Vladimir Estrogen 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈
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bottomquark.bsky.social
Vladimir Estrogen 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈
@bottomquark.bsky.social
they/them|🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈|genderqueer shitposter living in Nashville|Favors a walkable, bikeable citiy w/ dense, affordable housing for all
Reposted by Vladimir Estrogen 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈
also, if you think you’re a good person and you’re suggesting “human rights and access to society for certain human beings should decided by poll,” you should know who you would have been in 1964, 1974, 1984, 1994.
August 15, 2025 at 6:33 PM
"Your Uber driver was the Head of Cancer Research at Vanderbilt last month."
July 17, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Medicare for All is insurance.

The Medicare for All Act says, "This bill establishes a national health insurance program that is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)."

www.congress.gov/bill/117th-c...
www.congress.gov
July 11, 2025 at 5:14 AM
That's why I'm saying that if we want to provide gender-affirming care without requiring a diagnosis, then we'd need much more radical changes to our model of health-care delivery than just changing the payer and adopting Medicare for All.
July 11, 2025 at 5:12 AM
The issue isn't private vs. public insurance. Even with Medicare for all, Medicare also bases access to care on diagnoses. So does every country that has universal health care.

So even with Medicare for All, you'd still need a diagnosis to get gender-affirming care (HRT, surgery, etc.).
July 11, 2025 at 5:12 AM
It's not about preventing fraud. It's about both private insurance companies and public health care programs are always looking for excuses not to cover medical care in order to save money.

And gender-affirming care is really politically unpopular these days, so it's especially vulnerable.
July 9, 2025 at 8:11 PM
A lot of anti-trans politicians in many countries would love to say, "See! Gender dysphoria isn't real, so no one needs gender-affirming medical care, and we don't need to pay for it from public funds or require private insurers to cover it."

I would love to be wrong on this, but this is my fear.
July 9, 2025 at 8:07 PM
So it seems important to ask what the implications eliminating gender dysphoria as a diagnosable disorder would be for people being able to get the care they need.

Especially in a political climate where politicians in many countries are trying to cut back on paying for all sorts of medical care.
July 9, 2025 at 8:07 PM
You know and I know that people don't transition frivolously, but the whole system of paying for care in the US and most other countries is based on diagnostic codes.
July 9, 2025 at 8:07 PM
It's easy to say fuck health insurance if you can afford to self-pay.

But care can be expensive, especially surgical care, so even if the care isn't blocked by law or medical policy, it's effectively blocked if a person can't afford it and insurance won't cover it.
July 9, 2025 at 8:07 PM
What model of medical care would require insurance to pay for gender-affirming care without a diagnosis that the person has a harmful disorder that requires treatment?
July 9, 2025 at 2:18 PM
I'm interested in what an alternate model might look like.

Today, insurance pays for medical procedures only if they treat or prevent diagnosable disorders (mental or physical). Without a diagnosis, insurance won't pay (e.g., Botox, rhinoplasty, etc. when they're categorized as cosmetic).
July 9, 2025 at 2:18 PM
So I agree with what you write here, but this is a very different view than the one I was responding to up-thread, that revolution would be an immediate and direct response to a mass shooting by ICE.
July 8, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Rather, the revolution/New Deal became possible because a movement built gradually over time, and response to atrocities was one of many tributary streams feeding this response. New Deal didn't begin to happen for almost 20 years after Ludlow and Matewan, so any connection was indirect and delayed.
July 8, 2025 at 2:28 PM
What I take away is consistent with where I was coming from in saying that a mass shooting by ICE was unlikely to be the trigger for a revolution:

What you are saying here is that response to atrocities fed into the larger revolutionary movement, but did not directly trigger a revolution. ...
July 8, 2025 at 2:28 PM
This is great. Thank you for replying with so much detail and good information.
July 8, 2025 at 2:22 PM
This may be a fine distinction, but I see FDR's ability to push the new deal through as something that resulted far more from labor's strength than from a reaction to atrocities committed by government and capital.
July 8, 2025 at 1:58 PM
If that were true, the revolution would have happened over 100 years ago, in response to things like the Matewan massacre or the Ludlow massacre.
July 8, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Two things:

1. Historically, terrorizing the public doesn't always lead to revolution. Often, it succeeds at suppressing dissent.

2. When people believe that state atrocities will result in revolution, some people are tempted to provoke atrocities without concern for those who will be killed.
July 8, 2025 at 6:15 AM
I really hope you didn't intend that as accelerationist bullshit.
July 8, 2025 at 6:04 AM
They're poorly trained, armed, and humiliated.

I fear that this combination is like dry tinder for losing it and opening fire on civilians.
July 8, 2025 at 5:47 AM