Fine-tune your skepticism
If the numbers are bad, here’s what you do: lie about the numbers.
Top Trump officials, huddled in the White House, itself the subject of a coronavirus outbreak, have according to reports begun questioning the number of deaths – and the president is among the skeptics.
He has a lot of practice being a “skeptic” about numbers. When he’s selling a thing, the value goes way up. When he’s reporting that thing to the tax people, the value goes way down. It’s magic.
One common claim is that hospitals receive more money from Medicare if they are treating a patient with the coronavirus compared with other illnesses, and so are inflating their numbers. Scott Jensen, a Minnesota state senator and family physician, began hawking this theory in early April, leading to an appearance on [Laura] Ingraham’s show.
“Right now Medicare has determined that if you have a Covid-19 admission to the hospital, you’ll get paid $13,000,” Jensen said.
“If that Covid-19 patient goes on a ventilator, you get $39,000, three times as much. Nobody can tell me after 35 years in the world of medicine that sometimes those kinds of things [don’t] impact on what we do.”
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Factcheckers have found no evidence to support Jensen’s claims – in fact, some hospital revenues are expected to be down, due to the cancellation of elective procedures – but the idea of labeling illnesses as coronavirus for cash became a talking point on rightwing Facebook groups and beyond.
Worryingly, the disinformation push seems to be working. An Axios-Ipsos poll found that the death toll has become a political issue, 40% of Republicans believing fewer Americans are dying from coronavirus than the official toll says.
A separate study, published at the end of April, revealed the stark consequences of prominent figures underplaying the impact of Covid-19. A group of researchers tracked the spread of coronavirus among viewers of Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, after Hannity spent weeks downplaying the threat.
So Sean Hannity’s lies are killing people. I bet he still sleeps well at night.
When BC/BS announced that they were paying psychotherapy at 100% during the pandemic, I assumed they only meant for people going through therapy because of the COVID stress. But I have been in therapy for a long time, and they are paying mine at 100% – without any sort of mention of COVID in my diagnosis or records. So, not getting more for counting COVID there! (for clarification: I recognize this is one single data point and therefore worthless; however, that is typically the modus operandi of the right, and they even make up their data points. .This one is at least legitimate.)
Gee, who woulda thunk that a profit-driven health system would find ways to maximise profit in a crisis.
I don’t know if the above is true or not, being too far away from the uSates, but I do recall a news report a week ago stating US hospital owners were happy elective surgery could recommence as “that is where they make most of their profits”.
I am pleased to live in Communist Australia where the Socilaist medical system keeps us alive, without needing to worry about costs.