Blog #37 Dismantling of the Veterans Administration and for-profit Kidney Dialysis

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Written by: Super User

• Tag: BillionaireRedemptionOrNot Blog

Kidney Dialysis Intro:

Over the decades I’ve been lucky enough to see how healthcare ought to be run with my care from the VA system. But have had the total opposite experience with the care I’ve seen for people like my daughter who has been dealing with kidney disease.

 

I’ll start with my daughter’s example. She has a transplant now but for awhile had to undergo dialysis at a time when kidney dialysis had some of the worst numbers for mortality! And at this late date the US still has “one of the highest mortality rates for dialysis care in the industrialized world”! All this for the highest prices of course. In my decades of watching this, kidney dialysis has been the most egregious example of privatized, dancing-for-wall-street, for-profit healthcare gone a muck I know of! Crank up the assembly line, use as few people as possible (with as little training as possible), run staff ragged, get those patients out as fast as possible, and maximize those profits! My daughter was lucky enough to avoid some of the worst these for-profit clinics have to offer, but I know of so many others who weren’t so lucky.^[4] And looking back over these 25 years, I still think my daughter’s care could have been a darn sight better.

 

Now contrast that with my own care at the VA. The VA was there when I needed help while I was between jobs. It was there when I was jobless and my wife insisted we drop COBRA coverage on her and our sons to make sure our daughter would stay covered. It was there for me for a torn ligament in my knee and bouts of gout. And it may have kept us from going bankrupt when I had a heart attack 16 years ago – an incident I haven’t repeated since. I have always found the VA care top notch!

 

Yes, I’ve read about the problems the VA has had over the years. But put humans into any system and there are going to be problems. I believe my experience with the VA is more the norm than what some in the media have led us to believe. And it looks like I’ve got plenty of company. Here are just a couple of quotes from a 2024 article I’ve only recently read (I could find more):

 

“Patient Satisfaction Survey: VA outperformed non-VA hospitals in the most recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers…”

 

“Hospital Quality Ratings: In this year’s CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings, more than 58% of VA hospitals included received 4- or 5-star ratings compared to 40% of non-VA hospitals.”

I’ve also consistently read over the years the VA is providing our care at lower costs than non-VA patients.

 

So what are we doing with this shiny example of what healthcare could be for people like the rest of my family? It looks like the VA could be experiencing privatization and the outsourcing of patients to Community Care – something I understand will drive up costs. And I don’t need a crystal ball to tell you what might happen to care, I need only to take a look at for-profit kidney dialysis. It looks like the wall street bean counters are once again practicing medicine and eyeballing a big pile of money to be made off the backs of us vets.

 

And I’ll finish by adding I’m not the only canary in a coal mine. A fellow veteran from the organization Common Defense also wrote a letter to the editor printed in the Virginia-Pilot about a VA clinic in Virginia where they are already seeing 6 month waits for an initial appointment due to staff cutbacks! This is a strategy familiar to many of us, create a problem then say it was fixed with something like more expensive Community Care.

 

Then there is a fellow veteran and dialysis patient I met a few months ago. He experienced for-profit dialysis for a bit and was never so glad to get back to the VA!

 

I hate to say it, but it looks like we are on a path to kill what has been working.

 

(References for the above Reporter-Herald Guest Commentary)

 

Kidney Dialysis Intro:

 

Announcement: An Up and Coming Veterans' Organization for Veterans who Remember they Swore an Oath to the Constitution - not a man

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Written by: Super User

Who We Are

We empower veterans to stand up for our communities against the rising tide of racism, hate, and violence, to organize against the entrenched power of greedy billionaires who have rigged our economy, and to champion an equitable and representative democracy, where “liberty and justice” truly is for all. 

We achieve this through:

• Training veterans as grassroots organizers

• Growing, organizing, and mobilizing the progressive veteran community

• Advocating for progressive legislation at the local, state, and federal level

• Mobilizing our 200,000 members to support candidates who share our values

Common Defense is the country’s largest veteran-led grassroots organization committed to engaging, organizing, training and mobilizing veterans to elect accountable leaders and promote progressive values in 2020 and beyond.

Common Defense Website

(Common Defense is relatively new, but DialysisEthics has been around for over 25 years: some Background)

 

 

 

Blog #36 Post May 3rd, 2025 Omaha SaveTheBillionairesOrNot Walk

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Written by: Super User

• Tag: BillionaireRedemptionOrNot Blog

Kidney Dialysis Intro:

To start, it will be mentioned why Warren Buffett was chosen to be the focus of the Omaha Walk.  He has been a major shareholder in the for-profit dialysis company DaVita for quite a number of years.  DaVita's performance has been quite dismal, unless you are a shareholder!  And it looks like this isn't just a fluke: 'America' Folksiest Predator', Warren Buffett's mobile home empire, Moody's-etc...-etc..., and for a deeper dive.

The above might give you an idea why a Walk was warranted.  Why kidney dialysis was chosen to be in the forefront might be understood after taking a look at this writer's personal experience. And after seeing the particular horrific and egregious outcomes mentioned earlier (again, quite dismal) a person might further understand why dialysis was highlighted.  Plus it should be mentioned EVEN KIDS HAVEN'T BEEN SPARED!!!  (if you missed the above link)

Now for what occurred at this year's event.  The attendance for the Walk doubled!  My wife decided to accompany me!  She claimed to only be there to see the sights.  However she opened up on our stroll from the Omaha meeting place to the Warren Buffett event - opened up after pretending she didn't know me.  She chimed in with one attendee about what we both had seen and experienced!  One recollection she had was what the former CEO of DaVita, Kent Thiry had been making.  He was once the highest paid CEO in Colorado.  IMHO the only thing he should be making is license plates in prison - and he may have played into Buffett's "idiot nephew" theory about running businesses by the way.            

