With So Many People Being Denied Health Care US Ripe For A Pandemic.

[TheMastersNemesis]

With the resistance to Medicaid expansion and the erosion of ACA there will still be too many people with no health care access. Sequestration and other means is another way the GOP will scuttle Obamacare.

GOP efforts could leave half the population with no access to health care if they succeed. If we had an epidemic like the flu in 1918 it could spread out of control. We must remember these cuts mean cuts for disease control and medical research.

There are signs of virulent disease in other parts of the world that could easily spread here. And a disease could go unnoticed until it is too late. Bugs you cannot see are a greater threat to our national security than invasion. And terrorists could inittiate an attack as well.

[global1]

1. What Is The Erosion Of ACA That You Referenced?.......nt

[TheMastersNemesis]

2. The GOP Cannot Repeal ACA But They Sure Can Erode It With Budget Cuts

When ACA goes into effect it can be blunted by budget cuts and other means. The GOP is already trying to undercut its implementation. The budget the GOP is coming up with and will like use the debt limit as a bargaining chip will likely not include money for ACA implementation. Just the refusal to expand Medicaid hits at a key part of the ACA coming into effect. Medicaid is a key part of that plan that covers people who might no get coverage under ACA.

The GOP can seriously undermine the Affordable Care Act without actually repealing it. You can have law on the books but you can make it a moot point if there is no money to enforce it or hire people to operate its enforcement. There is no particular link but a pattern of behavior the GOP exhibits as we move toward implementation.

The media will never cover it or expose it but the GOP wants to implement a health care system that will leave perhaps half the population without insurance or access. Health saving accounts, for profit insurance companies and the end of employer based care will leave the US with a system where a person who cannot afford care will not have an

For example the GOP believes that you have a limited voucher system for Medicare and insurance premiums from the government. Virtually every American will be faced with an insurmountable bill for serious or extreme illness. And health care would be rationed for those people who can afford it. All other health care would be given to charities, nooprofits and the churches. The GOP believes that all domestic problems including unaffordable health care should be taken care of by charitable organizations. They believe that government has no role at all except on a very limited basis.

And as for disease control the GOP believes that it is not a federal responsibility to track and investigate disease. They also believe that ALL research should go to corporations and the government should stay out of that area completely.

Now you won't hear the media flesh out their plan nor will the media force them out. ACA stands in the way of their vision for US health care. Given the power they will repeal it. And they are still working on getting all the power to do it..

[KT2000]

3. drug resistant infections

are also on the rise. They have moved out of hospitals into what they call "community acquired" antibiotic resistant infections.
A local man with this infection and no health insurance was treated at our hospitall. Rather than doing surgery to remove the infected tissue, he was sent home with antiseptic wipes and powerful antibiotics. It didn't work and he had to go back into the hospital for extended stay.

Our pandemic could well be the antibiotic resistant infections that were once considered minor infections. More urinary tract infections are now antibiotic resistant - thanks the antibiotics used in chicken feed. This will add to the already increasing incidence of kidney failure, dialysis treatment and kidney transplants.
Look for the snowball effect.

[Warpy]

4. Yes, the next pandemic will rip through Africa and Asia---and the US

Europe will be safer thanks to the prevalence of universal health care.

If only Mother Earth would come up with a disease that feeds on greed rather than poverty.

[Wednesdays]

5. Are you kidding? That would be a wingnut's wet dream

The rich and "good people" would be spared, while the "undesirables" would get wiped out.

"If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." - - Ebenezer Scrooge

[fasttense]

6. Yes, even the black plague started in poorer neighborhoods and spread to the rich.

But it was more about lack of sanitary conditions. And the most unsanitary areas were in the poorer districts. But the rich were just as unsanitary though less crowded. Human waste in the cities was disposed of in the road gutters. Bathing was almost impossible what with a lack of clean water and it was frowned upon to take a bath. Clothing was expensive and difficult to clean so dirty clothes were passed from people to people. Rats, fleas, lice and ticks were just considered a part of living. These conditions were perfect for the black plague to develop and spread.

Today, conditions for the poor are not quite as unsanitary but whatever diseases the poor get, will spread to the rich. The rich still need their maids, servants, cooks, pilots, drivers, teachers, bar tenders, servers, nurses, guards doctors and gardeners. The rich can never isolate themselves enough.

[mile18blister]

7. There's already a TB outbreak on LA's Skid Row

Health workers have identified about 4,650 people who were probably exposed to a persistent outbreak of tuberculosis on downtown Los Angeles' skid row and are trying to track them down for testing and treatment.

The Centers for Disease Control has dispatched scientists to Los Angeles to help local health officials determine why the disease is spreading and how to stop it.

Officials say 11 have died since 2007. Sixty of the 78 cases were among homeless people who live on and around skid row.

Scientists have recently linked the outbreak to a tuberculosis strain that is unique to Los Angeles, with a few isolated cases outside the area.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/02/tuberculosis-outbreak-health-workers-try-to-track-down-4650-exposed.html

[ananda]

8. Certain diseases have already taken hold in pockets.

TB for instance.

Also, many diseases and ailments are becoming drug resistant,
including gonorrhea.

[Javaman]

9. While national health care will help with maybe limiting the sudden rise of a

pandemic, city density and air travel play a much bigger roll today.

If the middle ages had the city density and air travel we enjoy today, more than likely, they would have been hit a hell of a lot harder than they were by either the plague or small pox.

National health care may or may not play a roll in limiting a pandemic. What does limit it is not the use of health care per say, but an informed public. Knowing to wash ones hands and sneezing into ones sleeves plays a very large roll in preventing the spread of a viral infection.

National health may or may not help keep adequate supplies of vaccines on hand. Hard to say.

And while we have have and had modern day pandemics, it's agencies such as the CDC and the World Health Organization that are at the forefront of watching, waiting and detecting the next outbreak of whatever, that keep us safe.

Don't get me wrong, I want National Health Care now, but I don't think that having such a program will suddenly prevent a pandemic.