How about a refund for unused insurance premiums? I’ve been paying for years without needing a doctor. Of course if something goes wrong, I need the protection, but why am I paying higher premiums to offset the out of shape smokers, drinkers, overeating lazy asses who constantly need medical care?
I believe in RFK Jr., but Big Pharma is just too strong. I put on Fox News yesterday. The commercials came on, and all six in a row dealt with medicines: Voltaren, Aleve, Hempvana, etc.
That is why HSA accounts can be very good, especially if coupled with truly catastrophic health insurance for the really major unexpected problems that might happen.
I have utilized the HSA plan fully since 2002. Just ZERO cons and so many PRO's to what an HSA represents. Personally, I have NEVER touched mine, and have FUNDED it for one reason...to PAY my Medicare premiums when I get into that world so I use it as a savings account. Can use it to pay part B in medicare, and any medical expenses in those future years. Right now I simply have the monies in a index of mutual funds growing nicely tax free too over those 24 years. Trump suggested this option, and often early on for people, but it seems the corrupting influence on too many swamp ceatures by the health insurance companies won again. Its a disgrace for sure because its as common sense and logical as it gets! Many ways to make an HSA work depending on an individuals greater plan...
And how about just getting preventative care for your exorbitant premiums? Nope. The industry, i.e. managed care, deprives the patient of that as well depending on what you say at your visit. Good try ACA.
I am a Kaiser member with an HSA, and I get all the preventative care consultation that I want. I really don't get your point. Most preventative care today is easy to access with readily available information that guides people to healthy lifestyle choices. It is frankly free. It is only lazy and stupid people that have to run to the doctor to get advice on how to live.
I completely agree with you. The problem is a large number of Americans are lazy and stupid. In my 78 years I've seen Americans become increasingly irresponsible, lazy and dependent on government. Very sad.
I could be misinterpreting the comment but perhaps she means preventative care for free..? My health insurance card in the great state of Taxachusetts says I'm supposed to have my preventative care for $0 annually. However if I talk about anything else or get a prescription refilled, basically if I do anything other than walk in there and say "doc I feel great no problems whatsoever" I'm charged to copay. It's how the insurance companies are dictating (allegedly) to the medical community how they should code the visits.
There is a range of care services that some want to include in preventative care that are either self care, or actual expensive medical services to treat conditions or expensive diagnostic services. Many of them are biased toward females. For example, there is a demand for Mammograms (breast) and PAP smears (cervical) as preventative care, but colonoscopies and prostate cancer screening of generally left off the list. CBC blood tests and routine vaccinations are generally free or very inexpensive at clinics. Most of preventive care is common sense counseling and education that is available for free these days and is self-care.
People with Cadillac plans get surprised by diagnoses. It is impossible to screen for every ailment. There is limited utility in "preventative care" other than just living a healthy lifestyle, and seeing the doctor when anything feels off.
That shows a profound misunderstanding of insurance. Insurance is as much a Ponzi scheme as Social Security, but kept in check by profits and losses and the threat of bankruptcy.
Insurance premiums do not pay into an account. Your premiums do not build up a surplus. They are never unused.
That’s my point, isn’t it?? Funny how Allstate can offer refunds and reduced premiums for good driving. The drunk driver pays higher premiums, doesn’t he? Multiple speeding tickets? Accidents? Why can’t health insurance work the same way, the system is broken, right? I understand about pooled risk, but what would happen to your health and your wallet if you were truly responsible for your own health care?
Because your premiums WERE used, just not for you. You know that's how insurance works, right? We don't get auto insurance refunds when we get rid of a car that had no accidents, we don't get homeowners insurance refunds when we sell a house that had no fires.
Those premiums pay for bad drivers and negligent homeowners, just as your health insurance premiums pay for out of shape smokers, drinkers, etc.
The solution to health insurance, as I've repeated like a parrot in here and elsewhere FOR YEARS, is to cut the 1940s-era cord between health insurance and employment. It's the only insurance that you get through work and it's the only insurance in perpetual crisis.
