The number of Americans struggling with medical debt has shot up.
And unfortunately, we still have both dominant political parties shilling for
the private healthcare industry, which has caused this problem to begin with.
To make matters worse,
there's an entire financial industry that's making beaucoup bucks
off of servicing the debt that Americans have as a result of these medical bills.
Now, this study was done by the Kaiser Family Foundation in
collaboration with NPR.
And here's what we found.
More than 100 million people in America, including 41% of adults,
are beset by a healthcare system that is systematically,
pushing patients into debt on a mass scale.
So if you look a little deeper, what do those numbers entail?
Well, in the past five years, more than half of US adult's report,
they've gone into debt because of medical or dental bills.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation poll,
a quarter of adults with health care debt owe more than $5000.
At about one in 5 with any amount of debt say, they don't expect to ever pay it off.
And it might be because of how much that debt is and
what their other financial obligations entail.
As you guys know, wages have not kept up with inflation since the 1970s,
Americans have been struggling.
We haven't even increased the federal minimum wage since the beginning
of the Obama administration, it currently sits at $7.25 cents.
Couple all of that, with a privatized for profit health care system and
you have a recipe for disaster.
And what are the impacts?
As you can imagine, Americans end up giving up other basic necessities,
other basic needs, in order to pay their medical bills.
So I wanna take you to this graph that shows you what Americans are giving
up just to be able to afford health care or pay their medical bills.
The majority of respondents say, that they cut spending on food,
clothing and other basics.
About 63% of them say that, about 40 is that 48% say that they
used up all of their savings, in order to pay for their medical bills.
40% have taken on extra work.
I mean, doesn't this look wonderful, isn't it so
great when you let the markets decide how much health care should cost and
whether or not you should get the care that you need.
It's so awesome when you have all these options.
Now, obviously, it's not awesome I'm being sarcastic.
And often times were critical of the right wing in America that would like to
privatize literally everything.
But they have gotten a lot of assistance from corporate democrats on this matter,
including democratic leadership like Nancy Pelosi, let's watch.
>> I'm not a big fan of Medicare for, I mean, I welcome the debate.
I think that we should have health care for all ,it is expensive.
Who pays, is very important.
What are the benefits that come in there?
>> Not a fan of a single payer healthcare system that would have saved
more than 330,000 lives during the coronavirus pandemic.
Not a big fan of that, not a big fan of that, but it's okay.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has some companionship on this matter,
namely the president of the United States, Joe Biden.
>> The question was asked whether we support eliminating
private health insurance.
Some said yes, I said, absolutely not.
I believe we have to protect and build on Obamacare.
That's why I proposed adding a public option to Obamacare,
as the best way to lower cost and cover everyone.
I understand the appeal of Medicare for all, but
folks supporting it should be clear, that it means getting rid of Obamacare.
And I'm not for that.
But I'm surprised that so many democrats are running on getting rid of.
>> Yeah, Obamacare has been around for decades now.
And we have literally, 100 million Americans in medical debt
as a result of this privatized healthcare model.
So I think I'd rather have Medicare for all, Jake.
>> Yeah, so let me explain how full of crap Joe Biden is.
These are facts.
So first of all, he said he was gonna do a public option.
Never introduced it, never even talked about introducing it,
never meant to introduce it.
He was lying the entire campaign.
He talked about lowering drug prices on the campaign trail.
He proposed that wink wink in one of the bills and it was democrats,
corporate democrats, not republicans.
Yes, all the Republics are opposed to it.
But it was corporate democrats that said no, we and every we showed it on the show
every democrat that said no to lowering drug prices,
took massive amounts of money from drug companies and insurance companies.
Okay, so it was his party that sold it out.
Did he fight it?
Not one bit?
Not at all, okay.
Now Obamacare, look we told you covered more people.
That's true.
It does that's just one upside but it's generally, a fraud to be honest.
It now as NPR explains and great job by NPR here, give credit where credit is due.
That it's drove up prices, why?
Because of the same thing we said during the Obamacare debates,
all the way back then we were on the air.
We said, there's no price controls and
a bunch of democrats lied through their teeth and everyone in media lied.
No, they say there's drug controls.
Look, I read it there's no goddamn price controls and
now guess guess who was right and who was wrong?
There's no price controls and they've been jacking it up over and over and
over again, until we're swimming in debt.
