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Found your problem: "African American adults are 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician." Given th

Found your problem: "African American adults are 60 percent more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes by a physician." Given that the middle class is very white and employed with insurance coverage, it virtually doesn't affect white people. Our politics takes black people's votes for granted and don't do anything for them.

spywaregorilla 5y ago
Diabetes rates for blacks is 11.7% vs. 7.5% for whites. That is a ~60% increase, but it's hardly an issue that only affects black voters.
- pmichaud 5y ago
  Also worth noting that it's 11.7% of about 14% vs 7.5% of about 76%, so in absolute terms there are way more white diabetics than black diabetics.
armatav 5y ago
The insulin price is that high through political/regulatory capture. It costs barely anything to make. Not every problem has it’s root in division.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  You're not wrong but the fact that the problem is allowed to persist certainly something to do with "people with enough spare f*ks to give to be politically active" being mostly unaffected by the problem. IMO it's more helpful to look at this through an economic lenses than a race one. T2 diabetes is very much a poor person's disease.
throwaway0a5e 5y ago
>Our politics takes black people's votes for granted and don't do anything for them. It's worse than that. If they sufficiently pandered to them to the point of actually solving their problems then they wouldn't be able to take those votes for granted, so they'll never solve their problems.
- TeeMassive 5y ago
  Black Votes Matter.
wwweston 5y ago
There's people in at least one party who talk about problems like this, and given that party is the only one that has taken any kind of health care policy seriously for longer than the lifetime of this forum, and has at least some modest achievement to show for it during the narrow window they've had essential control of national institutions, there's reason to take that at face value. And while various poll access restriction measures are an injustice one could almost think is intentionally targeted at black people, I imagine those obstacles aside they'd be as free and capable of conscientiously assigning their votes as anyone else.
- luffapi 5y ago
  Are you talking about the Democratic Party? They are more responsible for the extreme cost of healthcare in the US than any other political faction. Mandatory insurance, COBRA payouts… Did you know Gretchen Whitmer’s dad was the CEO of BlueCross? I say this as a leftist: the Democratic Party is the party of the health industrial complex. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-public-option-health-insurance-plan https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-public-option-h...
  - wwweston 5y ago
    > They are more responsible for the extreme cost of healthcare in the US than any other political faction I await the explanation of your model revealing the drivers of healthcare costs and connecting them to predominately Dem responsibility with baited breath, nigh weeping for hope of policy-capable leftists in the meanwhile. > Mandatory insurance You know that's how socialized insurance works at one level or another, right? > COBRA payouts Is this a mantra or a point? > Did you know Gretchen Whitmer’s dad was the CEO of BlueCross? This is definitely not a point. > the party of the health industrial complex. As long as we consider approach healthcare primarily as an industry, yeah, there's going to be industrial interests tangled up with it. Should we do it some other way? Maybe. In which party do you think that conversation is even possible?
    - luffapi 5y ago

spywaregorilla 5y ago

Diabetes rates for blacks is 11.7% vs. 7.5% for whites. That is a ~60% increase, but it's hardly an issue that only affects black voters.

pmichaud 5y ago
Also worth noting that it's 11.7% of about 14% vs 7.5% of about 76%, so in absolute terms there are way more white diabetics than black diabetics.

armatav 5y ago

The insulin price is that high through political/regulatory capture. It costs barely anything to make. Not every problem has it’s root in division.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
You're not wrong but the fact that the problem is allowed to persist certainly something to do with "people with enough spare f*ks to give to be politically active" being mostly unaffected by the problem. IMO it's more helpful to look at this through an economic lenses than a race one. T2 diabetes is very much a poor person's disease.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

>Our politics takes black people's votes for granted and don't do anything for them. It's worse than that. If they sufficiently pandered to them to the point of actually solving their problems then they wouldn't be able to take those votes for granted, so they'll never solve their problems.

TeeMassive 5y ago
Black Votes Matter.

wwweston 5y ago

There's people in at least one party who talk about problems like this, and given that party is the only one that has taken any kind of health care policy seriously for longer than the lifetime of this forum, and has at least some modest achievement to show for it during the narrow window they've had essential control of national institutions, there's reason to take that at face value. And while various poll access restriction measures are an injustice one could almost think is intentionally targeted at black people, I imagine those obstacles aside they'd be as free and capable of conscientiously assigning their votes as anyone else.

luffapi 5y ago
Are you talking about the Democratic Party? They are more responsible for the extreme cost of healthcare in the US than any other political faction. Mandatory insurance, COBRA payouts… Did you know Gretchen Whitmer’s dad was the CEO of BlueCross? I say this as a leftist: the Democratic Party is the party of the health industrial complex. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-public-option-health-insurance-plan https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/01/joe-biden-public-option-h...
- wwweston 5y ago
  > They are more responsible for the extreme cost of healthcare in the US than any other political faction I await the explanation of your model revealing the drivers of healthcare costs and connecting them to predominately Dem responsibility with baited breath, nigh weeping for hope of policy-capable leftists in the meanwhile. > Mandatory insurance You know that's how socialized insurance works at one level or another, right? > COBRA payouts Is this a mantra or a point? > Did you know Gretchen Whitmer’s dad was the CEO of BlueCross? This is definitely not a point. > the party of the health industrial complex. As long as we consider approach healthcare primarily as an industry, yeah, there's going to be industrial interests tangled up with it. Should we do it some other way? Maybe. In which party do you think that conversation is even possible?
  - luffapi 5y ago