Make health insurance like auto insurance - NO coverage for the health equivalents of oil changes, scheduled maintenance, tires, timing belts, and the like - and the cost of health insurance will plummet.
I'm 60 and I never had kids. Does that mean I should get a refund because I didn't utilize maternity care and child medical care? What a remarkably ignorant comment. One car accident could put your medical usage Head and shoulders above many peoples who had regularly used medical care. I'm not defending the system, but your remark is really gross.
I’m not trying to be rude or gross. Obviously there are nuances and situations that can’t be explained in a substack post. But big medicine wants to keep us sick, and big insurance wants to deny coverage, charge high premiums, etc. Car insurance, Life insurance, property insurance, business insurance, looks at individual profiles of risk. If I’m low risk or preferred risk, why am I pooling my insurance with unhealthy habits and lifestyle? I get it people get cancer, pregnant, accidents, whatever it is. There has to be a way to work that out while saving the average consumer money and still get coverage. THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN, what’s your solution?
The point of insurance is shared risk. There’s always a risk of injury, or even illness. Would you want health insurance rated more like auto insurance, which puts drivers in categories and determines premiums accordingly. People are generally okay with that, but it’s no more ‘fair’ to a law-abiding teen than current practices that determine health insurance premiums are to someone like you. IMO, catastrophic plans with deductibles that would make most people pause before seeking care would be a start.
Hey, I just threw it out there that since big medicine makes money on the sick, big pharma sells its drugs and makes a fortune, and insurance companies make a ton, why not cut back a portion of our premiums for not using a physician, a drug, or ever setting foot in a doctor’s office, a specialist, a pharmacy, etc, etc? It’s an idea, maybe a shitty one, but the system as it stands is broken and something has to change.
Neither did I, Fred - and am grateful that they finally are.
There is NO GOOD REASON for ALL newborns to get the HepB vaccine - only those born to mothers (yes, mothers, not birth persons) whose health histories pose a threat to their newborns! No good reason to overload young children with multiple vaccines at a single doctor visit, either. Also still hopeful.
I never believed Donald Trump was ever going to do anything that ACTUALLY threatened any big-money or establishment interests. I knew I was being played when I voted for him, but he is marginally better than the alternative. To me MAHA is a movement of individual agency and action. Eating whole organic foods, exercise, getting outside in the sun, reducing screen time, etc. are all actions that individuals can do to change the trajectory of their lives. The government can't do it for you. The government could change priorities on what it funds, but it's pretty naive to think that they ever will. Folks, it's all in your court. The government isn't coming to save you. Save yourself.
I agree with your statement, “MAHA is a movement of individual agency and action”. Being aware of and accountable for your own healthcare needs and choices. I worked in the healthcare system for 40 years and the forces that run it are powerful and have massive incentives (financial and others) to keep it just the way it is. I am not optimistic MAHA can influence this. And I am SOOO disappointed in President Trump’s lack of humility and action in getting COVID vaccines off the market for good. It was not a good sign when Pfizer was welcomed to the White House with open arms. Best a person can do is be informed, make good choices, and advocate for yourself and family.
I didn't want to take your position at the start of this Administration, even though there were plenty of clues. I wanted to believe, but the President's refusal to allow anyone to criticize the vaccines should have negated that belief. I'll go even farther: you doctor may be a pharma shill or a doctrinaire zealot. I was willing to remain within the traditional MD/Medicare framework when diagnosed with COPD, but my radicalization had already begun. My research into cancer care began about a year and a half before a scan revealed lung cancer. The choices offered patients with traditional oncology are awful: maybe extend your life a few months while making your remaining life miserable and leaving you impoverished. I was not about to submit to that. The problem is that everything outside the Cut/Burn/Poison paradigm isn't covered by any insurance (with the exception of a few repurposed drugs). Many alternate practitioners refuse to deal with Medicare or private insurance of any kind. I can't honestly blame them. If I live long enough, place me in the "burn it all down" category.
