also usually the people with the worst health outcomes. This isn't new. This sort of science is necessary, because we need evidence before changing a policy. But we've done the research on this and new research is going to show more and more of this correlation--to the point where they realize that this is causal, because stress is a real killer. This is both important and also beating a dead horse. This is logical and good science, but we never act on the logical, good science. Instead we'll react when the American life expectancy has fallen to 65--which given our medical system's unaffordability and so many people that lost all of their savings won't take us too long.
Worries about out-of-pocket costs of treatment they are receiving — so-called "financial toxicity" — may harm outcomes for patients with cancer, new research suggests.
The study found that patients with head and neck cancer who were worried about their finances had approximately double the risk of dying when compared to patients without such worries.
The findings were published in Oral Oncology.
"This is the first time that financial worry was shown to impact survival," senior author Anurag Singh, MD, professor of oncology and director of radiation research at Roswell Park Cancer Center, Buffalo, New York, told Medscape Medical News.
"The association we found was very strong, and very concerning," he said. "If you are worried about your finances, your risk of dying is roughly double."
Singh emphasized that the risk of dying was not related to missing treatment due to financial concerns. Although it has been previously reported that as many as a quarter of all patients with cancer choose not to fill a prescription because of cost, this was not the case for the current study population. "Our patients all finished on time and did not skip treatments," he said.
Financial Toxicity and Survival of Patients With Cancer
Patients with head and neck cancer who reported a high level of financial difficulty were found to have a shorter survival than patients who did not.
www.medscape.com
This study gives the people making our decisions empirical evidence that financial pressure negatively impacts medical outcomes in a very real way. If we want a nation of healthy people, we must also address financial concerns.
What kills me about all this is that it isn't new. This isn't an idea that we just came up with. I remember working on smoking cessation programs over 10 years ago where everyone knew that the best way to get anyone (and I mean anyone) to quit smoking is to raise their income by about 25%. We know that health behaviors and stress are a big problem which is why minority populations tend to carry a higher burden of disease. Those that are unable to make any ground economically, are also usually the people with the worst health outcomes. This isn't new. This sort of science is necessary, because we need evidence before changing a policy. But we've done the research on this and new research is going to show more and more of this correlation--to the point where they realize that this is causal, because stress is a real killer. This is both important and also beating a dead horse. This is logical and good science, but we never act on the logical, good science. Instead we'll react when the American life expectancy has fallen to 65--which given our medical system's unaffordability and so many people that lost all of their savings won't take us too long.
David A.
Well-Known Member
‘The crisis is in Washington’: Overwhelmed border officials urge D.C. to act
There’s a surge of migrants at the border. Local officials are holding back the chaos. But, they say, Washington needs to do something bold. Now.
www.politico.com
What is going on at the border is nothing less than a humanitarian crisis and the Biden administration, although it had to deal with the obstruction of the Trump transition team, is failing to essentially walk and chew gum at the same time. I hope Biden and ICE figures out their messaging.
P.S. My cousin was on Morning Joe at 7:05 discussing this. If ya'll are massochists, give that segment a spin.
Dtknuckles
Well-Known Member
I’ll still pay my public sector union dues though. (I may take shooting lessons this summer though)
Dtknuckles
Well-Known Member
‘The crisis is in Washington’: Overwhelmed border officials urge D.C. to act
There’s a surge of migrants at the border. Local officials are holding back the chaos. But, they say, Washington needs to do something bold. Now.
What is going on at the border is nothing less than a humanitarian crisis and the Biden administration, although it had to deal with the obstruction of the Trump transition team, is failing to essentially walk and chew gum at the same time. I hope Biden and ICE figures out their messaging.
P.S. My cousin was on Morning Joe at 7:05 discussing this. If ya'll are massochists, give that segment a spin.
