On this episode, Jesse & Matt discuss the third most important element of The Golden Square which is so simple and obvious, that it’s remarkable this idea is even contested as a human right in the Yankee-lands of Ol’ Red, White and Blue: the absolute right to healthcare for every human being on Earth. Matthew will provide a surprising prologue about what’s suddenly taken place in his personal life since this episode’s initial recording and open up about his mother’s life-long illness; in call & response fashion, Jesse will then talk about what it was like to get healthcare in Sarah-Palin-Land as a child. The co-hosts will also explore their personal relationships to this essential cornerstone to The Golden Square, and their own anxieties about having access to healthcare as middle-aged men with pre-existing conditions. And lastly, Matt & Jesse will look at healthcare systems around the world, and offer up a poignant portrait of the very near and immediate struggles facing activists as they fight for a momentous Single Payer bill in California (SB-562).
Mentioned In This Episode:
Matthew’s Heavy-Breathing Prologue:
What Is a Double Pulmonary Embolism? Wikipedia Wants to Help.
The Speaker of the State Assembly, Anthony Rendon, Blocks SB-562
Why Is Single Payer in California Being Blocked? Money in Politics.
Prologue Over & Now for the Actual Show!
Kathy Griffin / Reza Aslan: Why Free Speech Is for Everyone! We Believe In It!
Jehova’s Witness & Blood Transfusions: Wikipedia Provides Bloodless Triage
The Hanford Reservation, Plutopia: “The Bomb and the Explosions of U.S. Suburbs”
Neil Burton in Psychology Today: “A Short History of Bipolar Disorder”
The Fat Man & Little Boy Bombs: “The Men Who Dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki”
Ronald Reagan’s ‘Strange’ Gift: COBRA: Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985
PBS Newshour: 70% of American College Teachers Are Part-Time/Adjuncts
George Lakoff’s Don’t Think Like Elephants: Know Your Values & Frame the Debate
George Lakoff’s Metaphors We Live By
YouTube Clip of George Lakoff: “Idea Framing, Metaphors and Your Brain”
Prefrontal Cortex Last to Form in Humans & Why Teenagers Do The Craziest Things
Saul D. Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals: A Practical Guide for Realistic Radicals
Saul D. Alinksy on Being Your Own Witness & Why the Right Hates Him So Much
The U.S. Metrics For Healthcare Delivery Are Both Dizzying & Sad:
We Spend 3 Trillion for Healthcare Annually
U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective
National Health Expenditures 2015 Highlights
We Have the Highest Infant Mortality Rate in the Industrialized World
62% of US Bankruptcies from Healthcare Emergencies
Medical Bankruptcy accounts for majority of personal bankruptcies
Top 10 Reasons People Go Bankrupt
Warren Buffett: America’s Healthcare Costs “the Tapeworm to American Competitiveness”
What Is a “5150”? A Wikipedia Working Definition.
Time Magazine: “Here’s How Much the Average Worker Has to Pay for Healthcare”
Business Insider: Map of the Biggest Employers in the US: UC System Is #1 for California
The Rich History of Workers Compensation
Obamacare came from Heritage Foundation & It’s Essentially a Nixonian Idea
The Affordable Health Care Act for America
Worldwide Spending on Healthcare
The New Zealand Herald: “New Zealand Reclaims Title as World’s Least Corrupt Country”
Pew Research Center: “Currently, 60% say the federal government is responsible for ensuring health care coverage for all Americans, while 39% say this is not the government’s responsibility.”
The Economist/YouGov Poll April 2 - 4, 2017
President Obama Jokes that Obamacare Is More Popular Than Trump
Tragic Nostalgia Time: “Bernie Sanders for President” Website on Medicare for All:
Save U.S. $5 trillion over 10 years;
Families would pay $466 and save $5,807;
Businesses would save $9,000 a year on average.
Healthy California’s Website for SB-562: Healthy California Act
Inland Empire: “The New Jersey of California”
The 28ers: An Original Affinity Group from Occupy Riverside & Its Swarm Campaign for SB-562
Organizations in Support of SB-562: Healthy California Act
California Nurses Association’s Main Website
Nurses Most Trusted Profession Again in America: 15 Years & Counting
New York Quite Close to Getting Single Payer in the State: One Vote Short
Vermont’s Attempt to Establish a Single-Payer Healthcare System
2016 Colorado Care: “Single-Payer Health Care Dream Dies In Colorado”
Previous Single Payer Bills in Calfornia
“Dirty Little Secret: Insurers Actually Are Making a Mint from Obamacare”
California Senate Passes SB-562
“Single Payer Would Save Us All a Lot of Money”
Tommy Douglas: "The Greatest Canadian"
Breaking Bad: All You Need To Know About The American Health Care System
List of Countries with Universal Health Care
How The Labour Party Created Britain’s National Health Service (NHS)