I mean look guys, there's the medical debt that Anna just told you guys
about that we all know about.
So at least, one in five Americans 20% right there.
But another 20%, are actually on installment plan so
they don't go under debt, okay.
>> They fall under debt?
>> Yeah, so they're not recorded in the debt category in there.
So that's installment plans.
That's another 20% of the country.
That's on an installment plan with the hospital or healthcare provider.
Okay, there's another 10% who borrowed from a friend, they're not counted either.
There's another 17%, that put it on their credit card bills.
They're not counting either, Jesus Christ that's almost the whole country.
We told you before in other stories,
50% of Americans cannot afford a $500 new debt that they get on anything.
Okay, well of course, any medical issue is gonna be a pylon more than that.
That's why boom,
you knock out half the country before we even start the conversation.
Obamacare was originally Romneycare.
It was literally mitt Romney's Republicans plan that they passed in massachusetts.
It was designed by the Heritage Foundation,
a very deeply right wing think tank.
It's a giant corporate plan,
to hand over everyone to private insurance and let them run amok.
And then they told you it was historic.
No, we need universal healthcare like every other developed
nation in this country.
We are literally killing people for profit.
>> And I have to mention, oftentimes when we talk about why we have such a broken
health care system in America.
We focus on the lobbying that takes place by the private health insurance industry.
But we should also take into account the financial industry makes a killing
off of servicing the loans are the debt associated with medical bills.
So I want to just give you those details as well because they looked at that.
This was a very comprehensive study.
They did a great job.
So NPR writes, now, a highly lucrative industry
is capitalizing on patient's inability to pay hospitals.
And other medical providers are pushing millions into credit cards and
other loans.
These sick patients with high interest rates or stick patients with
high interest rates while generating profits for the lenders that top 29%.
And I remember, I remember needing going to the dentist,
at the time I had no dental insurance at all.
I have dental insurance now, which isn't that great to be honest.
Dental insurance overall is terrible in America as well.
But I remember, not being able to afford the work I had done on on a cavity.
And what, the dentist told me?
Open a care credit account.
It's a credit card specifically for medical debt.
The interest rate was astronomical.
So yeah, there's a financial industry component to it as well.
>> Okay guys, so now more devastating facts for you guys.
First of all, to the point that Anna was making.
The entire healthcare industry makes enormous profits over, overcharging us.
So other developed nations, just for God's sake, look it up.
For God's sake, look it up because of the brainwashing that corporate media does.
They pay half.
I know it sounds unbelievable.
They pay half of what we pay and they have better results and
they don't have any medical debt.
None, zero.
Because they have universal coverage.
It's our health care industry, literally kills people for profit.
Let me explain what I mean by that,
45-60,000 people a year die because they don't have health insurance, okay.
And why don't they have health insurance?
Because they can't afford, they can't afford the premium deductible etc.
And our system says,
if you cannot pay the ransom to this health care insurance industry.
That has no, that serves no purpose and does not even exist in other countries.
If you don't pay them the ransom, we're gonna let you die.
And we do, we let a stadium full of people die every single year.
But on top of that, the banks make money off of servicing that debt.
And now there's a whole new industry that existed before but
now applies to health care of debt collectors.
Now, the debt collectors take it and
then they brutalize you to get the money back because that's their business model.
And the insurance industry knows that, all the politicians know it.
They're sending you to deal with those thugs, literal thugs.
And they go, so what?
They donate to my campaign, which leads to another point.
Guys on Cable News, none of them know your pain.
They're all millionaires.
They don't know a single person that has medical debt.
To them, that's why they're like, I don't get it.
What's the big deal?
The stock market's up?
Everybody?
Our advertisers are happy.
Everyone at the cocktail party is happy.
What are you guys all upset about?
We definitely, shouldn't have universal health care coverage.
Are you gonna pay for that?
You schmucks, you liars.
It costs less.
It's a verifiable fact.
Last one, 66% of the country, let alone about 20% that just flat out,
can't get any kind of health care coverage.
Two third of the country say they have avoided going to the doctor
because of course.
Well, obviously, people are gonna die if you don't go to the doctor because you're
worried about costs.
And it's gonna ruin their health.
Obviously, we're literally killing ourselves, so
that these rapacious industries can make more money, billions of dollars.
And our gross, sick, corrupt politicians are all in their pockets.
Both republicans and democrats lying,
lying democrats like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.