I hear you. I have a few medical issues that require traditional allopathic medical care. But I ask a ton of questions of my providers and push back on things like routine vaccinations. The whole insurance game is a huge challenge. I’ve had to wait for needed care several times due to insurance rules. Unless I’m willing to pay out of pocket.
The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex is vastly wealthy which results in intractable power. In the end, change will boil down to individual refusal to take what they’re hawking. As long as the revelations of cause and effect for disease continue to trickle out, I remain optimistic. That’s what MAHA is for, to keep us informed.
Exactly! Change will happen if the public demands it. It’s all about economics. If sales of HFCorn syrup laden products fall then new products will appear. If parents stop buying food with petroleum based dye then the industry will create food without it. So far MAHA has succeeded in many areas and the messages are spreading as people become educated on reading labels and asking better questions.
We don't have a Healthcare system, we have the world's largest money laundering scam that helps multi billion dollar companies get richer while we have to pay them to get terrible "health care".
The Covid event proved beyond a doubt that a “Healthcare” system based on coercion is not healthcare at all. It is a control mechanism. Mandates make whatever is mandated political.
If MAHA did nothing more than eliminate all medical mandates, that would be a huge accomplishment.
When something is free it turns out to be very expensive. According to Goldhill a college graduate starting a new job will contribute 2 million dollars to the healthcare industry over the course of their lifetime. It will be mostly invisible spending to them. They have no idea how much lower their compensation is due to their employer buying healthcare on their behalf or how they are subsidizing or are being subsidized by single employees paying for couples and families. They see the 2.5 percent the contribute to Medicare but don’t see there employer 2.5 percent contribution. They don’t realize that 25 percent of their city, state and federal taxes pay for healthcare. To most people what they pay for healthcare is their copayments and deductible
I voted too early to tell, but I was torn. I still believe in RFK, but he’s got an uphill battle. I also think the industry, medical and pharma are very strong! Very hard to find doctors who believe like we do and many are in boutique practices. That means I need to pay for them as well as insurance. So frustrating! Is such a huge mess on so many levels; we’re expecting a lot out of one man! However, I’ll continue to hope!
Alex, I think you are a bit too cynical about MAHA and what it means. I think it means for each person to get healthier… for me, I lost 45# and was able to get off my blood pressure meds. In addition, I started working out and attending Pilates classes. Good for me and for the medical system. I was incentivized by RFK Jr and Pete Hegseth doing pushups.
I didn't vote in the poll because I have a sense that none of it matters. The system is way too big and has too many entrenched interests. Too many pigs feeding at the trough, as it were.
What I can do personally is exercise daily, eat (generally) good foods, and otherwise do everything I can to stay far, far away from our health care system.
We just have to keep up the pressure. RFK Jr. is in a tough spot, as Congress is bought and paid for by Big Pharma, and to a lesser extent, Big Ag. But he's still done a lot of good things, if not the revolutionary things we had hoped for.
Trump's actions toward glyphosate are more understandable when you listen to Rogan's podcast with RFK Jr. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk7DQom821s). I recommend it to anyone interested in what he's trying to do. There are some really interesting developments that can make a huge difference in the amount of pesticides and herbicides in our food.
With respect to healthcare reforms, Trump's requiring price transparency for medical costs is a huge move in the right direction. I haven't heard anything about that recently so I hope it will be fully implemented.
In response to how much of RFK Jr.'s agenda will be implemented, I'm hopeful but amazed at the resistance he's getting. Maybe he should focus on a cure for TDS first.
The problem with almost everything related to affordability can be visualized with a line, a supply chain, that goes from a producer to a consumer, but where over time thousands of rent-seeking, looting and gambling leeches have attached themselves and siphon off money that adds costs that then gets passed on to the consumer. These leeches include lawyers, Wall Street, private equity, service organization that lobby for more laws to require their services, politicians, government agencies and their NGOs... all that have a conflict of interest over making things more affordable.
The problem in making structural changes to improve affordability is that the current economy and the livelihoods of millions of people are reliant on the leeching. That is the biggest challenge with the MAGA and MAHA movements. Make structural changes to improve affordability and put tens of thousands of people out of work. Then the commie legacy media goes to work destroying you for it and the idiot voters elect back the Democrats that can only add more leeches to the lines.
Do you ever wonder why it is increasingly impossible to buy beef from a local rancher, flour from a local mill, or milk and cheese from a local dairy? There are countries like France and Italy where much of this still happens, and food prices are much lower. The same is true for healthcare. It isn't just the insurance companies that leech from the line that begins with a doctor and ends with a patient. There are many others sucking away cash.
This is why the Trump agenda, and ya'll are idiots for failing to get it... only needing to listen to Trump admin people like Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick, is focused on overall domestic economic growth. The only way to get the job done is economic and foreign policy (which under Trump is economic policy) to rocket-grow the domestic economy while simultaneously tweaking the structure to eliminate more of the leeches. With the economic indicators being strong, it provides the cover needed to eradicate more of the non-productive looting along the supply chain. With more direct producer to consumer transactional relationships, real competition kicks in and affordability happens through the standard invisible hand of capitalism.
And Glenn, you make the only point that needs to be made here. The Democrats are 100% anti-healthcare affordability with their agenda. Yes, the Republicans are divided with the old necons still being fondled by big pharma. However, the Republicans under Trump at least have a plan to move forward improving health affordability and general health outcomes. Just look at the plunge in opioid deaths since Trump came into office. This is a domestic improvement that has been derived by the same foreign policy that you rip to shreds over your dislike of war and Israel.
Like so many in the media, you are like a brick necklace around the Trump administration attempting to drown it while he attempts to save you from drowning.
How about a refund for unused insurance premiums? I’ve been paying for years without needing a doctor. Of course if something goes wrong, I need the protection, but why am I paying higher premiums to offset the out of shape smokers, drinkers, overeating lazy asses who constantly need medical care?
I believe in RFK Jr., but Big Pharma is just too strong. I put on Fox News yesterday. The commercials came on, and all six in a row dealt with medicines: Voltaren, Aleve, Hempvana, etc.
That is why HSA accounts can be very good, especially if coupled with truly catastrophic health insurance for the really major unexpected problems that might happen.
I have utilized the HSA plan fully since 2002. Just ZERO cons and so many PRO's to what an HSA represents. Personally, I have NEVER touched mine, and have FUNDED it for one reason...to PAY my Medicare premiums when I get into that world so I use it as a savings account. Can use it to pay part B in medicare, and any medical expenses in those future years. Right now I simply have the monies in a index of mutual funds growing nicely tax free too over those 24 years. Trump suggested this option, and often early on for people, but it seems the corrupting influence on too many swamp ceatures by the health insurance companies won again. Its a disgrace for sure because its as common sense and logical as it gets! Many ways to make an HSA work depending on an individuals greater plan...
And how about just getting preventative care for your exorbitant premiums? Nope. The industry, i.e. managed care, deprives the patient of that as well depending on what you say at your visit. Good try ACA.
I am a Kaiser member with an HSA, and I get all the preventative care consultation that I want. I really don't get your point. Most preventative care today is easy to access with readily available information that guides people to healthy lifestyle choices. It is frankly free. It is only lazy and stupid people that have to run to the doctor to get advice on how to live.
I completely agree with you. The problem is a large number of Americans are lazy and stupid. In my 78 years I've seen Americans become increasingly irresponsible, lazy and dependent on government. Very sad.
I could be misinterpreting the comment but perhaps she means preventative care for free..? My health insurance card in the great state of Taxachusetts says I'm supposed to have my preventative care for $0 annually. However if I talk about anything else or get a prescription refilled, basically if I do anything other than walk in there and say "doc I feel great no problems whatsoever" I'm charged to copay. It's how the insurance companies are dictating (allegedly) to the medical community how they should code the visits.
