this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2024

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Private healthcare doesn't (rule) (pawb.social)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Leading up to his death:

For those of you outside of the community (and possibly wondering why the furry side of social media is on fire), Dragoneer did a hell of a lot for the furry community. FurAffinity is the largest furry art host and social network; he could have sold out and allowed AI, or made the site friendly to corporate advertising, but he didn't.

He intentionally didn't.

If he had, he probably would have been able to afford healthcare, but he didn't.

He died because he wanted to keep the site in the community instead of whoring it out to corporations, resulting in him not having the money for healthcare when he needed it the most. I wish I'd been more aware of what was going on because I would have chipped in to help (if he'd allowed it).

It makes me fucking furious that the US, the country with the highest GDP in the world by 10 TRILLION DOLLARS, still allows this to happen.

RIP Dragoneer, we'll never forget you. Wherever you are, I hope it's filled with fur, feathers, scales and wagging tails.

Edit: made some formatting edits

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[–] [email protected] 90 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fun fact: $28.63 trillion dollars split between roughly 333.3 million Americans comes out to roughly $86,000 per person. That's including children.

We can afford free healthcare, but our overlords don't want that.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Context for random numbers? 86k/yr, day, lifetime?

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yearly; GDP is usually measured per-year.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

GDP is typically measured annually unless otherwise stated

[–] [email protected] 87 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Capitalism has zero place in healthcare.

It can never be a "free market" only ever coerced.

Burn it down (the financial apparatus, not the hospitals, duh) and empty the accounts of the "owners."

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Love when antivaxxers try to complain about greedy pharmaceutical companies and yet refuse to support universal healthcare or drug price regulation.

Love when I can point to outright easily proven fraud in American billing practices and they just bury their head in the sand.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

I wonder if he could have traveled to a better country to receive care

[–] [email protected] 86 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is a contender for one of the worst things I've ever read. I'm sure this happens more often than we realize but that is just brutal. Someone's making money off this and it makes me sick. RIP Dragoneer. I've not visited FA much but it's always felt like "Old Internet" to me and I appreciate that.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 months ago (2 children)

and it's not even doctors or nurses getting the money, it's not going to better hospitals...just lining some corporate's dragon hoard.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

What's worse is the fact that 85% of those exorbitant bills are either substantial overcharging to game the insurance system, or costs associated with paying entire departments of people at the provider whose job is to figure out how to get insurance to pay them for procedures.

Our oppressive healthcare costs are entirely the fault of the private insurance industry, and the corrupt politicians who accept bribes to keep it that way.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

While I disagree with your metaphor (Really? Dissing dragons when you're talking about furries? C'mon dude /jk), it's so fucking dumb. This might just be my experience, but difference in price is painfully obvious when you compare hospitals to private practices. In my experience, private practices in the US can be significantly cheaper than hospital visits (I'm assuming the costs were from a hospital, that's the only time I've seen charges that high).

The last time I visited my endocrinologist it cost me $200~$300, despite being one of the best endocrinologists in my area; and while that is still expensive and it might not be a pulmonologist, it's nowhere near what he was having to pay just to get his lungs checked. That should be the opposite; but between the obscene cost of medication, doctors trying to pay off college debt from +10yrs of medical school, and greedy hospital and corporate CEOs, the cost of healthcare is sky-high.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 2 months ago

I am not part of the furry community, but even I have heard of Fur Affinity and this individual. What a tragic, preventable loss.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago

killed by America

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago

this is mega-fucked, stuff like this happens every day because of the lack of affordable healthcare

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

If I were American, I am certain that I would be dead, because when I was a teenager, I had some surgery to correct something that had a pretty severe impact on my quality of life, but would have been difficult to justify the cost of if I'd had to pay. It baffles me how much you guys have to pay even with a "really good" insurance policy. I think I'd have probably killed myself if I hadn't been able to get that surgery.

It's why it hurts so much to see how the NHS has been gutted. The UK has European level taxes, and seems set on American level public services. The worst of both worlds.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Jesus fucking christ why does the US Healthcare system have to claim another life because of capitalism. I hope the founding fathers of the healthcare system died because of their own greed.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

RIP Dragoneer.

I know it's an orphan crusher scenario, but something like a GoFundMe for them is something I know a lot of people would donate to, myself included if I had the money.