It was nice to share this experience with my harshest critic - my wife - with it's lowering of blood pressure, peace of mind, and better sleep.  I've felt like a glutton the last couple of years hogging all the warm, fuzzy feelings I've been getting from doing these Walks.

As it has been the last three years, the people we managed to talk to seemed friendly and receptive.  It appears people who might be less receptive would wave us off.  Here are the flyers that were handed out: 50 year overview of dialysis and Child Mortality Rates and History.  Plus a Billionaire Information Packet was left in front of an Admin office in the event center.

We recall meeting a retired building inspector who had a neighbor dealing with kidney disease.  We wound up having a nice, long conversation.  Like many we met, he was shocked and disgusted by what has been going on.  We also ran into a fellow vet who had been in the Navy and was working security.  Then there was a young couple who had been in California and saw how Big Dialysis had shot down CA Proposition 8 which would have funneled money into better care for patients and staff education - the dialysis companies shot it down with a $110 million dollar war chest.  Then along came California's Proposition 23, it would have done things like requiring clinics to publish all infection incidents (infections, a major problem) and have a physician on-site during treatments - shot down with a $105 million war chest.  Even the NAACP was convinced to come out against Prop 23 after their CA president, Alice Huffman, had received $75,000 from Big Dialysis for her political consulting firm.  This was part of $1.7 million the firm received in 2020 alone.  Alice Huffman eventually resigned after conflict of interest accusations. ^[1]

The last person I talked to was the police officer watching over our meeting area and keeping an eye on the crowd going by.  He wasn't allowed to take flyers, but I pointed out some highlights on the flyers - and he even laughed at one of my Dad jokes!  If nothing else, this has been excuse to contact law enforcement.  I let them know we were coming before we left town here.  I hear a rumor they can get upset about crime - and this sure looks like murder to me!

So another year of raising awareness, even if we may not have hit a billionaire in the eye with our peashooters!  We are just trying to save him from spirits like the Ghost of Charlie Munger - not to mention countless angry dialysis patients.

-------------------------------------------------------

P.S.  There is a rumor Warren Buffett resigned this year once he heard our attendance for the Walk had DOUBLED.  Or it could have been he resigned once he heard my wife was on board.  This is entirely plausible, she scares me too.

Kidney Dialysis Intro:

Blog #35 3rd Annual Trip to the "Woodstock of MONOPOLISTIC Capitalism" (aka the little roman empire on the praire - Omaha NE) May 3rd, 2025 )

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Written by: Super User

• Tag: BillionaireRedemptionOrNot Blog

Walk: When&Where (2nd half of webpage)

Roots of this website: Kidney Dialysis Intro:

The last couple of years have been spent on an anti-Mecca pilgrimage in May, a scouting mission if you will, to where the halls of worship of the great Green God of Money have been opened up to the public - Warren Buffett's May stockholders' meetings.  Peashooters have been brought along on these trips, with the hope that one day that Mr. Buffett or those around him will catch one in the eye. With May 2025 coming up, another trip is being planned.  (see bottom half of page - peashooters linked to) 

Flights of fantasy?  Tongue-in-Cheek humor?  Or just weird Dad humor have been used to convey what has been going on in kidney dialysis over the decades: The Ghost of Charlie Munger.  For those who prefer more professional humor, comedian John Oliver's skit from some years ago might provide a quick jab to the eye.  And for those who want a deeper dive, NYT's best-selling author Tom Mueller came out with the book 'How to Make a Killing' fairly recently, what could be considered a haymaker punch!  And for a flurry of punches that have been applied over the years, a reader might start with the facts.  And then proceed to the scandals. 

This naive waif once-upon-a-time thought Warren Buffett, a major shareholder of the for-profit dialysis company Davita must surely have fallen victim to an oversight when he inspected the product quality of Davita.  (product quality, boy is that an understatement!).  But then this waif was made aware by Tom Mueller that this may not have been a oversight, but a pattern of investing where having monopoly power is favored over product excellence.  Mr. Mueller also opened my eyes to the broader world of monopoly corporate power abuse by introducing this misguided one to such writers as Matt Stoller: author of the book Goliath, David Dayen: author of Monopolized,  and David Sirota: author of 'Hostile Takeover' - plus others.  This helped inspire the first 'SaveTheBillionairesOrNot Walk' in Omaha in 2023.   The 2nd Walk in 2024 was much like the first, but I would add I did have a nice conversation with a cop watching over the meeting area and the crowd going by.  And also a doctor who was renting out a clinic space to DaVita.  If nothing else, some awareness was raised and I got to meet some nice people.

After initially being freaked out the first year and having a family who seemed quite concerned about me, I'm actually looking forward to another Omaha trip this year.  My family seems to have accepted this is what I do this time of year.  As I'm fond of saying, some people going hunting, some go fishing, some go golfing - I go and try to annoy the hell out of a billionaire, a billionaire who has stuck his fingers into something that is more infrastructure, a public service - where choice hasn't been part of the equation.

P.S. As a bonus, a short article called 'Roads to Redemption' is being linked to.  Is this just the product of a fevered imagination - or what could be waiting for Mr. Buffett after finishing walking the plank!  A plank called life is what we all walk in this reality before we all wind up in the drink.  I imagine at 94, Mr. Buffett is seeing that plank getting narrower and narrower. 

Roots of this website: Kidney Dialysis Intro: