“The collapse is caused mainly by debt and the economic crisis in Puerto Rico and historic privatization of the health care system there. Our research shows patients are waiting for six to eight months to get an appointment with a specialist. If that’s not a sign of collapse, I don’t know what is,” said Varas-Diaz.

  • Mammal@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Puerto Rico is just the canary in the coal mine. The entire US healthcare system is on the brink of collapse.

    • PeleSpirit@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      I’ve known people who’ve had to wait 6 to 8 months for a specialist and also, that privatization of health care thing.

      • Alto@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        Yep. It’s what’s gotten my father to pull his head out of his ass regarding public Healthcare. His last argument was longer wait times in Canada/UK, and the difference us pretty much gone. Broken doesn’t even begin to describe it.

        • PeleSpirit@lemmy.worldOP
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          10 months ago

          A buddy of mine is a staunch republican, like almost died with covid because it’s not real type, he’s also a veteran. When he had to go to the VA after he got out, he said he needed a PHD to get his healthcare. That while he was a soldier, his only healthcare decisions were to go or not to go in for what he needed. His dad was a doctor growing up, so he didn’t know normal healthcare. I explained that civilians have had the VA type of healthcare for decades. I told him that was what Obamacare was supposed help with and be more like what he had as a soldier but the r’s weren’t having it. Next topic.

          • Maeve@kbin.social
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            10 months ago

            My buddy has* VA healthcare. The rest of us don’t even get to see a doctor, dentist or anything else.

            Corrected.

      • dan1101@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I live near a college town with a big medical center and lots of doctors graduating. Some of the specialists here are not taking new patients at all and there is no waiting list. Only alternative is to drive 50 miles to another city.

        • PeleSpirit@lemmy.worldOP
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          10 months ago

          You’d think with the internet and all, that we could have better healthcare, not worse. Specialists could see you over zoom with a nurse taking all of your vitals in person. They’re just taking tests and talking to you, it’s not new science that way. You could even have 2 specialists seeing the same info and you could have them discuss it between themselves. Healthcare hasn’t been about health and healing for a very long time.

    • PeleSpirit@lemmy.worldOP
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      10 months ago

      That is depressing. For the uninformed, myself included, since I didn’t realize the Mariana Islands were part of the US:

      The United States currently administers three[8][12] territories in the Caribbean Sea and eleven in the Pacific Ocean.[note 3][note 4] Five territories (American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) are permanently inhabited, unincorporated territories; the other nine are small islands, atolls, and reefs with no native (or permanent) population. Of the nine, only one is classified as an incorporated territory (Palmyra Atoll). Two additional territories (Bajo Nuevo Bank and Serranilla Bank) are claimed by the United States but administered by Colombia.[9][14][15] Historically, territories were created to administer newly acquired land, and most eventually attained statehood.[16][17] The most recent territories to become U.S. states were Alaska on January 3, 1959, and Hawaii on August 21, 1959.[18] The Republic of the Philippines, along with the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, which were administered as a U.N. trust territory, but sometimes grouped with U.S. territories — later became independent nations.[note 5]

      Source

      • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        If they pay taxes, they deserve statehood. If not, give them independence.

        The age of colonialism is over. No taxation without representation, its kinda what we’re all about

          • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            The, obviously immoral, institutionalized racism in America (I said OBVIOUSLY for those in the back) has also had, and still does have, geoplitical ramifications as well. Further compounding the issue is the media, on the rare event it does get reported, it’s almost always relegated to the back pages and never followed up on.

            When the Nazi’s (for clarity, that is the anachronistic 20th century spelling used to describe the German wave; the current 21st centuries spelling is NatC’s - for Christian NATionalists, generally located in southeastern North America, tho not always, and not always just in the Americas).

            I’m sorry, that aside aside; When the Nazi’s received criticism from the Roosevelt administration about their treatment of the Jews (which was, in fact, reported on extensively during the war, the only surprise was the efficiency and extensiveness of the Germans, today much appluaded, record keeping), the Nazi’s immediately clapped back with how America treats its black citizens. German officials spent a good amount of time in the mid 1930s, before any hostilities broke out in Europe, studying the souths Jim Crow laws for themselves so they could best implement their future aparteid state. Backed up with passport stamps and photographic evidence, Germany’s rebuff effectively humiliated American opinion off the world stage.

            Not known for learning from their mistakes, America continued doing what it does best, convincing the working class that they’re the source of all their problems.

            At the same time, the other never reported topic that America leads the world in, was amped up to 11. And that’s rewriting history thru domestic propaganda campaigns. America did so well at this, that early in the 21st century it once again tried it’s hand on the world’s moral stage…

            And was quickly reminded by the Chinese, who’re deflecting their own allegations of crimes against humanity in their treatment of the Uyghers, that once again America’s institutionalized racism, as shown evident thru its prison system, is a “functioning” aparteid state against non-white and poor white Americans, and forged the way, and that China was merely doing what has been shown as acceptable.

            …when the rule of law is so corrupted that it’s applied unequally, no one, rich or poor, respects the law. Those without the means to defend themselves may fear it, but no one respects it

    • JohnDolt@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Man that’s a loaded question. Easiest answer is yes, however sprinkle additional infighting of political parties within.

  • Jaderick@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Dear god trying to read this article was cancer. The auto playing adds covered 80% of the screen.