There is a range of care services that some want to include in preventative care that are either self care, or actual expensive medical services to treat conditions or expensive diagnostic services. Many of them are biased toward females. For example, there is a demand for Mammograms (breast) and PAP smears (cervical) as preventative care, but colonoscopies and prostate cancer screening of generally left off the list. CBC blood tests and routine vaccinations are generally free or very inexpensive at clinics. Most of preventive care is common sense counseling and education that is available for free these days and is self-care.
People with Cadillac plans get surprised by diagnoses. It is impossible to screen for every ailment. There is limited utility in "preventative care" other than just living a healthy lifestyle, and seeing the doctor when anything feels off.
That shows a profound misunderstanding of insurance. Insurance is as much a Ponzi scheme as Social Security, but kept in check by profits and losses and the threat of bankruptcy.
Insurance premiums do not pay into an account. Your premiums do not build up a surplus. They are never unused.
Of course that is not how insurance works. Your premiums go into a pool for everyone’s use. You may not use them but others do.
That’s my point, isn’t it?? Funny how Allstate can offer refunds and reduced premiums for good driving. The drunk driver pays higher premiums, doesn’t he? Multiple speeding tickets? Accidents? Why can’t health insurance work the same way, the system is broken, right? I understand about pooled risk, but what would happen to your health and your wallet if you were truly responsible for your own health care?
Because your premiums WERE used, just not for you. You know that's how insurance works, right? We don't get auto insurance refunds when we get rid of a car that had no accidents, we don't get homeowners insurance refunds when we sell a house that had no fires.
Those premiums pay for bad drivers and negligent homeowners, just as your health insurance premiums pay for out of shape smokers, drinkers, etc.
The solution to health insurance, as I've repeated like a parrot in here and elsewhere FOR YEARS, is to cut the 1940s-era cord between health insurance and employment. It's the only insurance that you get through work and it's the only insurance in perpetual crisis.
Make health insurance like auto insurance - NO coverage for the health equivalents of oil changes, scheduled maintenance, tires, timing belts, and the like - and the cost of health insurance will plummet.
I'm 60 and I never had kids. Does that mean I should get a refund because I didn't utilize maternity care and child medical care? What a remarkably ignorant comment. One car accident could put your medical usage Head and shoulders above many peoples who had regularly used medical care. I'm not defending the system, but your remark is really gross.
I’m not trying to be rude or gross. Obviously there are nuances and situations that can’t be explained in a substack post. But big medicine wants to keep us sick, and big insurance wants to deny coverage, charge high premiums, etc. Car insurance, Life insurance, property insurance, business insurance, looks at individual profiles of risk. If I’m low risk or preferred risk, why am I pooling my insurance with unhealthy habits and lifestyle? I get it people get cancer, pregnant, accidents, whatever it is. There has to be a way to work that out while saving the average consumer money and still get coverage. THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN, what’s your solution?
Umm, those unused premiums are where their profit comes from.
Gee, I wasn’t aware…
That’s how insurance works. Your day may come.
The point of insurance is shared risk. There’s always a risk of injury, or even illness. Would you want health insurance rated more like auto insurance, which puts drivers in categories and determines premiums accordingly. People are generally okay with that, but it’s no more ‘fair’ to a law-abiding teen than current practices that determine health insurance premiums are to someone like you. IMO, catastrophic plans with deductibles that would make most people pause before seeking care would be a start.
Hey, I just threw it out there that since big medicine makes money on the sick, big pharma sells its drugs and makes a fortune, and insurance companies make a ton, why not cut back a portion of our premiums for not using a physician, a drug, or ever setting foot in a doctor’s office, a specialist, a pharmacy, etc, etc? It’s an idea, maybe a shitty one, but the system as it stands is broken and something has to change.
Still hopeful. I never imagined that the childhood vaccine schedule would be seriously questioned.
And revised. I think HHS has already accomplished meaningful reforms and more are on the way.
Neither did I, Fred - and am grateful that they finally are.
There is NO GOOD REASON for ALL newborns to get the HepB vaccine - only those born to mothers (yes, mothers, not birth persons) whose health histories pose a threat to their newborns! No good reason to overload young children with multiple vaccines at a single doctor visit, either. Also still hopeful.
