Speaking at a coronavirus roundtable in Detroit Monday alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders and public health experts, registered nurse Deborah Burger forcefully shot down a question on how the United States can afford to make any COVID-19 vaccine free for everyone in the country, noting that no one asks that question of other vaccines or America's endless wars overseas.
Burger, president of National Nurses United (NNU), pointed out that "nobody asked how you pay for" the Polio vaccine "because what they saw were children in iron longs that were going to be damaged forever."
"How insane and cruel is it," Burger continued, "to suggest that we have to figure out how to pay for it when we can actually go to war and not ask one question, but to prevent this kind of a disease, we have to say, 'How can we pay for it?'"
Sanders, who is pressuring the Trump administration to make any coronavirus vaccine free and available to all, also weighed in on the pay-for question.
"Do I approve of [the U.S. government] spending a few cents for a vaccine rather than seeing people die or spending thousands of dollars on hospital care? Yeah, I kinda think it makes a little bit more sense to invest a few cents in a vaccine," Sanders said.
"Does anybody in their right mind believe that if you're rich you should be able to afford a vaccine and save your life but if you're poor you gotta die?" Sanders asked.
[...]
#1: A Pole To: All (#0)
A trip to the ER for coronavirus testing can set you back thousands.
For Osmel Martinez Azcue, a recent trip to the hospital for coronavirus treatment resulted in good news and bad news: He didn't have coronavirus, but he did have a $3,200 medical bill.
As first reported by The Miami Herald's Ben Conarck, Azcue had checked himself into the hospital for flu-like symptoms after arriving back in the US from a work trip to China, concerned he had been exposed to the novel coronavirus.
He asked to be first tested for the flu before getting a CT scan to screen for coronavirus because of his limited insurance plan, Conarck wrote. He did have the flu, which meant he needed no further testing for coronavirus.
The whole experience cost $3,270, according to a notice from his insurance company he later received in the mail.
[...]
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-treatment-medical-bill-hospital-costs-2020-3?IR=T
A Pole posted on 2020-03-10 10:12:26 Reply Private Reply
#2: misterwhite To: A Pole (#0)
A free vaccine from the government? Oh, sure. Like the anti-vaxxers won't jump all over that. People refuse to get flu shots and it's already killed 10,000 people this season.
Of course Bernie likes "free" shots. He likes free anything.
misterwhite posted on 2020-03-10 10:41:28 Reply Private Reply
#3: watchman To: A Pole (#1)
Emergency Rooms are for actual emergencies: broken bones, heart attacks, life threatening conditions...not "flu-like symptoms".
That's why we have primary care physicians. They can to a simple blood test and have results back often within hours.
ER's are costly for a reason.
watchman posted on 2020-03-10 11:40:58 Reply Private Reply