This reminds me of a situation my wife was in. She was at a meeting where she was presenting an assessment she completed on a multiple disability refugee from El Salvador and the speech pathologist asked in a somewhat amazed manner, “How do these people get here?” My wife looked at her and said, “Just like I did, they walk.” My father in law was kicked out of his house when he was 12. Women in those countries live under horrible conditions, fear and poverty. It’s just sad that people refuse to see this and the American contribution to what is currently happening in Central America.
David A.
Well-Known Member
My mother crossed the border at Brownsville with two older siblings and no parents along. She was 11.
When you dick around in these countries in the name of containment and then go perpetuate a war on drugs that exacerbates conflict between cartels and authoritarian leaderships, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS.
Hey now, it seems like you might be putting some of the blame on the American government and their propensity to look the other way when these authoritarian regimes are atrocious because they support the American companies that are pillaging Central and South America and taking advantage of cheap labor--with no improvements for those laboring.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Yeah, libertarians tend to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I dabbled in libertarianism in High School and college (my first vote at 18 was for Harry Brown in the 2000). My biggest issue with libertarian principles and why grew into a Lefty was that there was too much inequality baked into American society. It was hard for me to justify my “personal responsibility” stance when so many people got fucked over for no other reason than their race or how poor their family was. If you could eliminate prejudice and ensure every person was guaranteed a relatively equal starting point then it would be a much easier ideology to support. I still have a soft spot for Libertarians though, they tend to be extremely principled (likely to a fault) in their beliefs.
After reading a lot about all of this, I have come to the conclusion that it takes an awful lot of regulation to keep a capital market truly "free". Mathematical models of free markets show that money inevitably collects at the top because money attracts money. However, when this happens, it distorts the market and thus, the market is no longer really a free market. I really think a big problem here is inherited wealth.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Yeah, that’s a big problem.
Dtknuckles
Well-Known Member
And outsized cooperate power.
bfly
Well-Known Member
they say if you go far enough left, you get your guns back.
Surge in child hunger overwhelms richest US counties
Financial fallout from Covid-19 has pushed child hunger to record levels. Wealthy counties with steep jumps aren't always as ready to cope as places that have long dealt with poverty and were already equipped with robust charitable food networks.
www.cnn.com
Food insecurity only continues to get worse in America.
Texas is creating voter restrictions that target Harris county. The 4th most populous county in the United States which contains the city of Houston.
Houston leans left, and that is a problem for the Texas legislator who is controlled by Republicans due to the massive number of rural counties in the state.
Harris county made it much easier for people to vote in 2020. They expanded earlier voting and polling hours and saw a record number of people vote.
Republicans feel that voting regulation needs to be the same state wide and therefor they are voting on a bill that mandates a state wide policy for pulling hours, early voting and mail in voting / drop off. And they are defaulting to what is done in rural counties with low populations as the statewide standard. They are claiming it's not fair to voters in rural counties if Harris county has expanded access to voting.
However, experts are saying that in high population areas like Harris County you tend to find a much higher volume of shift workers. And the proposed voting hours to be the state wide mandate do not work for shift workers. They are unable to get time off from their shift and their shift makes it impossible for them to access polls. Republicans don't seem to care about this.
Houston leans left, and that is a problem for the Texas legislator who is controlled by Republicans due to the massive number of rural counties in the state.
Harris county made it much easier for people to vote in 2020. They expanded earlier voting and polling hours and saw a record number of people vote.
Republicans feel that voting regulation needs to be the same state wide and therefor they are voting on a bill that mandates a state wide policy for pulling hours, early voting and mail in voting / drop off. And they are defaulting to what is done in rural counties with low populations as the statewide standard. They are claiming it's not fair to voters in rural counties if Harris county has expanded access to voting.
However, experts are saying that in high population areas like Harris County you tend to find a much higher volume of shift workers. And the proposed voting hours to be the state wide mandate do not work for shift workers. They are unable to get time off from their shift and their shift makes it impossible for them to access polls. Republicans don't seem to care about this.