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It's About Time Astronauts Got Healthcare For Life (mashable.com)
Miriam Kramer, reporting for Mashable: NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria flew to space four times for the space agency between 1995 and 2007. While in space, his eyesight deteriorated, a well-documented medical issue NASA's known about for years, and one that many astronauts have experienced first-hand. For many astronauts, their eyesight readjusts once they get back to Earth. That wasn't the case for Lopez-Alegria, though. His eyesight got significantly worse during his time in orbit, and NASA isn't paying for his contacts or doctor visits today, years after his retirement from the agency. However, he still travels to Houston, Texas once per year to allow the agency to gather data about his health, without any expectation that NASA will offer treatment for any conditions that may have developed because of his time in space. In other words, while Lopez-Alegria's eyesight deteriorates, NASA benefits from the data he provides to the American space program, without medical recompense to him today. The lack of health care for former astronauts has long been a sore spot at NASA, but now it threatens the agency's future. Deep space missions beyond the moon, like a mission to Mars, require a better understanding of how extended spaceflight affects the human body.
Wasn't the ACA supposed to fix this?
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
This is just a small example of how the US healthcare system is a failure.
Every other Western democracy has universal healthcare coverage. Most alongside private coverage, and some (at least Canada) purely public.
The US system is harmful on so many levels. This includes poor outcomes, 2x to 3x higher cost per-capita than any other system, transferring the cost of healthcare to employers and consequently acting as a strong deterrent to recruiting Americans and an inducement to offshoring work, etc.
But Americans *love* their private health insurance, so it's not politically viable to discuss a real solution. Only crappy band-aids, like ACA (which the Republicans successfully rebranded "Obamacare") and - soon - a watered down version we'll be calling Trumpcare.
Americans object to mandating the purchase of health insurance, but they forget that treating people who present at a hospital is mandatory. Making health insurance mandatory is symmetrical. If it's optional, hospitals should be allowed - and perhaps required - to turn away patients without the ability to pay. Don't like that outcome? OK, drop the objection to mandatory coverage then.
OK, rant off. :-)
How about we give everybody the privilege, instead of limiting it to Astronauts?
Or at least expand the offering to everybody who's ever wanted to be an astronaut?
-- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
just because you flew into space. You're one of the plebs, capisce? Now, resume your shopping and stop complaining. Everything is fine.
"...he still travels to Houston, Texas once per year to allow the agency to gather data about his health...
Just because we few into space doesn't mean we're gonna be your guinea pig for life. You want something from us space plebs? Then fucking pay for it.
I live well beneath my means and save and invest scrupulously because I know there will come a day when I'll need the money. Meanwhile, I watch people all around me blow every last dime they can get their hands on and live paycheck to paycheck in houses and cars they can't afford, and when they are old and penniless they will probably be taken care of by Medicaid or whatever social safety net program the current regime comes up with. I don't see why they shouldn't experience the consequences of their decisions. It's not like anyone is forcing them to do anything. The system is fucked up and punishes those of us who try to be responsible, and rewards those who are stupid with their money.
The real problem here is that refusing to pay up front for medical costs leads to a whole host of social ills further down the line, that often cost much more. When someone gets a medical intervention that they cannot afford, they will inevitably become insolvent, either through bankruptcy or through simply abandoning the debt. In the end either someone else (the taxpayers) has to pay the bill or it gets written off as a bad debt, but in the meantime the person who has gone into some sort of insolvency is in a much worse state, either having lost almost everything through bankruptcy, or exists in a debt netherworld where wages are garnisheed or they end up simply working under the table. There are significant social costs to this; spousal and child abuse, mental health and suicide.
The narrow view taken by people that "I dont' want to pay for it" ignores the fact that you do end up paying for it in many other ways. Refusing to cover peoples' health just kicks the can further down the road, and costing everyone a lot more money.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
this is why i cant stand liberal democrats, always thinking other people should pay for their decisions
Like the decision to get sick or have a genetic condition? Yeah, you should have picked better parents, you loser!
Seriously, dude, this is how insurance and social programs work. We all pay in.
Like when you crash your car....all those other people who aren't crashing their cars are paying for yours to be fixed.
Like when your house catches fire...other people whose houses haven't caught fire are helping to pay for yours to be rebuilt.
Like when your children go to school...all those other people who don't even have children are helping pay for the school your kids go to.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Actually if you had a national health system like just about every other developed nation on the planet you would not need any special treatment for astronauts because just like everyone else they would get free health care. The statement should not be that it's about time astronauts get healthcare for life it should be that it's about time everyone gets healthcare for life.
...Sometimes people just have to live with the consequences of their own decisions, even if that means dying. That includes choosing not to buy insurance and subsequently being unable to afford a necessary medical procedure.
That is a logical and self-consistant attitude: the solution to people not buying insurance is that they should just die.
If Republicans would just honestly state it that way, I'd be ok with it.
--they would have to stop saying that they're "pro life," of course.
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