Last Call For Sick Of It All

More than one-third of Americans put off health care in 2022 due to medical inflation and red states cutting back on Medicaid.

 

The percentage of Americans reporting they or a family member postponed medical treatment in 2022 due to cost rose 12 points in one year, to 38%, the highest in Gallup’s 22-year trend.

Each year since 2001, Gallup has tracked Americans’ self-reports of delaying medical care in the past 12 months due to cost. The latest reading, from Gallup’s annual Health and Healthcare poll conducted Nov. 9-Dec. 2, is the highest by five points and marks the sharpest year-over-year increase to date.

This change came amid the highest inflation rate in the U.S. in more than 40 years, which made 2022 a challenging year for many Americans. A majority of U.S. adults have said inflation is creating at least a moderate hardship for them. The public continues to view the state of the U.S. economy negatively, and Americans were more likely to name inflation as the most important problem facing the U.S. in 2022 than at any time since 1984.

The latest double-digit increase in delaying medical treatment came on the heels of two consecutive 26% readings during the COVID-19 pandemic that were the lowest since 2004. The previous high point in the trend was 33% in 2014 and 2019. An average 29% of U.S. adults reported putting off medical treatment because of cost between 2001 and 2021.

Americans were more than twice as likely to report the delayed treatment in their family was for a serious rather than a nonserious condition in 2022. In all, 27% said the treatment was for a “very” or “somewhat” serious condition or illness, while 11% said it was “not very” or “not at all” serious. Since 2004, more U.S. adults have said the medical care needed was for a serious than nonserious condition, but the 16-point gap in the perceived seriousness of forgone treatment in 2022 is the second largest on record to a 17-point gap in 2019.

Lower-income adults, younger adults and women in the U.S. have consistently been more likely than their counterparts to say they or a family member have delayed care for a serious medical condition.

In 2022, Americans with an annual household income under $40,000 were nearly twice as likely as those with an income of $100,000 or more to say someone in their family delayed medical care for a serious condition (34% vs. 18%, respectively). Those with an income between $40,000 and less than $100,000 were similar to those in the lowest income group when it comes to postponing care, with 29% doing so.

Reports of putting off care for a serious condition are up 12 points among lower-income U.S. adults, up 11 points among those in the middle-income group and up seven points among those with a higher income. The latest readings for the middle- and upper-income groups are the highest on record or tied with the highest.

 

Rural hospitals are closing by the dozens, leaving people without basic health care options in hundreds of US counties. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical company revenues were nearly $2 trillion worldwide in 2022, with record-shattering profits.

Health care in America is still very much broken.

Welcome To Gunmerica, Con't

Nobody on earth should be surprised that Albuquerque police have arrested a loser Republican for the shootings over the last month at New Mexico Democrats' homes and offices. 

 

Police in Albuquerque on Monday announced the arrest of a failed candidate for state Legislature in a string of shootings at locations associated with high-profile Democratic leaders.

Republican Solomon Peña is accused of conspiring with and paying four men to carry out four shootings at the homes of two Bernalillo County commissioners and two state legislators.

Two other shootings previously believed to be linked to the case so far have not been connected to the suspect, police said at a news conference early Monday evening.

On Jan. 9 police announced the arrest of another suspect in the case and said they took possession of a firearm possibly used in one of the shootings.

But on Monday, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina described Peña as the initiator of the shootings.

"It is believed that he is the mastermind behind this," he said at Monday's news conference.

Peña was arrested by a SWAT team in the Albuquerque area Monday, the chief said. Ballistics evidence from one of the shootings connected the case to the suspect, Medina said.

 

So yeah, a Republican who lost paid people to terrorize the Democrats who won.

Sounds like a terrorist conspiracy to me, which should land Mr. Peña in prison for several decades. Let's see what Merrick Garland and the DoJ decide to do here. He made dozens of Twitter references that his election loss was "fraud" and "stolen."

Then he paid people to shoot up the homes and offices of the Democrats who beat him.

Remember, the Republican response to a Democratic win is to attack it legally...and illegally.

The Body Politic Electric

Wyoming, still the nation's least-populated state, says it will "symbolically phase out' electric vehicles in the state by 2035 in order to "protect" the state's oil and gas industry.

REPUBLICANS IN WYOMING’S state senate are considering a resolution banning new electric vehicle sales in the state by 2035, an answer to California and New York states’ recent laws that would bar the sale of gas-powered vehicles in those states by the same year.

“The Legislature would be saying, ‘If you don’t like our petroleum cars, well, we don’t like your electric cars,’” said the resolution’s sponsor, Republican State Sen. Jim Anderson, Cowboy State Daily reported.

The Wyoming resolution, “Phasing Out New Electric Vehicle Sales By 2035,” is largely a symbolic gesture, as it would not be legally binding if passed. But Wyoming Republicans still think it’s important enough to consider passing, even if only to troll Democratic states that favor electric vehicles.

The bill states that “oil and gas production has long been one of Wyoming’s proud and valued industries” and has generated “countless jobs” and “contributed revenues” to the state. It goes on to say that Wyoming’s “vast stretches of highway, coupled with a lack of electric vehicle charging infrastructure” would make “widespread use of electric vehicles impracticable.”

“I’m interested in making sure that the solutions that some folks want to the so-called climate crisis are actually practical in real life,” GOP co-sponsor Sen. Brian Boner said, according to Cowboy State Daily. “I just don’t appreciate when other states try to force technology that isn’t ready.” 

 

Wyoming women of child-bearing age, residents of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, and trans folks were not asked to comment on "how other states shouldn't get to determine things where you live."

 

Also, no Republican wants to "discuss the issues" with electric vehicles any more than they want to have real discussions on race, gender, religion, or civil rights.  It's all bad-faith trolling, like this legislation and the people trying to pass it.