‘MAHA’ / Health Care Reform Tracker

[Belligerent Savant]

A thread where we can aim to track actual changes/reform practically applied as part of RFK Jr’s pending actions in the coming year+ (assuming he’s confirmed).

The official first notice of his appointed position:

His initial reply, in part:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr
@RobertKennedyJr

…

We have a generational opportunity to bring together the greatest minds in science, medicine, industry, and government to put an end to the chronic disease epidemic.

I look forward to working with the more than 80,000 employees at HHS to free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture so they can pursue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people on Earth.

Together we will clean up corruption, stop the revolving door between industry and government, and return our health agencies to their rich tradition of gold-standard, evidence-based science. I will provide Americans with transparency and access to all the data so they can make informed choices for themselves and their families.

My commitment to the American people is to be an honest public servant. Let’s go!

6:07 PM · Nov 14, 2024
·
7.8M Views

https://x.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/18 ... 5919138235

One more bit of info, for now:

The Vigilant Fox
@VigilantFox

Dr. Casey Means (https://x.com/CaseyMeansMD) Wows Liberal Audience and Gets Them to CHEER for RFK Jr.'s HHS Nomination

“If we were crushing it [at health], we would not be spending 2x every other country in the entire world and have the lowest life expectancy of any developed country in the entire world.”

“We are the sickest of the top 11 high-income countries in the world. We have the highest infant and maternal mortality rates, and our life expectancy is 10 years less than our friends in Japan and Switzerland right now.”

“The words 'chronic illness,' as far as I know, never came out of the Harris campaign's mouth. And I think that was a real misstep because Americans are, I think, tired of being gaslit about the fact that there's not a problem right now. And when we look around us, we know there is.”

“And Trump has asked RFK to do three simple things. He's asked to get the corruption out of the U.S. health agencies, produce uncompromised evidence-based research for our health guidelines, and reverse the trends of the chronic disease epidemic in two years for children and adults so that we can show up for our 250th anniversary of America stronger than ever. That sounds pretty good to me.”

(Audience Cheers)

https://x.com/VigilantFox/status/1857626646007644507


We shall see how it plays out. TBD.

[stickdog99]

Can't get much worse.

[Grizzly]

[Elvis]

This appointment is a sick healthcare joke. The joke's on us.

When they address the 30 million Americans without healthcare, the 60,000 annual deaths, and the spectre of exploding medical debt, I'll take them seriously.

[stickdog99]

Of course, nobody is addressing the biggest issues in healthcare. However, that doesn't mean that the reforms that RFK, Jr. wants to make are somehow bad or wrong.

[Elihu]

When they address the 30 million Americans without healthcare, the 60,000 annual deaths, and the spectre of exploding medical debt, I'll take them seriously.

i agree, they should start firing people immediately (w/severance) and dissolving departments, abate the taxes or mail the checks directly to the 30 million. wa la! more efficient

[SonicG]

Have none of you mentioned the appointment of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya at the NIH? Jeff Wells is over the moon about it.

I ate like Trump for a week. I don’t understand how the man is still alive

Breakfast – nothing. Lunch – nothing. Dinner – a McDonald’s, KFC, pizza or a well-done steak. Twelve Diet Cokes a day, and snacking on Doritos. The man appointed to become his own health secretary, RFK Jr, described what Trump eats as “poison”.

“His diet is exceptionally poor,” agrees Telegraph nutritionist Sam Rice. “It’s unbalanced, with far too many ultra-processed foods, too much saturated fat from red and processed meat, simple carbohydrates that can cause sugar spikes and lead to insulin resistance. It’s also low in fibre and gut-friendly plant foods. The copious amount of Diet Coke he drinks, which contains the artificial sweetener aspartame – identified as a possible carcinogen by the World Health Organisation – makes his diet a nutritional nightmare.”

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/ate-tru ... 37154.html

I'm sure Qanon could provide some answers about how Trump is still alive, not sure if it involves that adrenochrome stuff they are always on about but maybe...

[DrEvil]

When they address the 30 million Americans without healthcare, the 60,000 annual deaths, and the spectre of exploding medical debt, I'll take them seriously.

i agree, they should start firing people immediately (w/severance) and dissolving departments, abate the taxes or mail the checks directly to the 30 million. wa la! more efficient

Or reform the healthcare system. The US spends almost twice as much as anyone else per capita, with the same, or worse, results. Last year total expenditures were around 4.8 trillion dollars. You could probably get that down to 3 trillion if you remove all the parasites currently infesting the system. It's not departments you should be dissolving, it's rent-seeking corporations.

[Belligerent Savant]

.
May as well add this here as an update to recent appointments. The impact of his role over time (if confirmed) remains TBD, of course. Broadly, on the surface he appears to offer a markedly more reasonable approach to handling claims/reports of broad-scale illness, as one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration (which in some respects perpetuated certain false premises, but nonetheless was markedly more reasonable in approach compared to the outright brazen madness that took place from 2020 - 2022).

@DrJBhattacharya
·
Nov 26

I am honored and humbled by President @realDonaldTrump's nomination of me to be the next @NIH director. We will reform American scientific institutions so that they are worthy of trust again and will deploy the fruits of excellent science to make America healthy again!

