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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.
just because you flew into space. You're one of the plebs, capisce? Now, resume your shopping and stop complaining. Everything is fine.
How many occupations have health side-effects? Thousands. You are just one of many, bub. Get in line. You aren't special.
I totally agree that NASA should pay for the most top-notch healthcare for life for all astronauts. There are not many and they deserve it for the risks they take and the benefits we all gain...
However this line is absurd:
"now it threatens the agency's future"
No, no it does not. Even if NASA shot all astronauts on retirement there would still be a healthy supply of overqualified candidates for flying in space.
I wish people would stop weakening perfectly good arguments by trying to lace them with drama.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Wasn't the ACA supposed to fix this?
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
Don't alot of them have the VA?
We just need to make it so that all astronauts get VA.
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.
Most, if not all astronauts have military backgrounds. Mostly due to requirement #2 " At least 1,000 hours pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. Flight test experience is highly desirable." see: https://www.nasa.gov/audience/...
It is true they do not have "access to the doctor of his choice", all former military have access to VA benefits for life.
Which is more than can be said for 99% of US born citizens.
How can the effects be studied if they are treated?
Astronauts should have to sign never to seek treatment after their first tour in space.
TFS should be posted at https://www.change.org./
It's weird that 32 out of the 33 developed countries in the world consider healthcare to be an important right of citizenship. But that 33rd country, they don't even believe in it for national heroes, soldiers, or public servants.
It's almost like the cognitive dissonance exists at a fundamental level such that no progress can be made.
All sides of the politics making points. How about just focus on the realities: We're talking a few dozen people, and longitudinal study is of continued value, so how much money can we possibly be talking about?
Typo: should be "ACA", not "ADA". Modnays
Table-ized A.I.
If years ago US healthcare was not tied to jobs and was not year to year. Then it would not gotten to the point that it is at now.
Americans pay far more for worse outcomes and care than any other nation. Socialization is not only stigmatized (ewww giving a shit about others) but the cost is presented in the most psychologically unacceptable way with forced manual opt ins. Far more money is spent on government wastebut there is little outrage because it's hidden in your taxes. If Americans were forced to send in a manual payment or get fined for overpriced barely functioning millitary hardware for billions of dollars there would be mobs in the streets with flaming cars and looting.
What is the cause for eye sight to get worse in space? Is it the same reason why astronauts need to work out so their muscles don't become weaker while they are in space? What is actually happening to their eyes?
People in jails / prisons get better then the ER at little to cost. And it's costs us a lot just to keep them locked up.
health care tied to jobs and for profit 3rd party's are the real issues as well the pre-ex system.
In the past doctor's needed to spend alot of the time fighting junk pre-ex BS just to get paid and there way to much billing code BS that the 3rd party's try to point to say you did this wrong we are not paying.
We need to expand medicare + medicaid to all.
Australia has a system like that and doctors get paided about the same as they do here.
Another family member who is a veteran of the USMC and not a retiree is in the VA system. I'm not intimately acquainted with the details but it seems he has to jump through way more hoops to get care.
Basically, military medical benefits != VA benefits. A lot of it depends on length of service and other factors. Clarification/correction/refutation from active duty, vets and retirees welcomed.
This article explains some of the difference:
http://www.npr.org/sections/he...
All sides of the politics making points. How about just focus on the realities: We're talking a few dozen people, and longitudinal study is of continued value, so how much money can we possibly be talking about?
Not only that, but it's actually rather amazing that they're not covering the treatment as part of the agreement to study his eyes. I was pretty much told to expect to have to have on the table at least partial coverage if I wanted to do this sort of research on human subjects--as part of getting permission to do it at all. (Compensation of research subjects is a standard outright requirement. You don't have it in there somewhere, even if it's just a shiny gold star sticker, and the only real question ought to be "How quickly will the ethics review board say no?" Oh, and it does have to scale properly: if I'm wanting, for example, a vial of blood, I probably should be shelling out cold hard cash and/or giving you free some testing you'd normally pay for, which if I'm smart is something I'd be doing anyway... "Access to personal test results" might even make it easier to get you to keep talking to me if it's a longitudinal study.)
I have Altered the Deal. Pray I do not .alter it further.