I never believed Donald Trump was ever going to do anything that ACTUALLY threatened any big-money or establishment interests. I knew I was being played when I voted for him, but he is marginally better than the alternative. To me MAHA is a movement of individual agency and action. Eating whole organic foods, exercise, getting outside in the sun, reducing screen time, etc. are all actions that individuals can do to change the trajectory of their lives. The government can't do it for you. The government could change priorities on what it funds, but it's pretty naive to think that they ever will. Folks, it's all in your court. The government isn't coming to save you. Save yourself.
I agree with your statement, “MAHA is a movement of individual agency and action”. Being aware of and accountable for your own healthcare needs and choices. I worked in the healthcare system for 40 years and the forces that run it are powerful and have massive incentives (financial and others) to keep it just the way it is. I am not optimistic MAHA can influence this. And I am SOOO disappointed in President Trump’s lack of humility and action in getting COVID vaccines off the market for good. It was not a good sign when Pfizer was welcomed to the White House with open arms. Best a person can do is be informed, make good choices, and advocate for yourself and family.
I didn't want to take your position at the start of this Administration, even though there were plenty of clues. I wanted to believe, but the President's refusal to allow anyone to criticize the vaccines should have negated that belief. I'll go even farther: you doctor may be a pharma shill or a doctrinaire zealot. I was willing to remain within the traditional MD/Medicare framework when diagnosed with COPD, but my radicalization had already begun. My research into cancer care began about a year and a half before a scan revealed lung cancer. The choices offered patients with traditional oncology are awful: maybe extend your life a few months while making your remaining life miserable and leaving you impoverished. I was not about to submit to that. The problem is that everything outside the Cut/Burn/Poison paradigm isn't covered by any insurance (with the exception of a few repurposed drugs). Many alternate practitioners refuse to deal with Medicare or private insurance of any kind. I can't honestly blame them. If I live long enough, place me in the "burn it all down" category.
I hear you. I have a few medical issues that require traditional allopathic medical care. But I ask a ton of questions of my providers and push back on things like routine vaccinations. The whole insurance game is a huge challenge. I’ve had to wait for needed care several times due to insurance rules. Unless I’m willing to pay out of pocket.
The Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex is vastly wealthy which results in intractable power. In the end, change will boil down to individual refusal to take what they’re hawking. As long as the revelations of cause and effect for disease continue to trickle out, I remain optimistic. That’s what MAHA is for, to keep us informed.
Exactly! Change will happen if the public demands it. It’s all about economics. If sales of HFCorn syrup laden products fall then new products will appear. If parents stop buying food with petroleum based dye then the industry will create food without it. So far MAHA has succeeded in many areas and the messages are spreading as people become educated on reading labels and asking better questions.
We don't have a Healthcare system, we have the world's largest money laundering scam that helps multi billion dollar companies get richer while we have to pay them to get terrible "health care".
The Covid event proved beyond a doubt that a “Healthcare” system based on coercion is not healthcare at all. It is a control mechanism. Mandates make whatever is mandated political.
If MAHA did nothing more than eliminate all medical mandates, that would be a huge accomplishment.
When something is free it turns out to be very expensive. According to Goldhill a college graduate starting a new job will contribute 2 million dollars to the healthcare industry over the course of their lifetime. It will be mostly invisible spending to them. They have no idea how much lower their compensation is due to their employer buying healthcare on their behalf or how they are subsidizing or are being subsidized by single employees paying for couples and families. They see the 2.5 percent the contribute to Medicare but don’t see there employer 2.5 percent contribution. They don’t realize that 25 percent of their city, state and federal taxes pay for healthcare. To most people what they pay for healthcare is their copayments and deductible
I voted too early to tell, but I was torn. I still believe in RFK, but he’s got an uphill battle. I also think the industry, medical and pharma are very strong! Very hard to find doctors who believe like we do and many are in boutique practices. That means I need to pay for them as well as insurance. So frustrating! Is such a huge mess on so many levels; we’re expecting a lot out of one man! However, I’ll continue to hope!
