Re: Public Policy reserve | Thinking Man's Union

You’re no longer looking at obtaining quality medical care (your objective). You’re now looking at minimizing system operating expense (the middleman’s objective).

Middlemen sacrifice Quality medical care, to claim that space for profit.

‘Volume purchasing power’ is an excuse to keep the middleman in place, a rationalization where predatory marketing begins.

Is dying less expensive than treatment? For whom?

The Thinking Man's Union Healthcare Plans redefine the premise:

Unlimited Access to medical treatment is the definition of Quality, and it’s very Affordable
Affordability is the result of removing the middleman, exposing true, un-inflated cost
Quality medical care isn’t the product of any voluminous “system”. Just the opposite: It’s beyond local… Quality medical care is personal.

This premise rests on the truth of Medical Freedom: It requires Independent Doctors, across the broad spectrum of specialties & settings, because their time is their own & yours.

This is the sum-&-substance of good health care. ‘Volume’ has nothing to do with it.

The Main Street Local offers exclusively Plans that fix healthcare ... plain & simple.

Of course it would: That’s why it’s called The Thinking Man’s Union.

We’re replacing the Emperor’s old belief system by speaking Truth.

The money we save and the lives we save are better spent helping our communities recover.

Howard N Short, MD

Proud Member of The Thinking Man’s Union

(Yes, I’m a medical doctor & No, I‘ve never been in the construction business)

SURGE CAPACITY

Just now, as America was assaulted with COVID, we saw people die from the government’s refusal to allow them treatment for their non-COVID diseases.

People with heart disease, cancer … all went unattended … left to die. They became casualties; some became fatalities.

The government had commandeered ALL medical personnel to treat COVID (and no one else) – a wildly inappropriate & disproportionate action that guaranteed neglect of baseline civilian needs. The government surprised everyone with this move and threatened medical personnel with loss of their livelihoods, even imprisoning some who dared to defy government dictates.

Ever since 9-11-2001, when America was assaulted with planes deliberately crashed into buildings and thousands of civilians died, federal policy-makers have mulled the idea of creating surge capacity in our health care system:

A constantly maintained reserve-supply of medical personnel, standing ready to deliver needed medical care to civilian casualties of catastrophic events – catastrophic weather events, explosions & fires, civil unrest, or civilian casualties of war.
Much like the military plans for war casualties, in addition to the peace-time baseline needs of its service members.

The 9-11 Report explicitly defined the need and urged action.

Yet, the federal government did nothing. Maybe it doesn’t know how.

Maybe the task is too great.

If the government won’t, or can’t, provide Surge Capacity Without Sacrificing Baseline Civilian Needs, we civilians will have to come at the problem from the other side:

Reserve our own medical personnel for our own baseline civilian needs. Take back control.

The Main Street Local Chapter of The Iron Workers has done just this.

In cooperation with The CARE in America Foundation, our medical plans:

Protect members from harebrained, wholesale government confiscation of medical personnel. Each plan includes not only the very best PPO, but an entire Registry of Physicians under contract to Union members. These physicians are not dependent on the government for payment.
Other medical personnel, who remain dependent on government sources for payment, can now define a separate, defined pool of surge capacity that does not overlap or sacrifice civilian needs.

The CARE in America Foundation is the only entity in the US (and the world) with experience & success in building & sustaining medical capacity with personnel in sufficient numbers & with appropriate ranges of expertise.

Our Plans fix healthcare … plain & simple.

That’s why we call The Main Street Local “The Thinking Man’s Union”.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Gun Violence needs to be addressed in a serious manner. So far, it hasn’t been.

Mental illness is widely recognized to play a significant role. Lack of access to mental health professionals is universally lamented. But the problem at the root of all this remains unrecognized:

We have a payment problem.

For lack of financial resources, many are left undiagnosed and untreated, until after some act of horrific violence. They have no diagnostic code.

The situation is analogous to that of a syringe:

A syringe is needed, to inject certain medicines into the body.

A diagnostic code is the mechanism / process for entry into the medical system.

A CARE in America – Public Safety Program is that syringe / mechanism / process.