The health issues of space travel are well documented. He agreed to the salary and benefits in exchange for the work and risk involved. If he wants medical care, when he can give back the percentage of his salary that would of went towards that.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
> However, he still travels to Houston, Texas once per year to allow the agency to gather data about his health,
If it was me, I'd stop doing that and offer to resume on the condition that NASA also pay for the necessary health care.
A Democrat did that too, working closely with Unions and Corporations to keep workers working in spite of wage fixing.
It was at this moment that it stopped being real insurance and started being the bullshit "maintenance package" that we have today.
You know, health insurance originally covered shit like hospital stays completely. Thats what it was for. You paid a small fee now because you couldn't deal with the small but real risk of running into something you couldnt afford.
Fast forward to Obama, Pelosi, and Reid and in a joint move with insurance companies, "Major Medical" was outlawed. All insurance policies had to include the "maintenance" motivated by the fact that insurance companies made a lot of money on those plans and their higher premiums but not a lot of money on Major Medical plans and their lower premiums.
Today if you want a plan that covers all the worst cases the way Major Medical did, you probably couldnt afford it. Its basically the cost of both type of plans put together because one of them is now mandatory, the one that amazingly doesnt cover the worst cases.
Todays Democrats just dont understand what insurance is. They would rather you pay for a yearly physical whether you like it or not than for you to protect your house and life savings in the case of a major medical issue.
We know its what they would rather have, because thats what they demanded by writ of law.
"His name was James Damore."
The last A in NASA is for "Assholes" ?
Irrelevant news and morons using moderation to mod down what they disagree on. 2018 resolution: so long.
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.
Bond:
Trumpfinger:
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
So, the guy was flown into space on a gigantic bomb at a cost roughly measurable as a year's salary per pound transported several times... and the only real injury he seemed to get from it was bad eyesight.
Ask him if he would change his mind and become a desk jockey or lab jockey if he could do it all over again knowing he would have to pay for contacts and eye exams.
Personally, I'd submit myself to annual proctology exams with a not so gentle handed doctor and then pay double for them if it would get me into space and I'm really not interested in anything going that way with me.
...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.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
The first question is great, a right and proper way to respond to any entitlement program aimed at improving the healthcare outcomes of a subset of Americans. The second question gives up on the promise of the first and is all too typical of the weak US Left.
Right now those who were really unhappy that Donald Trump became US President are letting Pres. Trump set the agenda for how US healthcare ought to work while pointlessly going on about preserving ObamaCare. ObamaCare (nee RomneyCare) was a gift to the HMOs which kept the HMOs in charge. It's time for universalizing Medicare for all Americans, and HR676 is the practical means to do this.
Physicians for a National Health Program have been championing HR676 for a while and for good reason. It's well time to tell the US government how to handle this, not let them come up with another complex means of preserving HMO power (which invariably means needlessly expensive healthcare that doesn't cover everyone, preserves the idea that healthcare is not a human right, and doesn't deliver outcomes which compare well with countries that do universalize their medical care delivery).
I recommend learning more about universalizing Medicare: an interview with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, more on HR676, and Dr. Woolhandler on the inadequacies of ObamaCare on KPFA radio starting at 20m27s.
Digital Citizen
The civilized world has at least a base level of universal health care for everyone within their country. We find that gets in the way of profit so we won't allow it to happen. This isn't a partisan issue, either - the health insurance industry owns politicians of every flavor and invests heavily to ensure that this does not change.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
You can pay for it like everyone else. Lots of jobs can have damaging effects on the body, you don't see anyone else getting free health care for life. At the end of the day, being an astronaut is still a job. One that carries known risks.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Other question: Isn't this considered an occupational injury?
It's about time we all got healthcare for life. We no longer pay taxes to fill some king or emperor's coffers. We pay taxes for our common good, as a nation and a people. This notion in America that we're all just individuals who happen to live within some artificial borders has got to go. This notion that helping poor people somehow takes something away from others has got to go. When we raise up the poorest citizens, it directly benefits everyone else. Yet we continue to throw money at rich people, even as we see the middle- and working-class continue its slide down. It's madness, when this money could be paying for education and healthcare.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
If they treated his eyesight, then they could not collect data about how it deteriorates after spending time in space.