@TrumpWarRoom

NEW: President Trump announces the nomination of @DrJBhattacharya to Director of the National Institutes of Health.




Nov 26, 2024
7.1M views

https://x.com/DrJBhattacharya/status/1861586856590320071

[SonicG]

I guess assassinating health insurance CEOs is one approach...

Gunman at large after UnitedHealthcare CEO fatally shot in ‘brazen targeted attack,’ police say

Thompson, who was visiting from Minnesota, was shot with a weapon that appeared to be outfitted with a silencer, according to a law enforcement official. The motive for the shooting remains unclear, but Thompson’s wife Paulette told NBC News “there had been some threats” against her husband.

“There had been some threats,” she said in a phone call to NBC News. “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him,” she said.

Ghoulish responses? I dunno but I think it's fair to ask who started with the ghoulishness?

[Belligerent Savant]

.
Related to the above incident (though I'm hoping not to derail the primary thrust of this thread too far beyond this post) --







It's possible he was in the process of working out a deal when he got... eliminated.

[SonicG]

Was just going to post that!

Pelosi...I saw some more stuff about the recent hacking of UnitedHealth and sketchy Pelosi stock trading of a cyber-defense company but was titillated by this search result:

UnitedHealth Lobbyist Announces Pelosi Fundraiser As She Begins Backing Off Pub Option
Nov 12, 2009

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the first time yesterday suggested she may be backing off her support of the public option. According to CNN, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "said they would support any provision that increases competition and accessibility for health insurance - whether or not it is the public option favored by most Democrats." When "asked if inclusion of a public option was a non-negotiable demand -- as her previous statements had indicated Pelosi ruled out any non-negotiable positions," according to CNN. This was also corroborated by the Associated Press, and by Pelosi's own words, as quoted in those stories.

This announcement came just hours before Steve Elmendorf, a registered UnitedHealth lobbyist and the head of UnitedHealth's lobbying firm Elmendorf Strategies, blasted this email invitation throughout Washington, D.C. I just happened to get my hands on a copy of the invitation from a source - check out this OpenLeft exclusive:

From: Steve Elmendorf [mailto:steve@elmendorfstrategies.com]
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 8:31 AM
Subject: event with Speaker Pelosi at my home

You are cordially invited to a reception with

Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi

Thursday, September 24, 2009
6:30pm ~ 8:00pm

At the home of
Steve Elmendorf
2301 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Apt. 7B
Washington, D.C.

$5,000 PAC
$2,400 Individual

To RSVP or for additional information please contact
Carmela Clendening at (202) 485-3508 or clendening@dccc.org

Steve Elmendorf
ELMENDORF STRATEGIES
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS SOLUTIONS

I don't think this is off the topic of this thread, as it is important to see what, if anything, the Trump admin does to address the ultra-bloated health care industrial complex - especially as a symbol/representative of late-stage US capitalism that Trump will most likely do nothing to change but rather exacerbate in stunning fashion...
You have to think though that this incident will also be wiped off the news soon enough...maybe by another similar incident, although I have to imagine health insurance CEOs are currently contracting private security at lightning speed.

[Grizzly]

Ahhh.. But what's puzzlin' you (whoo-hoo)
Is the nature of my game, ah yeah (whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo)
Get down, with it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgnClrx8N2k



possibly related?

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/01/united-healthcare-ceo-says-maybe-a-third-of-u-s-citizens-were-affected-by-recent-hack/

Damn. Right in the back, too. Don't watch this, I had to. Some wounded part of me needs to see it. Even as it sickens me to watch.
Trigger Warning:

Chilling video shows gunman executing Brian Thompson at close range as UnitedHealthcare CEO stumbles away in NYC

I wont say he deserved it, but , damn, how many lives has he destroyed? The most fucked up part, as I watched (vicariously)* I was trying to process it as I stared glued at/to the screen the video auto played a 200lb catfish stuck on someone's porch after a massive flood (the damn thing -CATFISH-was as big as I am) , and my nervous system just burst into laughter and tears trying to find homeostasis.

*hat-tip to Tool.


https://youtu.be/h_TUP2vuaDs?si=8pZLpmWwL5I6tVxG

fuck it, I'm done with youtube and their ceaseless changing shit so you have to log in...go to their sight, controlling manipulating Enshittification.

[liminalOyster]

I don't think this is off the topic of this thread.

Seconding this and also re: BS post..... damn.

Edit because just after posting this, I saw this.....

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassin may have left message on bullets used in murder: sources

The suspect who gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Midtown hotel may have left a message on the bullets he used to kill the executive Wednesday morning, according to police sources.

The NYPD is investigating the possible message — which appears to include the words “deny,” “depose” and “defend” — written on live rounds and shell casings left behind by the masked assassin after he shot Thompson, 50, several times at about 6:46 a.m. before fleeing, the sources said.

More here: https://nypost.com/2024/12/05/us-news/u ... r-sources/

[SonicG]

ParaPower Mapping
@KlonnyPin_Gosch
So this could either be a skilled assassin muddying the waters by leaving red herring shell casing clues for the feds or else we may actually be dealing w/ an honorable masked vigilante here

As for it’s meaning, it’s a nifty pun on insurance companies “delay, deny, defend” MO