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Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

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Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#221

Post by lionkor »

mlrtime wrote: post #215
sdoering wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I never understood why intelligent people, comparing for example the German to the US system can even blink and decide that the German system doesn’t work. Yes, there is quite a bit to improve in the German system. No doubt there. But if I compare it to the abysmal situation in the richest country on this planet, I am left standing awestruck asking myself why. I really, genuinely cannot wrap my head around.

I would take my insurance over public German healthcare in an instant. I would not trade. Now maybe when I stop working that may be a different comparison. And its not like there is a choice, voting for a D doesn't magically get German healthcare.

It's almost like healthcare and the well-being of people should be gasp a non partisan issue.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#222

Post by intended »

jack_tripper wrote: post #182
KingMob wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theory: > In socialism it's much more random: black markets, lists, lotteries, friends and network of connections. The side effect is that the most productive individuals are discouraged and punished, with the whole society lagging in effect. Evidence: the vast majority of European countries who have socialized medicine and seem to be doing fine.

>>In socialism it's much more random: black markets, lists, lotteries >Evidence: the vast majority of European countries who have socialized medicine and seem to be doing fine. That evidence of socialism working well, only works as long as there are enough resources to cover the needs of most people, basically some of the wealthier European countries. But when those resources become scarce due to poor economic condit…

I think the 2024 Economics Nobel disproves this. It showed that nations with strong institutions create wealth - and it was a causative link they proved, not simply correlation.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#223

Post by intended »

nickpp wrote: post #111
hermanzegerman wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With Universal Health Insurance as all other developed countries do

Expensive health treatments can easily bankrupt any western government. None of those developed countries can afford to spend their money indiscriminately on them. So instead they turn to waiting lists, death panels and very often saying no but not in your face (since that is politically frowned upon) but thought delays and countless committees and bureaucracy until the patient expires...

Theres a (now old) memo that specifically outlines which talking points carry most salience amongst the audience. Those terms are present here in your comment. (Luntz - The language of Healthcare 2009)

Even with waiting lists, people get healthcare. They get better health outcomes per $ spent. America can provide excellent cutting edge healthcare, which is especially great if you can afford it. At some point, you have to decide whether having most of the bell curve taken care of, is more / less important in terms of rhetoric and priority.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#224

Post by jacquesm »

throw-the-towel wrote: post #125
hermanzegerman wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that's what you hear and read on Fox News and other "News Sources" daily. But here in Germany, there are no "death panels" or long waiting times for cancer treatment. Also we don't need "pre-auth" and other Bullshit before we start standard treatments. The real death panels are sitting in your Insurance Companies Offices as seen by the news coverage around United Healthcare et al lately

The German health insurance system also has a deficit of 6 billion euro, while doctors are leaving the profession. Do you think that's sustainable?

> Do you think that's sustainable?

Yes.

To help you think a bit more clearly: the health insurance system is not a for-profit system, even though some people mistakenly hold on to the idea that it should be. It is a risk spreading mechanism.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#225

Post by jack_tripper »

intended wrote: post #222
jack_tripper wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>In socialism it's much more random: black markets, lists, lotteries >Evidence: the vast majority of European countries who have socialized medicine and seem to be doing fine. That evidence of socialism working well, only works as long as there are enough resources to cover the needs of most people, basically some of the wealthier European countries. But when those resources become scarce due to poor economic condit…

I think the 2024 Economics Nobel disproves this. It showed that nations with strong institutions create wealth - and it was a causative link they proved, not simply correlation.

How does that disprove what I said about abundance or lack thereof in socialized systems? Feels like an orthogonal issue.

Socialized systems don't work without abundance. How you generate that abundance is orthogonal to socialism since even countries that are wealthy on paper suffer from shortages and long waiting times in public healthcare leading to a gray-market of using connections to get ahead or more private use.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#226

Post by throw310822 »

throwaw12 wrote: post #34

I have reported these ads to YouTube multiple times, because I tracked down their scam websites, but YouTube didn't delete them anyway. Common pattern they had was: - similar or same domains - same messaging on their website YouTube could have taken action, but it choose not to

What struck me is that when I reported an ad with an Elon Musk deepfake selling some crypto scam, I got an email back from Google saying that after reviewing the video they found nothing wrong. I don't understand how this is not actionable in court- I mean, you did act on a report, you declare you manually reviewed the content and that it's good for you? I don't get it.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#227

Post by input_sh »

ivape wrote: post #202
tchalla wrote: post #41

The root cause of the problem is that parents and children need to raise funds for cancer treatment in the first place.

Is there even standard practices to audit the effectiveness of charity? No accountability means they will always operate like a black box, and I’ve always thought black boxes create misalignments. Money goes in, and good feelings come out. It certainly serves a purpose, but not the intended one.

Yes, it's called Form 990 and it is a requirement to publish it on a yearly basis to retain non-profit status. You can search for any US-registered NGO here for example: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/

To put it in HN terms, this is what people here like to use to shit on Mozilla for how much they pay their executives while having zero insight into how much Firefox's for-profit competitors pay their executives.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#228

Post by pimterry »

nxm wrote: post #83
vkou wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether or not non-productive individuals who don't do any work can own the means of production and reap the majority of the economic surplus from it is somewhat tangential to the question of who pays for whose healthcare. There are plenty of capitalist nations that provide public healthcare on a large spectrum of coverage and quality.

With 2 month long plus waits for basic scans in countries like Canada

In terms of waiting times to see a doctor or specialist (the only cases where stats for the US seem to be available), the US looks a touch better than average in waiting times for healthcare within comparable countries: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/health-at-a-glance-2025....

Ahead of Canada, sure (they come worst here in both scenarios) but behind countries like the UK, Germany & the Netherlands that do have universal health care.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#229

Post by _heimdall »

hermanzegerman wrote: post #100
nickpp wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious: how else would you fund them? I sometimes donate & follow such cases and cancer treatments are expensive , especially experimental, custom ones. Worse, the rarer and more aggressive the disease - the more expensive the treatment and the slimmer the actual chances.

With Universal Health Insurance as all other developed countries do

That doesn't say how you would fund it, only what form of insurance is in place.

If the US were to shift to that model today, a country already heavily in debt would have to either take on more debt PR increase revenues in a manner that they wouldn't have been willing to in order to fund our already growing debts.

The debate over whether public or private healthcare is better is all well and good, but first we should be debating how the US would pay for it in the first place.

Re: Children with cancer scammed out of millions fundraised for their treatment

#230

Post by withinboredom »

jack_tripper wrote: post #181
sdoering wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't think of a socialist country, but invite you to visit the German system. Significantly less costly for society and objectively better for the people falling ill (or just having a baby born). And no, no lists, no lotteries or any of that other lies the conservative US media is spewing out to keep the masses pacified. I strongly believe, that if US citizens were to experience German healthcare for a year and havi…

>And no, no lists There definitely are lists. You don't just get the surgery or therapy you need the next day. You get the next free slot in the list of people queuing at the hospital/practice that still has free slots. For example the first appointment you can get at my state funded therapist if you call today, will be in june. How is that "not a list"? Or like, if you call most public GPs in my neighbourhood, they'…

There are multiple lists here in the NL. I called for a surgery and got put on the fast list (she said that if it weren’t urgent, it would be over a year wait). Your doc has a lot of influence on how urgent things are and how far you are willing to travel. I got in to see a therapist in a matter of weeks, because I was willing to travel out of the city; otherwise it will be months. The doc can see the lines and give you recommendations; all you have to do is ask to be seen sooner.
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