Alex, I think you are a bit too cynical about MAHA and what it means. I think it means for each person to get healthier… for me, I lost 45# and was able to get off my blood pressure meds. In addition, I started working out and attending Pilates classes. Good for me and for the medical system. I was incentivized by RFK Jr and Pete Hegseth doing pushups.
I didn't vote in the poll because I have a sense that none of it matters. The system is way too big and has too many entrenched interests. Too many pigs feeding at the trough, as it were.
What I can do personally is exercise daily, eat (generally) good foods, and otherwise do everything I can to stay far, far away from our health care system.
Prasad heading the FDA gave me optimism there would be reform. I have now lost that optimism.
We just have to keep up the pressure. RFK Jr. is in a tough spot, as Congress is bought and paid for by Big Pharma, and to a lesser extent, Big Ag. But he's still done a lot of good things, if not the revolutionary things we had hoped for.
Please make a recording of the podcast with Emily Kopp available for viewing later.
Trump's actions toward glyphosate are more understandable when you listen to Rogan's podcast with RFK Jr. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk7DQom821s). I recommend it to anyone interested in what he's trying to do. There are some really interesting developments that can make a huge difference in the amount of pesticides and herbicides in our food.
With respect to healthcare reforms, Trump's requiring price transparency for medical costs is a huge move in the right direction. I haven't heard anything about that recently so I hope it will be fully implemented.
In response to how much of RFK Jr.'s agenda will be implemented, I'm hopeful but amazed at the resistance he's getting. Maybe he should focus on a cure for TDS first.
The problem with almost everything related to affordability can be visualized with a line, a supply chain, that goes from a producer to a consumer, but where over time thousands of rent-seeking, looting and gambling leeches have attached themselves and siphon off money that adds costs that then gets passed on to the consumer. These leeches include lawyers, Wall Street, private equity, service organization that lobby for more laws to require their services, politicians, government agencies and their NGOs... all that have a conflict of interest over making things more affordable.
The problem in making structural changes to improve affordability is that the current economy and the livelihoods of millions of people are reliant on the leeching. That is the biggest challenge with the MAGA and MAHA movements. Make structural changes to improve affordability and put tens of thousands of people out of work. Then the commie legacy media goes to work destroying you for it and the idiot voters elect back the Democrats that can only add more leeches to the lines.
Do you ever wonder why it is increasingly impossible to buy beef from a local rancher, flour from a local mill, or milk and cheese from a local dairy? There are countries like France and Italy where much of this still happens, and food prices are much lower. The same is true for healthcare. It isn't just the insurance companies that leech from the line that begins with a doctor and ends with a patient. There are many others sucking away cash.
This is why the Trump agenda, and ya'll are idiots for failing to get it... only needing to listen to Trump admin people like Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick, is focused on overall domestic economic growth. The only way to get the job done is economic and foreign policy (which under Trump is economic policy) to rocket-grow the domestic economy while simultaneously tweaking the structure to eliminate more of the leeches. With the economic indicators being strong, it provides the cover needed to eradicate more of the non-productive looting along the supply chain. With more direct producer to consumer transactional relationships, real competition kicks in and affordability happens through the standard invisible hand of capitalism.
And Glenn, you make the only point that needs to be made here. The Democrats are 100% anti-healthcare affordability with their agenda. Yes, the Republicans are divided with the old necons still being fondled by big pharma. However, the Republicans under Trump at least have a plan to move forward improving health affordability and general health outcomes. Just look at the plunge in opioid deaths since Trump came into office. This is a domestic improvement that has been derived by the same foreign policy that you rip to shreds over your dislike of war and Israel.
Like so many in the media, you are like a brick necklace around the Trump administration attempting to drown it while he attempts to save you from drowning.
I am disgusted with the Trump administration’s decisions on glyphosate and on rescheduling weed. Something here smells skunky.