It solves the payment problem:

$3 / citizen / month
Upon recommendation of law enforcement,
Mental & Physical Health Evaluation & Treatment: no diagnostic codes needed for entry

Victims of Violence

Their problems have only just begun, for which they will need help, if we truly want to extinguish the cycle of violence.

What government can do:

Address Public Safety in an effective way, with an economic solution that can be quantified & refined: A CARE in America – Public Safety Program.

MY FAVORITE SCENE IN A FILM

Getting on the Same Page isn’t a power-play. It’s a process. A process of discovery and synthesis, it involves piecing together individual views from all perspectives and sharing the 360–degree picture that results. Now, focus that picture: The map of common ground is on that very same page. The act of searching for it, the strength of having found it, moves us onto the map and the way forward.

My favorite scene in a film: PBS Masterpiece’s ‘Victoria’

It is 1842. Queen Victoria’s advisors have kept her apprised of the Anglo-Afghan War, but spared mention of full details. Outside, in the expanse of palace gardens, the young Queen and Lord Wellington, now an elder statesman following his long and distinguished military career, walk alone side-by-side, discussing a recent battle in the Khyber Pass.

Upon hearing from him the news that all but one of the thousands of British soldiers who entered the Pass have perished, the Queen abruptly stops and turns to confront Wellington. With a stern voice laced with just a hint of alarm, she rebukes him, saying, “Lord Wellington, that sounds like defeat!”

At this point, he calmly turns to face her and, in his soldierly matter-of-fact way, reports, “Many would not say that. But yes Ma’am, that’s what it is.”

With serious faces born of serious purpose – the task before them now clearly understood – the two return to walking side-by-side.

Reaction to the VP Debate (28 seconds)

FEMA Doesn't Have The Funds (19 seconds)

Where Does The Money Come From To Buy Off An Entire System? (2 minutes)

Independent Medical Care is as Important as 2A (1 minute)

What Does 'RATIONING' Mean? (2 minutes)

ICYMI - The Dollar Amount of Medical Debt (2 minutes)

MEDICARE is in the Crosshairs (3 minutes)

Since When Is Price-Fixing NOT Illegal? (1 minute)

(1 minute)

Sidestepping The Bureaucratic Blockade (15minutes)

PROOF (1minute)

Today, we recommend to you an amazing interview - Javier Milei, President of Argentina, by Lex Fridman. Freedom, Economics, and Corruption (Lex Fridman Podcast #453)

In it, President Milei recounts the mind-blowing economic conditions existing when he came to office - massive national deficit, rampant corruption & 17,000% inflation (an economy in the final throws of seizing up, one breath away from death, Weimar Republic, Zimbabwe) - and the reforms he and his government undertook to successfully revive it.

“By restoring utility rates to the right levels”, the government “eliminated the need for economic subsidies” and drove down the poverty rate.

The government also eliminated “what are known as ‘poverty managers’. That is intermediaries.” President Milei later describes these people as “parasites”, who demanded payment from the people they were supposed to be serving, before they would deliver the subsidy payments the government was already paying them to deliver, and “took away half of the money. So by removing that payoff, they stopped extorting [the people], stopped stealing their money, and with the same amount of money, [the people] received double the resources.”

“We return to the people 13 and a half points of GDP because the real tax burden is the size of the state.” And when middlemen and price-fixing are eliminated, the size and cost of the state are reduced. “In other words, all those resources that the national government used to take are now back in [private hands].” 13 ½ points of GDP worth. Argentina’s economic engine was restarted.

Argentina “began to achieve fiscal balance and no longer needed [its Central Bank] to [print] money to finance ourselves.”

One year after taking office, “The latest consumer inflation rate was 2.7%”

At a much earlier date and on a much smaller scale, we at The Thinking Man’s Union addressed a version of these same conditions by taking the very same actions. We got rid of middlemen, which allowed us to take our healthcare plan premium down to its real price. And this more than doubled the money businesses and their employees get to keep for themselves.

Elon Musk posted this entire interview on his X page.

You can also watch it on YouTube.